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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14833 ***
+
+[Transcriber's note: This book was originally published in "penny
+dreadful" form. This edition does not include the entire 109
+episodes, which were published in three volumes. Authorship has
+also been ascribed to James Malcolm Rymer.
+
+The Table of Contents was added by the transcriber.]
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+No. 1.) Nos. 2, 3 and 4 are Presented, Gratis, with this No. |Price 1d.
+
+VARNEY THE VAMPIRE
+
+OR THE
+
+FEAST OF BLOOD
+
+A ROMANCE OF EXCITING INTEREST
+
+BY THE AUTHOR OF
+
+"GRACE RIVERS, OR, THE MERCHANT'S DAUGHTER."
+
+LONDON  E. LLOYD, SALISBURY SQUARE, AND ALL BOOKSELLERS]
+
+
+
+
+VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE:
+
+OR,
+
+THE FEAST OF BLOOD.
+
+A Romance.
+
+"Art thou a spirit of health or goblin damned?"
+
+LONDON:
+
+PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY E. LLOYD, 12, SALISBURY-SQUARE, FLEET-STREET.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I.--MIDNIGHT.--THE HAIL-STORM.--THE DREADFUL VISITOR.--THE
+VAMPYRE.
+
+CHAPTER II.--THE ALARM.--THE PISTOL SHOT.--THE PURSUIT AND ITS
+CONSEQUENCES.
+
+CHAPTER III.--THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BODY.--FLORA'S RECOVERY AND
+MADNESS.--THE OFFER OF ASSISTANCE FROM SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.
+
+CHAPTER IV.--THE MORNING.--THE CONSULTATION.--THE FEARFUL SUGGESTION.
+
+CHAPTER V.--THE NIGHT WATCH.--THE PROPOSAL.--THE MOONLIGHT.--THE
+FEARFUL ADVENTURE.
+
+CHAPTER VI.--A GLANCE AT THE BANNERWORTH FAMILY.--THE PROBABLE
+CONSEQUENCES OF THE MYSTERIOUS APPARITION'S APPEARANCE.
+
+CHAPTER VII.--THE VISIT TO THE VAULT OF THE BANNERWORTHS, AND ITS
+UNPLEASANT RESULT.--THE MYSTERY.
+
+CHAPTER VIII.--THE COFFIN.--THE ABSENCE OF THE DEAD.--THE MYSTERIOUS
+CIRCUMSTANCE, AND THE CONSTERNATION OF GEORGE.
+
+CHAPTER IX.--THE OCCURRENCES OF THE NIGHT AT THE HALL.--THE SECOND
+APPEARANCE OF THE VAMPYRE, AND THE PISTOL-SHOT.
+
+CHAPTER X.--THE RETURN FROM THE VAULT.--THE ALARM, AND THE SEARCH
+AROUND THE HALL.
+
+CHAPTER XI.--THE COMMUNICATIONS TO THE LOVER.--THE HEART'S DESPAIR.
+
+CHAPTER XII.--CHARLES HOLLAND'S SAD FEELINGS.--THE PORTRAIT.--THE
+OCCURRENCE OF THE NIGHT AT THE HALL.
+
+CHAPTER XIII.--THE OFFER FOR THE HALL.--THE VISIT TO SIR FRANCIS
+VARNEY.--THE STRANGE RESEMBLANCE.--A DREADFUL SUGGESTION.
+
+CHAPTER XIV.--HENRY'S AGREEMENT WITH SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.--THE SUDDEN
+ARRIVAL AT THE HALL.--FLORA'S ALARM.
+
+CHAPTER XV.--THE OLD ADMIRAL AND HIS SERVANT.--THE COMMUNICATION FROM
+THE LANDLORD OF THE NELSON'S ARMS.
+
+CHAPTER XVI.--THE MEETING OF THE LOVERS IN THE GARDEN.--AN AFFECTING
+SCENE.--THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.
+
+CHAPTER XVII.--THE EXPLANATION.--THE ARRIVAL OF THE ADMIRAL AT THE
+HOUSE.--A SCENE OF CONFUSION, AND SOME OF ITS RESULTS.
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.--THE ADMIRAL'S ADVICE.--THE CHALLENGE TO THE
+VAMPYRE.--THE NEW SERVANT AT THE HALL.
+
+CHAPTER XIX.--FLORA IN HER CHAMBER.--HER FEARS.--THE MANUSCRIPT.--AN
+ADVENTURE.
+
+CHAPTER XX.--THE DREADFUL MISTAKE.--THE TERRIFIC INTERVIEW IN THE
+CHAMBER.--THE ATTACK OF THE VAMPYRE.
+
+CHAPTER XXI.--THE CONFERENCE BETWEEN THE UNCLE AND NEPHEW, AND THE
+ALARM.
+
+CHAPTER XXII.--THE CONSULTATION.--THE DETERMINATION TO LEAVE THE HALL.
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.--THE ADMIRAL'S ADVICE TO CHARLES HOLLAND.--THE CHALLENGE
+TO THE VAMPYRE.
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.--THE LETTER TO CHARLES.--THE QUARREL.--THE ADMIRAL'S
+NARRATIVE.--THE MIDNIGHT MEETING.
+
+CHAPTER XXV.--THE ADMIRAL'S OPINION.--THE REQUEST OF CHARLES.
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.--THE MEETING BY MOONLIGHT IN THE PARK.--THE TURRET WINDOW
+IN THE HALL.--THE LETTERS.
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.--THE NOBLE CONFIDENCE OF FLORA BANNERWORTH IN HER
+LOVER.--HER OPINION OF THE THREE LETTERS.--THE ADMIRAL'S ADMIRATION.
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.--MR. MARCHDALE'S EXCULPATION OF HIMSELF.--THE SEARCH
+THROUGH THE GARDENS.--THE SPOT OF THE DEADLY STRUGGLE.--THE MYSTERIOUS
+PAPER.
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.--A PEEP THROUGH AN IRON GRATING.--THE LONELY PRISONER IN
+HIS DUNGEON.--THE MYSTERY.
+
+CHAPTER XXX.--THE VISIT OF FLORA TO THE VAMPYRE.--THE OFFER.--THE
+SOLEMN ASSEVERATION.
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.--SIR FRANCIS VARNEY AND HIS MYSTERIOUS VISITOR.--THE
+STRANGE CONFERENCE.
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.--THE THOUSAND POUNDS.--THE STRANGER'S PRECAUTIONS.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.--THE STRANGE INTERVIEW.--THE CHASE THROUGH THE HALL.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.--THE THREAT.--ITS CONSEQUENCES.--THE RESCUE, AND SIR
+FRANCIS VARNEY'S DANGER.
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.--THE EXPLANATION.--MARCHDALE'S ADVICE.--THE PROJECTED
+REMOVAL, AND THE ADMIRAL'S ANGER.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.--THE CONSULTATION.--THE DUEL AND ITS RESULTS.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.--SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S SEPARATE OPPONENTS.--THE
+INTERPOSITION OF FLORA.
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.--MARCHDALE'S OFFER.--THE CONSULTATION AT BANNERWORTH
+HALL.--THE MORNING OF THE DUEL.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.--THE STORM AND THE FIGHT.-THE ADMIRAL'S REPUDIATION OF
+HIS PRINCIPAL.
+
+CHAPTER XL.--THE POPULAR RIOT.--SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S DANGER.--THE
+SUGGESTION AND ITS RESULTS.
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.--VARNEY'S DANGER, AND HIS RESCUE.--THE PRISONER AGAIN,
+AND THE SUBTERRANEAN VAULT.
+
+CHAPTER XLV.--THE OPEN GRAVES.--THE DEAD BODIES.--A SCENE OF TERROR.
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.--THE PREPARATIONS FOR LEAVING BANNERWORTH HALL, AND THE
+MYSTERIOUS CONDUCT OF THE ADMIRAL AND MR. CHILLINGWORTH.
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.--THE REMOVAL FROM THE HALL.--THE NIGHT WATCH, AND THE
+ALARM.
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII--THE STAKE AND THE DEAD BODY.
+
+CHAPTER XLIX--THE MOB'S ARRIVAL AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.--THE ATTEMPT
+TO GAIN ADMISSION.
+
+CHAPTER L.--THE MOB'S ARRIVAL AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.--THE ATTEMPT TO
+GAIN ADMISSION.
+
+CHAPTER LI.--THE ATTACK UPON THE VAMPYRE'S HOUSE.--THE STORY OF THE
+ATTACK.--THE FORCING OF THE DOORS, AND THE STRUGGLE.
+
+CHAPTER LII.--THE INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE MOB AND SIR FRANCIS
+VARNEY.--THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.--THE WINE CELLARS.
+
+CHAPTER LIII.--THE DESTRUCTION OF SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S HOUSE BY
+FIRE.--THE ARRIVAL OF THE MILITARY, AND A SECOND MOB.
+
+CHAPTER LIV.--THE BURNING OF VARNEY'S HOUSE.--A NIGHT SCENE.--POPULAR
+SUPERSTITION.
+
+CHAPTER LV.--THE RETURN OF THE MOB AND MILITARY TO THE TOWN.--THE
+MADNESS OF THE MOB.--THE GROCER'S REVENGE.
+
+CHAPTER LVI.--THE DEPARTURE OF THE BANNERWORTHS FROM THE HALL.--THE NEW
+ABODE.--JACK PRINGLE, PILOT.
+
+CHAPTER LVII.--THE LONELY WATCH, AND THE ADVENTURE IN THE DESERTED
+HOUSE.
+
+CHAPTER LVIII.--THE ARRIVAL OF JACK PRINGLE.--MIDNIGHT AND THE
+VAMPYRE.--THE MYSTERIOUS HAT.
+
+CHAPTER LIX.--THE WARNING.--THE NEW PLAN OF OPERATION.--THE INSULTING
+MESSAGE FROM VARNEY.
+
+CHAPTER LX.--THE INTERRUPTED BREAKFAST AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.
+
+CHAPTER LXI.--THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER.--THE PARTICULARS OF THE SUICIDE
+AT BANNERWORTH HALL.
+
+CHAPTER LXII.--THE MYSTERIOUS MEETING IN THE RUIN AGAIN.--THE VAMPYRE'S
+ATTACK UPON THE CONSTABLE.
+
+CHAPTER LXIII.--THE GUESTS AT THE INN, AND THE STORY OF THE DEAD UNCLE.
+
+CHAPTER LXIV.--THE VAMPIRE IN THE MOONLIGHT.--THE FALSE FRIEND.
+
+CHAPTER LXV.--VARNEY'S VISIT TO THE DUNGEON OF THE LONELY PRISONER IN
+THE RUINS.
+
+CHAPTER LXVI.--FLORA BANNERWORTH'S APPARENT INCONSISTENCY.--THE
+ADMIRAL'S CIRCUMSTANCES AND ADVICE.--MR. CHILLINGWORTH'S MYSTERIOUS
+ABSENCE.
+
+CHAPTER LXVII.--THE ADMIRAL'S STORY OF THE BEAUTIFUL BELINDA.
+
+CHAPTER LXVIII.--MARCHDALE'S ATTEMPTED VILLANY, AND THE RESULT.
+
+CHAPTER LXIX.--FLORA BANNERWORTH AND HER MOTHER.--THE EPISODE OF
+CHIVALRY.
+
+CHAPTER LXX.--THE FUNERAL OF THE STRANGER OF THE INN.--THE POPULAR
+COMMOTION, AND MRS. CHILLINGWORTH'S APPEAL TO THE MOB.--THE NEW
+RIOT.--THE HALL IN DANGER.
+
+CHAPTER LXXI.--THE STRANGE MEETING AT THE HALL BETWEEN MR.
+CHILLINGWORTH AND THE MYSTERIOUS FRIEND OF VARNEY.
+
+CHAPTER LXXII.--THE STRANGE STORY.--THE ARRIVAL OF THE MOB AT THE HALL,
+AND THEIR DISPERSION.
+
+CHAPTER LXXIII.--THE VISIT OF THE VAMPIRE.--THE GENERAL MEETING.
+
+CHAPTER LXXIV.--THE MEETING OF CHARLES AND FLORA.
+
+CHAPTER LXXV.--MUTUAL EXPLANATIONS, AND THE VISIT TO THE RUINS.
+
+CHAPTER LXXVI.--THE SECOND NIGHT-WATCH OF MR. CHILLINGWORTH AT THE
+HALL.
+
+CHAPTER LXXVII.--VARNEY IN THE GARDEN.--THE COMMUNICATION OF DR.
+CHILLINGWORTH TO THE ADMIRAL AND HENRY.
+
+CHAPTER LXXVIII.--THE ALTERCATION BETWEEN VARNEY AND THE EXECUTIONER IN
+THE HALL.--THE MUTUAL AGREEMENT.
+
+CHAPTER LXXIX.--THE VAMPYRE'S DANGER.--THE LAST REFUGE.--THE RUSE OF
+HENRY BANNERWORTH.
+
+CHAPTER LXXX.--THE DISCOVERY OF THE BODY OF MARCHDALE IN THE RUINS BY
+THE MOB.--THE BURNING OF THE CORPSE.--THE MURDER OF THE HANGMAN.
+
+CHAPTER LXXXI.--THE VAMPYRE'S FLIGHT.--HIS DANGER, AND THE LAST PLACE
+OF REFUGE.
+
+CHAPTER LXXXII.--CHARLES HOLLAND'S PURSUIT OF THE VAMPYRE.--THE
+DANGEROUS INTERVIEW.
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIII.--THE MYSTERIOUS ARRIVAL AT THE INN.--THE HUNGARIAN
+NOBLEMAN.--THE LETTER TO VARNEY.
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIV.--THE EXCITED POPULACE.--VARNEY HUNTED.--THE PLACE OF
+REFUGE.
+
+CHAPTER LXXXV.--THE HUNGARIAN NOBLEMAN GETS INTO DANGER.--HE IS FIRED
+AT, AND SHOWS SOME OF HIS QUALITY.
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVI.--THE DISCOVERY OF THE POCKET BOOK OF MARMADUKE
+BANNERWORTH.--ITS MYSTERIOUS CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVII.--THE HUNT FOR VARNEY.--THE HOUSE-TOPS.--THE MIRACULOUS
+ESCAPE.--THE LAST PLACE OF REFUGE.--THE COTTAGE.
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVIII.--THE RECEPTION OF THE VAMPYRE BY FLORA.--VARNEY
+SUBDUED.
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIX.--TELLS WHAT BECAME OF THE SECOND VAMPYRE WHO SOUGHT
+VARNEY.
+
+CHAPTER XC.--DR. CHILLINGWORTH AT THE HALL.--THE ENCOUNTER OF
+MYSTERY.--THE CONFLICT.--THE RESCUE, AND THE PICTURE.
+
+CHAPTER XCI.--THE GRAND CONSULTATION BROKEN UP BY MRS. CHILLINGWORTH,
+AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF VARNEY.
+
+CHAPTER XCII.--THE MISADVENTURE OF THE DOCTOR WITH THE PICTURE.
+
+CHAPTER XCIII.--THE ALARM AT ANDERBURY.--THE SUSPICIONS OF THE
+BANNERWORTH FAMILY, AND THE MYSTERIOUS COMMUNICATION.
+
+CHAPTER XCIV.--THE VISITOR, AND THE DEATH IN THE SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGE.
+
+CHAPTER XCV.--THE MARRIAGE IN THE BANNERWORTH FAMILY ARRANGED.
+
+CHAPTER XCVI.--THE BARON TAKES ANDERBURY HOUSE, AND DECIDES UPON GIVING
+A GRAND ENTERTAINMENT.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The unprecedented success of the romance of "Varney the Vampyre," leaves
+the Author but little to say further, than that he accepts that success
+and its results as gratefully as it is possible for any one to do
+popular favours.
+
+A belief in the existence of Vampyres first took its rise in Norway and
+Sweden, from whence it rapidly spread to more southern regions, taking a
+firm hold of the imaginations of the more credulous portion of mankind.
+
+The following romance is collected from seemingly the most authentic
+sources, and the Author must leave the question of credibility entirely
+to his readers, not even thinking that he is peculiarly called upon to
+express his own opinion upon the subject.
+
+Nothing has been omitted in the life of the unhappy Varney, which could
+tend to throw a light upon his most extraordinary career, and the fact
+of his death just as it is here related, made a great noise at the time
+through Europe and is to be found in the public prints for the year
+1713.
+
+With these few observations, the Author and Publisher, are well content
+to leave the work in the hands of a public, which has stamped it with an
+approbation far exceeding their most sanguine expectations, and which is
+calculated to act as the strongest possible incentive to the production
+of other works, which in a like, or perchance a still further degree may
+be deserving of public patronage and support.
+
+To the whole of the Metropolitan Press for their laudatory notices, the
+Author is peculiarly obliged.
+
+_London Sep. 1847_
+
+
+
+
+VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE;
+
+OR
+
+THE FEAST OF BLOOD
+
+A Romance
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+    ----"How graves give up their dead.
+    And how the night air hideous grows
+    With shrieks!"
+
+MIDNIGHT.--THE HAIL-STORM.--THE DREADFUL VISITOR.--THE VAMPYRE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The solemn tones of an old cathedral clock have announced midnight--the
+air is thick and heavy--a strange, death like stillness pervades all
+nature. Like the ominous calm which precedes some more than usually
+terrific outbreak of the elements, they seem to have paused even in
+their ordinary fluctuations, to gather a terrific strength for the great
+effort. A faint peal of thunder now comes from far off. Like a signal
+gun for the battle of the winds to begin, it appeared to awaken them
+from their lethargy, and one awful, warring hurricane swept over a whole
+city, producing more devastation in the four or five minutes it lasted,
+than would a half century of ordinary phenomena.
+
+It was as if some giant had blown upon some toy town, and scattered many
+of the buildings before the hot blast of his terrific breath; for as
+suddenly as that blast of wind had come did it cease, and all was as
+still and calm as before.
+
+Sleepers awakened, and thought that what they had heard must be the
+confused chimera of a dream. They trembled and turned to sleep again.
+
+All is still--still as the very grave. Not a sound breaks the magic of
+repose. What is that--a strange, pattering noise, as of a million of
+fairy feet? It is hail--yes, a hail-storm has burst over the city.
+Leaves are dashed from the trees, mingled with small boughs; windows
+that lie most opposed to the direct fury of the pelting particles of ice
+are broken, and the rapt repose that before was so remarkable in its
+intensity, is exchanged for a noise which, in its accumulation, drowns
+every cry of surprise or consternation which here and there arose from
+persons who found their houses invaded by the storm.
+
+Now and then, too, there would come a sudden gust of wind that in its
+strength, as it blew laterally, would, for a moment, hold millions of
+the hailstones suspended in mid air, but it was only to dash them with
+redoubled force in some new direction, where more mischief was to be
+done.
+
+Oh, how the storm raged! Hail--rain--wind. It was, in very truth, an
+awful night.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is an antique chamber in an ancient house. Curious and quaint
+carvings adorn the walls, and the large chimney-piece is a curiosity of
+itself. The ceiling is low, and a large bay window, from roof to floor,
+looks to the west. The window is latticed, and filled with curiously
+painted glass and rich stained pieces, which send in a strange, yet
+beautiful light, when sun or moon shines into the apartment. There is
+but one portrait in that room, although the walls seem panelled for the
+express purpose of containing a series of pictures. That portrait is of
+a young man, with a pale face, a stately brow, and a strange expression
+about the eyes, which no one cared to look on twice.
+
+There is a stately bed in that chamber, of carved walnut-wood is it
+made, rich in design and elaborate in execution; one of those works of
+art which owe their existence to the Elizabethan era. It is hung with
+heavy silken and damask furnishing; nodding feathers are at its
+corners--covered with dust are they, and they lend a funereal aspect to
+the room. The floor is of polished oak.
+
+God! how the hail dashes on the old bay window! Like an occasional
+discharge of mimic musketry, it comes clashing, beating, and cracking
+upon the small panes; but they resist it--their small size saves them;
+the wind, the hail, the rain, expend their fury in vain.
+
+The bed in that old chamber is occupied. A creature formed in all
+fashions of loveliness lies in a half sleep upon that ancient couch--a
+girl young and beautiful as a spring morning. Her long hair has escaped
+from its confinement and streams over the blackened coverings of the
+bedstead; she has been restless in her sleep, for the clothing of the
+bed is in much confusion. One arm is over her head, the other hangs
+nearly off the side of the bed near to which she lies. A neck and bosom
+that would have formed a study for the rarest sculptor that ever
+Providence gave genius to, were half disclosed. She moaned slightly in
+her sleep, and once or twice the lips moved as if in prayer--at least
+one might judge so, for the name of Him who suffered for all came once
+faintly from them.
+
+She has endured much fatigue, and the storm does not awaken her; but it
+can disturb the slumbers it does not possess the power to destroy
+entirely. The turmoil of the elements wakes the senses, although it
+cannot entirely break the repose they have lapsed into.
+
+Oh, what a world of witchery was in that mouth, slightly parted, and
+exhibiting within the pearly teeth that glistened even in the faint
+light that came from that bay window. How sweetly the long silken
+eyelashes lay upon the cheek. Now she moves, and one shoulder is
+entirely visible--whiter, fairer than the spotless clothing of the bed
+on which she lies, is the smooth skin of that fair creature, just
+budding into womanhood, and in that transition state which presents to
+us all the charms of the girl--almost of the child, with the more
+matured beauty and gentleness of advancing years.
+
+Was that lightning? Yes--an awful, vivid, terrifying flash--then a
+roaring peal of thunder, as if a thousand mountains were rolling one
+over the other in the blue vault of Heaven! Who sleeps now in that
+ancient city? Not one living soul. The dread trumpet of eternity could
+not more effectually have awakened any one.
+
+The hail continues. The wind continues. The uproar of the elements seems
+at its height. Now she awakens--that beautiful girl on the antique bed;
+she opens those eyes of celestial blue, and a faint cry of alarm bursts
+from her lips. At least it is a cry which, amid the noise and turmoil
+without, sounds but faint and weak. She sits upon the bed and presses
+her hands upon her eyes. Heavens! what a wild torrent of wind, and rain,
+and hail! The thunder likewise seems intent upon awakening sufficient
+echoes to last until the next flash of forked lightning should again
+produce the wild concussion of the air. She murmurs a prayer--a prayer
+for those she loves best; the names of those dear to her gentle heart
+come from her lips; she weeps and prays; she thinks then of what
+devastation the storm must surely produce, and to the great God of
+Heaven she prays for all living things. Another flash--a wild, blue,
+bewildering flash of lightning streams across that bay window, for an
+instant bringing out every colour in it with terrible distinctness. A
+shriek bursts from the lips of the young girl, and then, with eyes fixed
+upon that window, which, in another moment, is all darkness, and with
+such an expression of terror upon her face as it had never before known,
+she trembled, and the perspiration of intense fear stood upon her brow.
+
+"What--what was it?" she gasped; "real, or a delusion? Oh, God, what was
+it? A figure tall and gaunt, endeavouring from the outside to unclasp
+the window. I saw it. That flash of lightning revealed it to me. It
+stood the whole length of the window."
+
+There was a lull of the wind. The hail was not falling so
+thickly--moreover, it now fell, what there was of it, straight, and yet
+a strange clattering sound came upon the glass of that long window. It
+could not be a delusion--she is awake, and she hears it. What can
+produce it? Another flash of lightning--another shriek--there could be
+now no delusion.
+
+A tall figure is standing on the ledge immediately outside the long
+window. It is its finger-nails upon the glass that produces the sound so
+like the hail, now that the hail has ceased. Intense fear paralysed the
+limbs of that beautiful girl. That one shriek is all she can utter--with
+hands clasped, a face of marble, a heart beating so wildly in her bosom,
+that each moment it seems as if it would break its confines, eyes
+distended and fixed upon the window, she waits, froze with horror. The
+pattering and clattering of the nails continue. No word is spoken, and
+now she fancies she can trace the darker form of that figure against the
+window, and she can see the long arms moving to and fro, feeling for
+some mode of entrance. What strange light is that which now gradually
+creeps up into the air? red and terrible--brighter and brighter it
+grows. The lightning has set fire to a mill, and the reflection of the
+rapidly consuming building falls upon that long window. There can be no
+mistake. The figure is there, still feeling for an entrance, and
+clattering against the glass with its long nails, that appear as if the
+growth of many years had been untouched. She tries to scream again but a
+choking sensation comes over her, and she cannot. It is too
+dreadful--she tries to move--each limb seems weighed down by tons of
+lead--she can but in a hoarse faint whisper cry,--
+
+"Help--help--help--help!"
+
+And that one word she repeats like a person in a dream. The red glare of
+the fire continues. It throws up the tall gaunt figure in hideous relief
+against the long window. It shows, too, upon the one portrait that is in
+the chamber, and that portrait appears to fix its eyes upon the
+attempting intruder, while the flickering light from the fire makes it
+look fearfully life-like. A small pane of glass is broken, and the form
+from without introduces a long gaunt hand, which seems utterly destitute
+of flesh. The fastening is removed, and one-half of the window, which
+opens like folding doors, is swung wide open upon its hinges.
+
+And yet now she could not scream--she could not move.
+"Help!--help!--help!" was all she could say. But, oh, that look of
+terror that sat upon her face, it was dreadful--a look to haunt the
+memory for a lifetime--a look to obtrude itself upon the happiest
+moments, and turn them to bitterness.
+
+The figure turns half round, and the light falls upon the face. It is
+perfectly white--perfectly bloodless. The eyes look like polished tin;
+the lips are drawn back, and the principal feature next to those
+dreadful eyes is the teeth--the fearful looking teeth--projecting like
+those of some wild animal, hideously, glaringly white, and fang-like. It
+approaches the bed with a strange, gliding movement. It clashes together
+the long nails that literally appear to hang from the finger ends. No
+sound comes from its lips. Is she going mad--that young and beautiful
+girl exposed to so much terror? she has drawn up all her limbs; she
+cannot even now say help. The power of articulation is gone, but the
+power of movement has returned to her; she can draw herself slowly along
+to the other side of the bed from that towards which the hideous
+appearance is coming.
+
+But her eyes are fascinated. The glance of a serpent could not have
+produced a greater effect upon her than did the fixed gaze of those
+awful, metallic-looking eyes that were bent on her face. Crouching down
+so that the gigantic height was lost, and the horrible, protruding,
+white face was the most prominent object, came on the figure. What was
+it?--what did it want there?--what made it look so hideous--so unlike an
+inhabitant of the earth, and yet to be on it?
+
+Now she has got to the verge of the bed, and the figure pauses. It
+seemed as if when it paused she lost the power to proceed. The clothing
+of the bed was now clutched in her hands with unconscious power. She
+drew her breath short and thick. Her bosom heaves, and her limbs
+tremble, yet she cannot withdraw her eyes from that marble-looking face.
+He holds her with his glittering eye.
+
+The storm has ceased--all is still. The winds are hushed; the church
+clock proclaims the hour of one: a hissing sound comes from the throat
+of the hideous being, and he raises his long, gaunt arms--the lips move.
+He advances. The girl places one small foot from the bed on to the
+floor. She is unconsciously dragging the clothing with her. The door of
+the room is in that direction--can she reach it? Has she power to
+walk?--can she withdraw her eyes from the face of the intruder, and so
+break the hideous charm? God of Heaven! is it real, or some dream so
+like reality as to nearly overturn the judgment for ever?
+
+The figure has paused again, and half on the bed and half out of it that
+young girl lies trembling. Her long hair streams across the entire width
+of the bed. As she has slowly moved along she has left it streaming
+across the pillows. The pause lasted about a minute--oh, what an age of
+agony. That minute was, indeed, enough for madness to do its full work
+in.
+
+With a sudden rush that could not be foreseen--with a strange howling
+cry that was enough to awaken terror in every breast, the figure seized
+the long tresses of her hair, and twining them round his bony hands he
+held her to the bed. Then she screamed--Heaven granted her then power to
+scream. Shriek followed shriek in rapid succession. The bed-clothes fell
+in a heap by the side of the bed--she was dragged by her long silken
+hair completely on to it again. Her beautifully rounded limbs quivered
+with the agony of her soul. The glassy, horrible eyes of the figure ran
+over that angelic form with a hideous satisfaction--horrible
+profanation. He drags her head to the bed's edge. He forces it back by
+the long hair still entwined in his grasp. With a plunge he seizes her
+neck in his fang-like teeth--a gush of blood, and a hideous sucking
+noise follows. _The girl has swooned, and the vampyre is at his hideous
+repast!_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE ALARM.--THE PISTOL SHOT.--THE PURSUIT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Lights flashed about the building, and various room doors opened; voices
+called one to the other. There was an universal stir and commotion among
+the inhabitants.
+
+"Did you hear a scream, Harry?" asked a young man, half-dressed, as he
+walked into the chamber of another about his own age.
+
+"I did--where was it?"
+
+"God knows. I dressed myself directly."
+
+"All is still now."
+
+"Yes; but unless I was dreaming there was a scream."
+
+"We could not both dream there was. Where did you think it came from?"
+
+"It burst so suddenly upon my ears that I cannot say."
+
+There was a tap now at the door of the room where these young men were,
+and a female voice said,--
+
+"For God's sake, get up!"
+
+"We are up," said both the young men, appearing.
+
+"Did you hear anything?"
+
+"Yes, a scream."
+
+"Oh, search the house--search the house; where did it come from--can you
+tell?"
+
+"Indeed we cannot, mother."
+
+Another person now joined the party. He was a man of middle age, and, as
+he came up to them, he said,--
+
+"Good God! what is the matter?"
+
+Scarcely had the words passed his lips, than such a rapid succession of
+shrieks came upon their ears, that they felt absolutely stunned by them.
+The elderly lady, whom one of the young men had called mother, fainted,
+and would have fallen to the floor of the corridor in which they all
+stood, had she not been promptly supported by the last comer, who
+himself staggered, as those piercing cries came upon the night air. He,
+however, was the first to recover, for the young men seemed paralysed.
+
+"Henry," he cried, "for God's sake support your mother. Can you doubt
+that these cries come from Flora's room?"
+
+The young man mechanically supported his mother, and then the man who
+had just spoken darted back to his own bed-room, from whence he returned
+in a moment with a pair of pistols, and shouting,--
+
+"Follow me, who can!" he bounded across the corridor in the direction of
+the antique apartment, from whence the cries proceeded, but which were
+now hushed.
+
+That house was built for strength, and the doors were all of oak, and of
+considerable thickness. Unhappily, they had fastenings within, so that
+when the man reached the chamber of her who so much required help, he
+was helpless, for the door was fast.
+
+"Flora! Flora!" he cried; "Flora, speak!"
+
+All was still.
+
+"Good God!" he added; "we must force the door."
+
+"I hear a strange noise within," said the young man, who trembled
+violently.
+
+"And so do I. What does it sound like?"
+
+"I scarcely know; but it nearest resembles some animal eating, or
+sucking some liquid."
+
+"What on earth can it be? Have you no weapon that will force the door? I
+shall go mad if I am kept here."
+
+"I have," said the young man. "Wait here a moment."
+
+He ran down the staircase, and presently returned with a small, but
+powerful, iron crow-bar.
+
+"This will do," he said.
+
+"It will, it will.--Give it to me."
+
+"Has she not spoken?"
+
+"Not a word. My mind misgives me that something very dreadful must have
+happened to her."
+
+"And that odd noise!"
+
+"Still goes on. Somehow, it curdles the very blood in my veins to hear
+it."
+
+The man took the crow-bar, and with some difficulty succeeded in
+introducing it between the door and the side of the wall--still it
+required great strength to move it, but it did move, with a harsh,
+crackling sound.
+
+"Push it!" cried he who was using the bar, "push the door at the same
+time."
+
+The younger man did so. For a few moments the massive door resisted.
+Then, suddenly, something gave way with a loud snap--it was a part of
+the lock,--and the door at once swung wide open.
+
+How true it is that we measure time by the events which happen within a
+given space of it, rather than by its actual duration.
+
+To those who were engaged in forcing open the door of the antique
+chamber, where slept the young girl whom they named Flora, each moment
+was swelled into an hour of agony; but, in reality, from the first
+moment of the alarm to that when the loud cracking noise heralded the
+destruction of the fastenings of the door, there had elapsed but very
+few minutes indeed.
+
+"It opens--it opens," cried the young man.
+
+"Another moment," said the stranger, as he still plied the
+crowbar--"another moment, and we shall have free ingress to the chamber.
+Be patient."
+
+This stranger's name was Marchdale; and even as he spoke, he succeeded
+in throwing the massive door wide open, and clearing the passage to the
+chamber.
+
+To rush in with a light in his hand was the work of a moment to the
+young man named Henry; but the very rapid progress he made into the
+apartment prevented him from observing accurately what it contained, for
+the wind that came in from the open window caught the flame of the
+candle, and although it did not actually extinguish it, it blew it so
+much on one side, that it was comparatively useless as a light.
+
+"Flora--Flora!" he cried.
+
+Then with a sudden bound something dashed from off the bed. The
+concussion against him was so sudden and so utterly unexpected, as well
+as so tremendously violent, that he was thrown down, and, in his fall,
+the light was fairly extinguished.
+
+All was darkness, save a dull, reddish kind of light that now and then,
+from the nearly consumed mill in the immediate vicinity, came into the
+room. But by that light, dim, uncertain, and flickering as it was, some
+one was seen to make for the window.
+
+Henry, although nearly stunned by his fall, saw a figure, gigantic in
+height, which nearly reached from the floor to the ceiling. The other
+young man, George, saw it, and Mr. Marchdale likewise saw it, as did the
+lady who had spoken to the two young men in the corridor when first the
+screams of the young girl awakened alarm in the breasts of all the
+inhabitants of that house.
+
+The figure was about to pass out at the window which led to a kind of
+balcony, from whence there was an easy descent to a garden.
+
+Before it passed out they each and all caught a glance of the side-face,
+and they saw that the lower part of it and the lips were dabbled in
+blood. They saw, too, one of those fearful-looking, shining, metallic
+eyes which presented so terrible an appearance of unearthly ferocity.
+
+No wonder that for a moment a panic seized them all, which paralysed any
+exertions they might otherwise have made to detain that hideous form.
+
+But Mr. Marchdale was a man of mature years; he had seen much of life,
+both in this and in foreign lands; and he, although astonished to the
+extent of being frightened, was much more likely to recover sooner than
+his younger companions, which, indeed, he did, and acted promptly
+enough.
+
+"Don't rise, Henry," he cried. "Lie still."
+
+Almost at the moment he uttered these words, he fired at the figure,
+which then occupied the window, as if it were a gigantic figure set in a
+frame.
+
+The report was tremendous in that chamber, for the pistol was no toy
+weapon, but one made for actual service, and of sufficient length and
+bore of barrel to carry destruction along with the bullets that came
+from it.
+
+"If that has missed its aim," said Mr. Marchdale, "I'll never pull a
+trigger again."
+
+As he spoke he dashed forward, and made a clutch at the figure he felt
+convinced he had shot.
+
+The tall form turned upon him, and when he got a full view of the face,
+which he did at that moment, from the opportune circumstance of the lady
+returning at the instant with a light she had been to her own chamber to
+procure, even he, Marchdale, with all his courage, and that was great,
+and all his nervous energy, recoiled a step or two, and uttered the
+exclamation of, "Great God!"
+
+That face was one never to be forgotten. It was hideously flushed with
+colour--the colour of fresh blood; the eyes had a savage and remarkable
+lustre; whereas, before, they had looked like polished tin--they now
+wore a ten times brighter aspect, and flashes of light seemed to dart
+from them. The mouth was open, as if, from the natural formation of the
+countenance, the lips receded much from the large canine looking teeth.
+
+A strange howling noise came from the throat of this monstrous figure,
+and it seemed upon the point of rushing upon Mr. Marchdale. Suddenly,
+then, as if some impulse had seized upon it, it uttered a wild and
+terrible shrieking kind of laugh; and then turning, dashed through the
+window, and in one instant disappeared from before the eyes of those who
+felt nearly annihilated by its fearful presence.
+
+"God help us!" ejaculated Henry.
+
+Mr. Marchdale drew a long breath, and then, giving a stamp on the floor,
+as if to recover himself from the state of agitation into which even he
+was thrown, he cried,--
+
+"Be it what or who it may, I'll follow it"
+
+"No--no--do not," cried the lady.
+
+"I must, I will. Let who will come with me--I follow that dreadful
+form."
+
+As he spoke, he took the road it took, and dashed through the window
+into the balcony.
+
+"And we, too, George," exclaimed Henry; "we will follow Mr. Marchdale.
+This dreadful affair concerns us more nearly than it does him."
+
+The lady who was the mother of these young men, and of the beautiful
+girl who had been so awfully visited, screamed aloud, and implored of
+them to stay. But the voice of Mr. Marchdale was heard exclaiming
+aloud,--
+
+"I see it--I see it; it makes for the wall."
+
+They hesitated no longer, but at once rushed into the balcony, and from
+thence dropped into the garden.
+
+The mother approached the bed-side of the insensible, perhaps the
+murdered girl; she saw her, to all appearance, weltering in blood, and,
+overcome by her emotions, she fainted on the floor of the room.
+
+When the two young men reached the garden, they found it much lighter
+than might have been fairly expected; for not only was the morning
+rapidly approaching, but the mill was still burning, and those mingled
+lights made almost every object plainly visible, except when deep
+shadows were thrown from some gigantic trees that had stood for
+centuries in that sweetly wooded spot. They heard the voice of Mr.
+Marchdale, as he cried,--
+
+"There--there--towards the wall. There--there--God! how it bounds
+along."
+
+The young men hastily dashed through a thicket in the direction from
+whence his voice sounded, and then they found him looking wild and
+terrified, and with something in his hand which looked like a portion of
+clothing.
+
+"Which way, which way?" they both cried in a breath.
+
+He leant heavily on the arm of George, as he pointed along a vista of
+trees, and said in a low voice,--
+
+"God help us all. It is not human. Look there--look there--do you not
+see it?"
+
+They looked in the direction he indicated. At the end of this vista was
+the wall of the garden. At that point it was full twelve feet in height,
+and as they looked, they saw the hideous, monstrous form they had traced
+from the chamber of their sister, making frantic efforts to clear the
+obstacle.
+
+Then they saw it bound from the ground to the top of the wall, which it
+very nearly reached, and then each time it fell back again into the
+garden with such a dull, heavy sound, that the earth seemed to shake
+again with the concussion. They trembled--well indeed they might, and
+for some minutes they watched the figure making its fruitless efforts to
+leave the place.
+
+"What--what is it?" whispered Henry, in hoarse accents. "God, what can
+it possibly be?"
+
+"I know not," replied Mr. Marchdale. "I did seize it. It was cold and
+clammy like a corpse. It cannot be human."
+
+"Not human?"
+
+"Look at it now. It will surely escape now."
+
+"No, no--we will not be terrified thus--there is Heaven above us. Come
+on, and, for dear Flora's sake, let us make an effort yet to seize this
+bold intruder."
+
+"Take this pistol," said Marchdale. "It is the fellow of the one I
+fired. Try its efficacy."
+
+"He will be gone," exclaimed Henry, as at this moment, after many
+repeated attempts and fearful falls, the figure reached the top of the
+wall, and then hung by its long arms a moment or two, previous to
+dragging itself completely up.
+
+The idea of the appearance, be it what it might, entirely escaping,
+seemed to nerve again Mr. Marchdale, and he, as well as the two young
+men, ran forward towards the wall. They got so close to the figure
+before it sprang down on the outer side of the wall, that to miss
+killing it with the bullet from the pistol was a matter of utter
+impossibility, unless wilfully.
+
+Henry had the weapon, and he pointed it full at the tall form with a
+steady aim. He pulled the trigger--the explosion followed, and that the
+bullet did its office there could be no manner of doubt, for the figure
+gave a howling shriek, and fell headlong from the wall on the outside.
+
+"I have shot him," cried Henry, "I have shot him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BODY.--FLORA'S RECOVERY AND MADNESS.--THE OFFER
+OF ASSISTANCE FROM SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"He is human!" cried Henry; "I have surely killed him."
+
+"It would seem so," said Mr. Marchdale. "Let us now hurry round to the
+outside of the wall, and see where he lies."
+
+This was at once agreed to, and the whole three of them made what
+expedition they could towards a gate which led into a paddock, across
+which they hurried, and soon found themselves clear of the garden wall,
+so that they could make way towards where they fully expected to find
+the body of him who had worn so unearthly an aspect, but who it would be
+an excessive relief to find was human.
+
+So hurried was the progress they made, that it was scarcely possible to
+exchange many words as they went; a kind of breathless anxiety was upon
+them, and in the speed they disregarded every obstacle, which would, at
+any other time, have probably prevented them from taking the direct road
+they sought.
+
+It was difficult on the outside of the wall to say exactly which was the
+precise spot which it might be supposed the body had fallen on; but, by
+following the wall in its entire length, surely they would come upon it.
+
+They did so; but, to their surprise, they got from its commencement to
+its further extremity without finding any dead body, or even any
+symptoms of one having lain there.
+
+At some parts close to the wall there grew a kind of heath, and,
+consequently, the traces of blood would be lost among it, if it so
+happened that at the precise spot at which the strange being had seemed
+to topple over, such vegetation had existed. This was to be ascertained;
+but now, after traversing the whole length of the wall twice, they came
+to a halt, and looked wonderingly in each other's faces.
+
+"There is nothing here," said Harry.
+
+"Nothing," added his brother.
+
+"It could not have been a delusion," at length said Mr. Marchdale, with
+a shudder.
+
+"A delusion?" exclaimed the brother! "That is not possible; we all saw
+it."
+
+"Then what terrible explanation can we give?"
+
+"By heavens! I know not," exclaimed Henry. "This adventure surpasses all
+belief, and but for the great interest we have in it, I should regard it
+with a world of curiosity."
+
+"It is too dreadful," said George; "for God's sake, Henry, let us return
+to ascertain if poor Flora is killed."
+
+"My senses," said Henry, "were all so much absorbed in gazing at that
+horrible form, that I never once looked towards her further than to see
+that she was, to appearance, dead. God help her! poor--poor, beautiful
+Flora. This is, indeed, a sad, sad fate for you to come to.
+Flora--Flora--"
+
+"Do not weep, Henry," said George. "Rather let us now hasten home, where
+we may find that tears are premature. She may yet be living and restored
+to us."
+
+"And," said Mr. Marchdale, "she may be able to give us some account of
+this dreadful visitation."
+
+"True--true," exclaimed Henry; "we will hasten home."
+
+They now turned their steps homeward, and as they went they much blamed
+themselves for all leaving home together, and with terror pictured what
+might occur in their absence to those who were now totally unprotected.
+
+"It was a rash impulse of us all to come in pursuit of this dreadful
+figure," remarked Mr. Marchdale; "but do not torment yourself, Henry.
+There may be no reason for your fears."
+
+At the pace they went, they very soon reached the ancient house, and
+when they came in sight of it, they saw lights flashing from the
+windows, and the shadows of faces moving to and fro, indicating that the
+whole household was up, and in a state of alarm.
+
+Henry, after some trouble, got the hall door opened by a terrified
+servant, who was trembling so much that she could scarcely hold the
+light she had with her.
+
+"Speak at once, Martha," said Henry. "Is Flora living?"
+
+"Yes; but--"
+
+"Enough--enough! Thank God she lives; where is she now?"
+
+"In her own room, Master Henry. Oh, dear--oh, dear, what will become of
+us all?"
+
+Henry rushed up the staircase, followed by George and Mr. Marchdale, nor
+paused he once until he reached the room of his sister.
+
+"Mother," he said, before he crossed the threshold, "are you here?"
+
+"I am, my dear--I am. Come in, pray come in, and speak to poor Flora."
+
+"Come in, Mr. Marchdale," said Henry--"come in; we make no stranger of
+you."
+
+They all then entered the room.
+
+Several lights had been now brought into that antique chamber, and, in
+addition to the mother of the beautiful girl who had been so fearfully
+visited, there were two female domestics, who appeared to be in the
+greatest possible fright, for they could render no assistance whatever
+to anybody.
+
+The tears were streaming down the mother's face, and the moment she saw
+Mr. Marchdale, she clung to his arm, evidently unconscious of what she
+was about, and exclaimed,--
+
+"Oh, what is this that has happened--what is this? Tell me, Marchdale!
+Robert Marchdale, you whom I have known even from my childhood, you will
+not deceive me. Tell me the meaning of all this?"
+
+"I cannot," he said, in a tone of much emotion. "As God is my judge, I
+am as much puzzled and amazed at the scene that has taken place here
+to-night as you can be."
+
+The mother wrung her hands and wept.
+
+"It was the storm that first awakened me," added Marchdale; "and then I
+heard a scream."
+
+The brothers tremblingly approached the bed. Flora was placed in a
+sitting, half-reclining posture, propped up by pillows. She was quite
+insensible, and her face was fearfully pale; while that she breathed at
+all could be but very faintly seen. On some of her clothing, about the
+neck, were spots of blood, and she looked more like one who had suffered
+some long and grievous illness, than a young girl in the prime of life
+and in the most robust health, as she had been on the day previous to
+the strange scene we have recorded.
+
+"Does she sleep?" said Henry, as a tear fell from his eyes upon her
+pallid cheek.
+
+"No," replied Mr. Marchdale. "This is a swoon, from which we must
+recover her."
+
+Active measures were now adopted to restore the languid circulation,
+and, after persevering in them for some time, they had the satisfaction
+of seeing her open her eyes.
+
+Her first act upon consciousness returning, however, was to utter a loud
+shriek, and it was not until Henry implored her to look around her, and
+see that she was surrounded by none but friendly faces, that she would
+venture again to open her eyes, and look timidly from one to the other.
+Then she shuddered, and burst into tears as she said,--
+
+"Oh, Heaven, have mercy upon me--Heaven, have mercy upon me, and save me
+from that dreadful form."
+
+"There is no one here, Flora," said Mr. Marchdale, "but those who love
+you, and who, in defence of you, if needs were would lay down their
+lives."
+
+"Oh, God! Oh, God!"
+
+"You have been terrified. But tell us distinctly what has happened? You
+are quite safe now."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+She trembled so violently that Mr. Marchdale recommended that some
+stimulant should be given to her, and she was persuaded, although not
+without considerable difficulty, to swallow a small portion of some wine
+from a cup. There could be no doubt but that the stimulating effect of
+the wine was beneficial, for a slight accession of colour visited her
+cheeks, and she spoke in a firmer tone as she said,--
+
+"Do not leave me. Oh, do not leave me, any of you. I shall die if left
+alone now. Oh, save me--save me. That horrible form! That fearful face!"
+
+"Tell us how it happened, dear Flora?" said Henry.
+
+"Or would you rather endeavour to get some sleep first?" suggested Mr.
+Marchdale.
+
+"No--no--no," she said, "I do not think I shall ever sleep again."
+
+"Say not so; you will be more composed in a few hours, and then you can
+tell us what has occurred."
+
+"I will tell you now. I will tell you now."
+
+She placed her hands over her face for a moment, as if to collect her
+scattered, thoughts, and then she added,--
+
+"I was awakened by the storm, and I saw that terrible apparition at the
+window. I think I screamed, but I could not fly. Oh, God! I could not
+fly. It came--it seized me by the hair. I know no more. I know no more."
+
+She passed her hand across her neck several times, and Mr. Marchdale
+said, in an anxious voice,--
+
+"You seem, Flora, to have hurt your neck--there is a wound."
+
+"A wound!" said the mother, and she brought a light close to the bed,
+where all saw on the side of Flora's neck a small punctured wound; or,
+rather two, for there was one a little distance from the other.
+
+It was from these wounds the blood had come which was observable upon
+her night clothing.
+
+"How came these wounds?" said Henry.
+
+"I do not know," she replied. "I feel very faint and weak, as if I had
+almost bled to death."
+
+"You cannot have done so, dear Flora, for there are not above
+half-a-dozen spots of blood to be seen at all."
+
+Mr. Marchdale leaned against the carved head of the bed for support, and
+he uttered a deep groan. All eyes were turned upon him, and Henry said,
+in a voice of the most anxious inquiry,--
+
+"You have something to say, Mr. Marchdale, which will throw some light
+upon this affair."
+
+"No, no, no, nothing!" cried Mr. Marchdale, rousing himself at once from
+the appearance of depression that had come over him. "I have nothing to
+say, but that I think Flora had better get some sleep if she can."
+
+"No sleep-no sleep for me," again screamed Flora. "Dare I be alone to
+sleep?"
+
+"But you shall not be alone, dear Flora," said Henry. "I will sit by
+your bedside and watch you."
+
+She took his hand in both hers, and while the tears chased each other
+down her cheeks, she said,--
+
+"Promise me, Henry, by all your hopes of Heaven, you will not leave me."
+
+"I promise!"
+
+She gently laid herself down, with a deep sigh, and closed her eyes.
+
+"She is weak, and will sleep long," said Mr. Marchdale.
+
+"You sigh," said Henry. "Some fearful thoughts, I feel certain, oppress
+your heart."
+
+"Hush-hush!" said Mr. Marchdale, as he pointed to Flora. "Hush! not
+here--not here."
+
+"I understand," said Henry.
+
+"Let her sleep."
+
+There was a silence of some few minutes duration. Flora had dropped into
+a deep slumber. That silence was first broken by George, who said,--
+
+"Mr. Marchdale, look at that portrait."
+
+He pointed to the portrait in the frame to which we have alluded, and
+the moment Marchdale looked at it he sunk into a chair as he
+exclaimed,--
+
+"Gracious Heaven, how like!"
+
+"It is--it is," said Henry. "Those eyes--"
+
+"And see the contour of the countenance, and the strange shape of the
+mouth."
+
+"Exact--exact."
+
+"That picture shall be moved from here. The sight of it is at once
+sufficient to awaken all her former terrors in poor Flora's brain if she
+should chance to awaken and cast her eyes suddenly upon it."
+
+"And is it so like him who came here?" said the mother.
+
+"It is the very man himself," said Mr. Marchdale. "I have not been in
+this house long enough to ask any of you whose portrait that may be?"
+
+"It is," said Henry, "the portrait of Sir Runnagate Bannerworth, an
+ancestor of ours, who first, by his vices, gave the great blow to the
+family prosperity."
+
+"Indeed. How long ago?"
+
+"About ninety years."
+
+"Ninety years. 'Tis a long while--ninety years."
+
+"You muse upon it."
+
+"No, no. I do wish, and yet I dread--"
+
+"What?"
+
+"To say something to you all. But not here--not here. We will hold a
+consultation on this matter to-morrow. Not now--not now."
+
+"The daylight is coming quickly on," said Henry; "I shall keep my sacred
+promise of not moving from this room until Flora awakens; but there can
+be no occasion for the detention of any of you. One is sufficient here.
+Go all of you, and endeavour to procure what rest you can."
+
+"I will fetch you my powder-flask and bullets," said Mr. Marchdale; "and
+you can, if you please, reload the pistols. In about two hours more it
+will be broad daylight."
+
+This arrangement was adopted. Henry did reload the pistols, and placed
+them on a table by the side of the bed, ready for immediate action, and
+then, as Flora was sleeping soundly, all left the room but himself.
+
+Mrs. Bannerworth was the last to do so. She would have remained, but for
+the earnest solicitation of Henry, that she would endeavour to get some
+sleep to make up for her broken night's repose, and she was indeed so
+broken down by her alarm on Flora's account, that she had not power to
+resist, but with tears flowing from her eyes, she sought her own
+chamber.
+
+And now the calmness of the night resumed its sway in that evil-fated
+mansion; and although no one really slept but Flora, all were still.
+Busy thought kept every one else wakeful. It was a mockery to lie down
+at all, and Henry, full of strange and painful feelings as he was,
+preferred his present position to the anxiety and apprehension on
+Flora's account which he knew he should feel if she were not within the
+sphere of his own observation, and she slept as soundly as some gentle
+infant tired of its playmates and its sports.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE MORNING.--THE CONSULTATION.--THE FEARFUL SUGGESTION.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+What wonderfully different impressions and feelings, with regard to the
+same circumstances, come across the mind in the broad, clear, and
+beautiful light of day to what haunt the imagination, and often render
+the judgment almost incapable of action, when the heavy shadow of night
+is upon all things.
+
+There must be a downright physical reason for this effect--it is so
+remarkable and so universal. It seems that the sun's rays so completely
+alter and modify the constitution of the atmosphere, that it produces,
+as we inhale it, a wonderfully different effect upon the nerves of the
+human subject.
+
+We can account for this phenomenon in no other way. Perhaps never in his
+life had he, Henry Bannerworth, felt so strongly this transition of
+feeling as he now felt it, when the beautiful daylight gradually dawned
+upon him, as he kept his lonely watch by the bedside of his slumbering
+sister.
+
+That watch had been a perfectly undisturbed one. Not the least sight or
+sound of any intrusion had reached his senses. All had been as still as
+the very grave.
+
+And yet while the night lasted, and he was more indebted to the rays of
+the candle, which he had placed upon a shelf, for the power to
+distinguish objects than to the light of the morning, a thousand uneasy
+and strange sensations had found a home in his agitated bosom.
+
+He looked so many times at the portrait which was in the panel that at
+length he felt an undefined sensation of terror creep over him whenever
+he took his eyes off it.
+
+He tried to keep himself from looking at it, but he found it vain, so he
+adopted what, perhaps, was certainly the wisest, best plan, namely, to
+look at it continually.
+
+He shifted his chair so that he could gaze upon it without any effort,
+and he placed the candle so that a faint light was thrown upon it, and
+there he sat, a prey to many conflicting and uncomfortable feelings,
+until the daylight began to make the candle flame look dull and sickly.
+
+Solution for the events of the night he could find none. He racked his
+imagination in vain to find some means, however vague, of endeavouring
+to account for what occurred, and still he was at fault. All was to him
+wrapped in the gloom of the most profound mystery.
+
+And how strangely, too, the eyes of that portrait appeared to look upon
+him--as if instinct with life, and as if the head to which they belonged
+was busy in endeavouring to find out the secret communings of his soul.
+It was wonderfully well executed that portrait; so life-like, that the
+very features seemed to move as you gazed upon them.
+
+"It shall be removed," said Henry. "I would remove it now, but that it
+seems absolutely painted on the panel, and I should awake Flora in any
+attempt to do so."
+
+He arose and ascertained that such was the case, and that it would
+require a workman, with proper tools adapted to the job, to remove the
+portrait.
+
+"True," he said, "I might now destroy it, but it is a pity to obscure a
+work of such rare art as this is; I should blame myself if I were. It
+shall be removed to some other room of the house, however."
+
+Then, all of a sudden, it struck Henry how foolish it would be to remove
+the portrait from the wall of a room which, in all likelihood, after
+that night, would be uninhabited; for it was not probable that Flora
+would choose again to inhabit a chamber in which she had gone through so
+much terror.
+
+"It can be left where it is," he said, "and we can fasten up, if we
+please, even the very door of this room, so that no one need trouble
+themselves any further about it."
+
+The morning was now coming fast, and just as Henry thought he would
+partially draw a blind across the window, in order to shield from the
+direct rays of the sun the eyes of Flora, she awoke.
+
+"Help--help!" she cried, and Henry was by her side in a moment.
+
+"You are safe, Flora--you are safe," he said.
+
+"Where is it now?" she said.
+
+"What--what, dear Flora?"
+
+"The dreadful apparition. Oh, what have I done to be made thus
+perpetually miserable?"
+
+"Think no more of it, Flora."
+
+"I must think. My brain is on fire! A million of strange eyes seem
+gazing on me."
+
+"Great Heaven! she raves," said Henry.
+
+"Hark--hark--hark! He comes on the wings of the storm. Oh, it is most
+horrible--horrible!"
+
+Henry rang the bell, but not sufficiently loudly to create any alarm.
+The sound reached the waking ear of the mother, who in a few moments was
+in the room.
+
+"She has awakened," said Henry, "and has spoken, but she seems to me to
+wander in her discourse. For God's sake, soothe her, and try to bring
+her mind round to its usual state."
+
+"I will, Henry--I will."
+
+"And I think, mother, if you were to get her out of this room, and into
+some other chamber as far removed from this one as possible, it would
+tend to withdraw her mind from what has occurred."
+
+"Yes; it shall be done. Oh, Henry, what was it--what do you think it
+was?"
+
+"I am lost in a sea of wild conjecture. I can form no conclusion; where
+is Mr. Marchdale?"
+
+"I believe in his chamber."
+
+"Then I will go and consult with him."
+
+Henry proceeded at once to the chamber, which was, as he knew, occupied
+by Mr. Marchdale; and as he crossed the corridor, he could not but pause
+a moment to glance from a window at the face of nature.
+
+As is often the case, the terrific storm of the preceding evening had
+cleared the air, and rendered it deliciously invigorating and life-like.
+The weather had been dull, and there had been for some days a certain
+heaviness in the atmosphere, which was now entirely removed.
+
+The morning sun was shining with uncommon brilliancy, birds were singing
+in every tree and on every bush; so pleasant, so spirit-stirring,
+health-giving a morning, seldom had he seen. And the effect upon his
+spirits was great, although not altogether what it might have been, had
+all gone on as it usually was in the habit of doing at that house. The
+ordinary little casualties of evil fortune had certainly from time to
+time, in the shape of illness, and one thing or another, attacked the
+family of the Bannerworths in common with every other family, but here
+suddenly had arisen a something at once terrible and inexplicable.
+
+He found Mr. Marchdale up and dressed, and apparently in deep and
+anxious thought. The moment he saw Henry, he said,--
+
+"Flora is awake, I presume."
+
+"Yes, but her mind appears to be much disturbed."
+
+"From bodily weakness, I dare say."
+
+"But why should she be bodily weak? she was strong and well, ay, as well
+as she could ever be in all her life. The glow of youth and health was
+on her cheeks. Is it possible that, in the course of one night, she
+should become bodily weak to such an extent?"
+
+"Henry," said Mr. Marchdale, sadly, "sit down. I am not, as you know, a
+superstitious man."
+
+"You certainly are not."
+
+"And yet, I never in all my life was so absolutely staggered as I have
+been by the occurrences of to-night."
+
+"Say on."
+
+"There is a frightful, a hideous solution of them; one which every
+consideration will tend to add strength to, one which I tremble to name
+now, although, yesterday, at this hour, I should have laughed it to
+scorn."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, it is so. Tell no one that which I am about to say to you. Let the
+dreadful suggestion remain with ourselves alone, Henry Bannerworth."
+
+"I--I am lost in wonder."
+
+"You promise me?"
+
+"What--what?"
+
+"That you will not repeat my opinion to any one."
+
+"I do."
+
+"On your honour."
+
+"On my honour, I promise."
+
+Mr. Marchdale rose, and proceeding to the door, he looked out to see
+that there were no listeners near. Having ascertained then that they
+were quite alone, he returned, and drawing a chair close to that on
+which Henry sat, he said,--
+
+"Henry, have you never heard of a strange and dreadful superstition
+which, in some countries, is extremely rife, by which it is supposed
+that there are beings who never die."
+
+"Never die!"
+
+"Never. In a word, Henry, have you never heard of--of--I dread to
+pronounce the word."
+
+"Speak it. God of Heaven! let me hear it."
+
+"A _vampyre_!"
+
+Henry sprung to his feet. His whole frame quivered with emotion; the
+drops of perspiration stood upon his brow, as, in, a strange, hoarse
+voice, he repeated the words,--
+
+"A vampyre!"
+
+"Even so; one who has to renew a dreadful existence by human blood--one
+who lives on for ever, and must keep up such a fearful existence upon
+human gore--one who eats not and drinks not as other men--a vampyre."
+
+Henry dropped into his seat, and uttered a deep groan of the most
+exquisite anguish.
+
+"I could echo that groan," said Marchdale, "but that I am so thoroughly
+bewildered I know not what to think."
+
+"Good God--good God!"
+
+"Do not too readily yield belief in so dreadful a supposition, I pray
+you."
+
+"Yield belief!" exclaimed Henry, as he rose, and lifted up one of his
+hands above his head. "No; by Heaven, and the great God of all, who
+there rules, I will not easily believe aught so awful and so monstrous."
+
+"I applaud your sentiment, Henry; not willingly would I deliver up
+myself to so frightful a belief--it is too horrible. I merely have told
+you of that which you saw was on my mind. You have surely before heard
+of such things."
+
+"I have--I have."
+
+"I much marvel, then, that the supposition did not occur to you, Henry."
+
+"It did not--it did not, Marchdale. It--it was too dreadful, I suppose,
+to find a home in my heart. Oh! Flora, Flora, if this horrible idea
+should once occur to you, reason cannot, I am quite sure, uphold you
+against it."
+
+"Let no one presume to insinuate it to her, Henry. I would not have it
+mentioned to her for worlds."
+
+"Nor I--nor I. Good God! I shudder at the very thought--the mere
+possibility; but there is no possibility, there can be none. I will not
+believe it."
+
+"Nor I."
+
+"No; by Heaven's justice, goodness, grace, and mercy, I will not believe
+it."
+
+"Tis well sworn, Henry; and now, discarding the supposition that Flora
+has been visited by a vampyre, let us seriously set about endeavouring,
+if we can, to account for what has happened in this house."
+
+"I--I cannot now."
+
+"Nay, let us examine the matter; if we can find any natural explanation,
+let us cling to it, Henry, as the sheet-anchor of our very souls."
+
+"Do you think. You are fertile in expedients. Do you think, Marchdale;
+and, for Heaven's sake, and for the sake of our own peace, find out some
+other way of accounting for what has happened, than the hideous one you
+have suggested."
+
+"And yet my pistol bullets hurt him not; he has left the tokens of his
+presence on the neck of Flora."
+
+"Peace, oh! peace. Do not, I pray you, accumulate reasons why I should
+receive such a dismal, awful superstition. Oh, do not, Marchdale, as you
+love me!"
+
+"You know that my attachment to you," said Marchdale, "is sincere; and
+yet, Heaven help us!"
+
+His voice was broken by grief as he spoke, and he turned aside his head
+to hide the bursting tears that would, despite all his efforts, show
+themselves in his eyes.
+
+"Marchdale," added Henry, after a pause of some moments' duration, "I
+will sit up to-night with my sister."
+
+"Do--do!"
+
+"Think you there is a chance it may come again?"
+
+"I cannot--I dare not speculate upon the coming of so dreadful a
+visitor, Henry; but I will hold watch with you most willingly."
+
+"You will, Marchdale?"
+
+"My hand upon it. Come what dangers may, I will share them with you,
+Henry."
+
+"A thousand thanks. Say nothing, then, to George of what we have been
+talking about. He is of a highly susceptible nature, and the very idea
+of such a thing would kill him."
+
+"I will; be mute. Remove your sister to some other chamber, let me beg
+of you, Henry; the one she now inhabits will always be suggestive of
+horrible thoughts."
+
+"I will; and that dreadful-looking portrait, with its perfect likeness
+to him who came last night."
+
+"Perfect indeed. Do you intend to remove it?"
+
+"I do not. I thought of doing so; but it is actually on the panel in the
+wall, and I would not willingly destroy it, and it may as well remain
+where it is in that chamber, which I can readily now believe will become
+henceforward a deserted one in this house."
+
+"It may well become such."
+
+"Who comes here? I hear a step."
+
+There was a tip at the door at this moment, and George made his
+appearance in answer to the summons to come in. He looked pale and ill;
+his face betrayed how much he had mentally suffered during that night,
+and almost directly he got into the bed-chamber he said,--
+
+"I shall, I am sure, be censured by you both for what I am going to say;
+but I cannot help saying it, nevertheless, for to keep it to myself
+would destroy me."
+
+"Good God, George! what is it?" said Mr. Marchdale.
+
+"Speak it out!" said Henry.
+
+"I have been thinking of what has occurred here, and the result of that
+thought has been one of the wildest suppositions that ever I thought I
+should have to entertain. Have you never heard of a vampyre?"
+
+Henry sighed deeply, and Marchdale was silent.
+
+"I say a vampyre," added George, with much excitement in his manner. "It
+is a fearful, a horrible supposition; but our poor, dear Flora has been
+visited by a vampyre, and I shall go completely mad!"
+
+He sat down, and covering his face with his hands, he wept bitterly and
+abundantly.
+
+"George," said Henry, when he saw that the frantic grief had in some
+measure abated--"be calm, George, and endeavour to listen to me."
+
+"I hear, Henry."
+
+"Well, then, do not suppose that you are the only one in this house to
+whom so dreadful a superstition has occurred."
+
+"Not the only one?"
+
+"No; it has occurred to Mr. Marchdale also."
+
+"Gracious Heaven!"
+
+"He mentioned it to me; but we have both agreed to repudiate it with
+horror."
+
+"To--repudiate--it?"
+
+"Yes, George."
+
+"And yet--and yet--"
+
+"Hush, hush! I know what you would say. You would tell us that our
+repudiation of it cannot affect the fact. Of that we are aware; but yet
+will we disbelieve that which a belief in would be enough to drive us
+mad."
+
+"What do you intend to do?"
+
+"To keep this supposition to ourselves, in the first place; to guard it
+most zealously from the ears of Flora."
+
+"Do you think she has ever heard of vampyres?"
+
+"I never heard her mention that in all her reading she had gathered even
+a hint of such a fearful superstition. If she has, we must be guided by
+circumstances, and do the best we can."
+
+"Pray Heaven she may not!"
+
+"Amen to that prayer, George," said Henry. "Mr. Marchdale and I intend
+to keep watch over Flora to-night."
+
+"May not I join you?"
+
+"Your health, dear George, will not permit you to engage in such
+matters. Do you seek your natural repose, and leave it to us to do the
+best we can in this most fearful and terrible emergency."
+
+"As you please, brother, and as you please, Mr. Marchdale. I know I am a
+frail reed, and my belief is that this affair will kill me quite. The
+truth is, I am horrified--utterly and frightfully horrified. Like my
+poor, dear sister, I do not believe I shall ever sleep again."
+
+"Do not fancy that, George," said Marchdale. "You very much add to the
+uneasiness which must be your poor mother's portion, by allowing this
+circumstance to so much affect you. You well know her affection for you
+all, and let me therefore, as a very old friend of hers, entreat you to
+wear as cheerful an aspect as you can in her presence."
+
+"For once in my life," said George, sadly, "I will; to my dear mother,
+endeavour to play the hypocrite."
+
+"Do so," said Henry. "The motive will sanction any such deceit as that,
+George, be assured."
+
+The day wore on, and Poor Flora remained in a very precarious situation.
+It was not until mid-day that Henry made up his mind he would call in a
+medical gentleman to her, and then he rode to the neighbouring
+market-town, where he knew an extremely intelligent practitioner
+resided. This gentleman Henry resolved upon, under a promise of secrecy,
+makings confidant of; but, long before he reached him, he found he might
+well dispense with the promise of secrecy.
+
+He had never thought, so engaged had he been with other matters, that
+the servants were cognizant of the whole affair, and that from them he
+had no expectation of being able to keep the whole story in all its
+details. Of course such an opportunity for tale-bearing and gossiping
+was not likely to be lost; and while Henry was thinking over how he had
+better act in the matter, the news that Flora Bannerworth had been
+visited in the night by a vampyre--for the servants named the visitation
+such at once--was spreading all over the county.
+
+As he rode along, Henry met a gentleman on horseback who belonged to the
+county, and who, reining in his steed, said to him,
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Bannerworth."
+
+"Good morning," responded Henry, and he would have ridden on, but the
+gentleman added,--
+
+"Excuse me for interrupting you, sir; but what is the strange story that
+is in everybody's mouth about a vampyre?"
+
+Henry nearly fell off his horse, he was so much astonished, and,
+wheeling the animal around, he said,--
+
+"In everybody's mouth!"
+
+"Yes; I have heard it from at least a dozen persons."
+
+"You surprise me."
+
+"It is untrue? Of course I am not so absurd as really to believe about
+the vampyre; but is there no foundation at all for it? We generally find
+that at the bottom of these common reports there is a something around
+which, as a nucleus, the whole has formed."
+
+"My sister is unwell."
+
+"Ah, and that's all. It really is too bad, now."
+
+"We had a visitor last night."
+
+"A thief, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, yes--I believe a thief. I do believe it was a thief, and she was
+terrified."
+
+"Of course, and upon such a thing is grafted a story of a vampyre, and
+the marks of his teeth being in her neck, and all the circumstantial
+particulars."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Bannerworth."
+
+Henry bade the gentleman good morning, and much vexed at the publicity
+which the affair had already obtained, he set spurs to his horse,
+determined that he would speak to no one else upon so uncomfortable a
+theme. Several attempts were made to stop him, but he only waved his
+hand and trotted on, nor did he pause in his speed till he reached the
+door of Mr. Chillingworth, the medical man whom he intended to consult.
+
+Henry knew that at such a time he would be at home, which was the case,
+and he was soon closeted with the man of drugs. Henry begged his patient
+hearing, which being accorded, he related to him at full length what had
+happened, not omitting, to the best of his remembrance, any one
+particular. When he had concluded his narration, the doctor shifted his
+position several times, and then said,--
+
+"That's all?"
+
+"Yes--and enough too."
+
+"More than enough, I should say, my young friend. You astonish me."
+
+"Can you form any supposition, sir, on the subject?"
+
+"Not just now. What is your own idea?"
+
+"I cannot be said to have one about it. It is too absurd to tell you
+that my brother George is impressed with a belief a vampyre has visited
+the house."
+
+"I never in all my life heard a more circumstantial narrative in favour
+of so hideous a superstition."
+
+"Well, but you cannot believe--"
+
+"Believe what?"
+
+"That the dead can come to life again, and by such a process keep up
+vitality."
+
+"Do you take me for a fool?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Then why do you ask me such questions?"
+
+"But the glaring facts of the case."
+
+"I don't care if they were ten times more glaring, I won't believe it. I
+would rather believe you were all mad, the whole family of you--that at
+the full of the moon you all were a little cracked."
+
+"And so would I."
+
+"You go home now, and I will call and see your sister in the course of
+two hours. Something may turn up yet, to throw some new light upon this
+strange subject."
+
+With this understanding Henry went home, and he took care to ride as
+fast as before, in order to avoid questions, so that he got back to his
+old ancestral home without going through the disagreeable ordeal of
+having to explain to any one what had disturbed the peace of it.
+
+When Henry reached his home, he found that the evening was rapidly
+coming on, and before he could permit himself to think upon any other
+subject, he inquired how his terrified sister had passed the hours
+during his absence.
+
+He found that but little improvement had taken place in her, and that
+she had occasionally slept, but to awaken and speak incoherently, as if
+the shock she had received had had some serious affect upon her nerves.
+He repaired at once to her room, and, finding that she was awake, he
+leaned over her, and spoke tenderly to her.
+
+"Flora," he said, "dear Flora, you are better now?"
+
+"Harry, is that you?"
+
+"Yes, dear."
+
+"Oh, tell me what has happened?"
+
+"Have you not a recollection, Flora?"
+
+"Yes, yes, Henry; but what was it? They none of them will tell me what
+it was, Henry."
+
+"Be calm, dear. No doubt some attempt to rob the house."
+
+"Think you so?"
+
+"Yes; the bay window was peculiarly adapted for such a purpose; but now
+that you are removed here to this room, you will be able to rest in
+peace."
+
+"I shall die of terror, Henry. Even now those eyes are glaring on me so
+hidiously. Oh, it is fearful--it is very fearful, Henry. Do you not pity
+me, and no one will promise to remain with me at night."
+
+"Indeed, Flora, you are mistaken, for I intend to sit by your bedside
+armed, and so preserve you from all harm."
+
+She clutched his hand eagerly, as she said,--
+
+"You will, Henry. You will, and not think it too much trouble, dear
+Henry."
+
+"It can be no trouble, Flora."
+
+"Then I shall rest in peace, for I know that the dreadful vampyre cannot
+come to me when you are by-"
+
+"The what, Flora!"
+
+"The vampyre, Henry. It was a vampyre."
+
+"Good God, who told you so?"
+
+"No one. I have read of them in the book of travels in Norway, which Mr.
+Marchdale lent us all."
+
+"Alas, alas!" groaned Henry. "Discard, I pray you, such a thought from
+your mind."
+
+"Can we discard thoughts. What power have we but from that mind, which
+is ourselves?"
+
+"True, true."
+
+"Hark, what noise is that? I thought I heard a noise. Henry, when you
+go, ring for some one first. Was there not a noise?"
+
+"The accidental shutting of some door, dear."
+
+"Was it that?"
+
+"It was."
+
+"Then I am relieved. Henry, I sometimes fancy I am in the tomb, and that
+some one is feasting on my flesh. They do say, too, that those who in
+life have been bled by a vampyre, become themselves vampyres, and have
+the same horrible taste for blood as those before them. Is it not
+horrible?"
+
+"You only vex yourself by such thoughts, Flora. Mr. Chillingworth is
+coming to see you."
+
+"Can he minister to a mind diseased?"
+
+"But yours is not, Flora. Your mind is healthful, and so, although his
+power extends not so far, we will thank Heaven, dear Flora, that you
+need it not."
+
+She sighed deeply, as she said,--
+
+"Heaven help me! I know not, Henry. The dreadful being held on by my
+hair. I must have it all taken off. I tried to get away, but it dragged
+me back--a brutal thing it was. Oh, then at that moment, Henry, I felt
+as if something strange took place in my brain, and that I was going
+mad! I saw those glazed eyes close to, mine--I felt a hot, pestiferous
+breath upon my face--help--help!"
+
+"Hush! my Flora, hush! Look at me."
+
+"I am calm again. It fixed its teeth in my throat. Did I faint away?"
+
+"You did, dear; but let me pray you to refer all this to imagination; or
+at least the greater part of it."
+
+"But you saw it."
+
+"Yes--"
+
+"All saw it."
+
+"We all saw some man--a housebreaker--It must have been some
+housebreaker. What more easy, you know, dear Flora, than to assume some
+such disguise?"
+
+"Was anything stolen?"
+
+"Not that I know of; but there was an alarm, you know."
+
+Flora shook her head, as she said, in a low voice,--
+
+"That which came here was more than mortal. Oh, Henry, if it had but
+killed me, now I had been happy; but I cannot live--I hear it breathing
+now."
+
+"Talk of something else, dear Flora," said the much distressed Henry;
+"you will make yourself much worse, if you indulge yourself in these
+strange fancies."
+
+"Oh, that they were but fancies!"
+
+"They are, believe me."
+
+"There is a strange confusion in my brain, and sleep comes over me
+suddenly, when I least expect it. Henry, Henry, what I was, I shall
+never, never be again."
+
+"Say not so. All this will pass away like a dream, and leave so faint a
+trace upon your memory, that the time will come when you will wonder it
+ever made so deep an impression on your mind."
+
+"You utter these words, Henry," she said, "but they do not come from
+your heart. Ah, no, no, no! Who comes?"
+
+The door was opened by Mrs. Bannerworth, who said,--
+
+"It is only me, my dear. Henry, here is Dr. Chillingworth in the
+dining-room."
+
+Henry turned to Flora, saying,--
+
+"You will see him, dear Flora? You know Mr. Chillingworth well."
+
+"Yes, Henry, yes, I will see him, or whoever you please."
+
+"Shew Mr. Chillingworth up," said Henry to the servant.
+
+In a few moments the medical man was in the room, and he at once
+approached the bedside to speak to Flora, upon whose pale countenance he
+looked with evident interest, while at the same time it seemed mingled
+with a painful feeling--at least so his own face indicated.
+
+"Well, Miss Bannerworth," he said, "what is all this I hear about an
+ugly dream you have had?"
+
+"A dream?" said Flora, as she fixed her beautiful eyes on his face.
+
+"Yes, as I understand."
+
+She shuddered, and was silent.
+
+"Was it not a dream, then?" added Mr. Chillingworth.
+
+She wrung her hands, and in a voice of extreme anguish and pathos,
+said,--
+
+"Would it were a dream--would it were a dream! Oh, if any one could but
+convince me it was a dream!"
+
+"Well, will you tell me what it was?"
+
+"Yes, sir, it was a vampyre."
+
+Mr. Chillingworth glanced at Henry, as he said, in reply to Flora's
+words,--
+
+"I suppose that is, after all, another name, Flora, for the nightmare?"
+
+"No--no--no!"
+
+"Do you really, then, persist in believing anything so absurd, Miss
+Bannerworth?"
+
+"What can I say to the evidence of my own senses?" she replied. "I saw
+it, Henry saw it, George saw, Mr. Marchdale, my mother--all saw it. We
+could not all be at the same time the victims of the same delusion."
+
+"How faintly you speak."
+
+"I am very faint and ill."
+
+"Indeed. What wound is that on your neck?"
+
+A wild expression came over the face of Flora; a spasmodic action of the
+muscles, accompanied with a shuddering, as if a sudden chill had come
+over the whole mass of blood took place, and she said,--
+
+"It is the mark left by the teeth of the vampyre."
+
+The smile was a forced one upon the face of Mr. Chillingworth.
+
+"Draw up the blind of the window, Mr. Henry," he said, "and let me
+examine this puncture to which your sister attaches so extraordinary a
+meaning."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The blind was drawn up, and a strong light was thrown into the room. For
+full two minutes Mr. Chillingworth attentively examined the two small
+wounds in the neck of Flora. He took a powerful magnifying glass from
+his pocket, and looked at them through it, and after his examination was
+concluded, he said,--
+
+"They are very trifling wounds, indeed."
+
+"But how inflicted?" said Henry.
+
+"By some insect, I should say, which probably--it being the season for
+many insects--has flown in at the window."
+
+"I know the motive," said Flora "which prompts all these suggestions it
+is a kind one, and I ought to be the last to quarrel with it; but what I
+have seen, nothing can make me believe I saw not, unless I am, as once
+or twice I have thought myself, really mad."
+
+"How do you now feel in general health?"
+
+"Far from well; and a strange drowsiness at times creeps over me. Even
+now I feel it."
+
+She sunk back on the pillows as she spoke and closed her eyes with a
+deep sigh.
+
+Mr. Chillingworth beckoned Henry to come with him from the room, but the
+latter had promised that he would remain with Flora; and as Mrs.
+Bannerworth had left the chamber because she was unable to control her
+feelings, he rang the bell, and requested that his mother would come.
+
+She did so, and then Henry went down stairs along with the medical man,
+whose opinion he was certainly eager to be now made acquainted with.
+
+As soon as they were alone in an old-fashioned room which was called the
+oak closet, Henry turned to Mr. Chillingworth, and said,--
+
+"What, now, is your candid opinion, sir? You have seen my sister, and
+those strange indubitable evidences of something wrong."
+
+"I have; and to tell you candidly the truth, Mr. Henry, I am sorely
+perplexed."
+
+"I thought you would be."
+
+"It is not often that a medical man likes to say so much, nor is it,
+indeed, often prudent that he should do so, but in this case I own I am
+much puzzled. It is contrary to all my notions upon all such subjects."
+
+"Those wounds, what do you think of them?"
+
+"I know not what to think. I am completely puzzled as regards them."
+
+"But, but do they not really bear the appearance of being bites?"
+
+"They really do."
+
+"And so far, then, they are actually in favour of the dreadful
+supposition which poor Flora entertains."
+
+"So far they certainly are. I have no doubt in the world of their being
+bites; but we not must jump to a conclusion that the teeth which
+inflicted them were human. It is a strange case, and one which I feel
+assured must give you all much uneasiness, as, indeed, it gave me; but,
+as I said before, I will not let my judgment give in to the fearful and
+degrading superstition which all the circumstances connected with this
+strange story would seem to justify."
+
+"It is a degrading superstition."
+
+"To my mind your sister seems to be labouring under the effect of some
+narcotic."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; unless she really has lost a quantity of blood, which loss has
+decreased the heart's action sufficiently to produce the languor under
+which she now evidently labours."
+
+"Oh, that I could believe the former supposition, but I am confident she
+has taken no narcotic; she could not even do so by mistake, for there is
+no drug of the sort in the house. Besides, she is not heedless by any
+means. I am quite convinced she has not done so."
+
+"Then I am fairly puzzled, my young friend, and I can only say that I
+would freely have given half of what I am worth to see that figure you
+saw last night."
+
+"What would you have done?"
+
+"I would not have lost sight of it for the world's wealth."
+
+"You would have felt your blood freeze with horror. The face was
+terrible."
+
+"And yet let it lead me where it liked I would have followed it."
+
+"I wish you had been here."
+
+"I wish to Heaven I had. If I though there was the least chance of
+another visit I would come and wait with patience every night for a
+month."
+
+"I cannot say," replied Henry. "I am going to sit up to-night with my
+sister, and I believe, our friend Mr. Marchdale will share my watch with
+me."
+
+Mr. Chillingworth appeared to be for a few moments lost in thought, and
+then suddenly rousing himself, as if he found it either impossible to
+come to any rational conclusion upon the subject, or had arrived at one
+which he chose to keep to himself, he said,--
+
+"Well, well, we must leave the matter at present as it stands. Time may
+accomplish something towards its development, but at present so palpable
+a mystery I never came across, or a matter in which human calculation
+was so completely foiled."
+
+"Nor I--nor I."
+
+"I will send you some medicines, such as I think will be of service to
+Flora, and depend upon seeing me by ten o'clock to-morrow morning."
+
+"You have, of course, heard something," said Henry to the doctor, as he
+was pulling on his gloves, "about vampyres."
+
+"I certainly have, and I understand that in some countries, particularly
+Norway and Sweden, the superstition is a very common one."
+
+"And in the Levant."
+
+"Yes. The ghouls of the Mahometans are of the same description of
+beings. All that I have heard of the European vampyre has made it a
+being which can be killed, but is restored to life again by the rays of
+a full moon falling on the body."
+
+"Yes, yes, I have heard as much."
+
+"And that the hideous repast of blood has to be taken very frequently,
+and that if the vampyre gets it not he wastes away, presenting the
+appearance of one in the last stage of a consumption, and visibly, so to
+speak, dying."
+
+"That is what I have understood."
+
+"To-night, do you know, Mr. Bannerworth, is the full of the moon."
+
+Henry started.
+
+"If now you had succeeded in killing--. Pshaw, what am I saying. I
+believe I am getting foolish, and that the horrible superstition is
+beginning to fasten itself upon me as well as upon all of you. How
+strangely the fancy will wage war with the judgment in such a way as
+this."
+
+"The full of the moon," repeated Henry, as he glanced towards the
+window, "and the night is near at hand."
+
+"Banish these thoughts from your mind," said the doctor, "or else, my
+young friend, you will make yourself decidedly ill. Good evening to you,
+for it is evening. I shall see you to-morrow morning."
+
+Mr. Chillingworth appeared now to be anxious to go, and Henry no longer
+opposed his departure; but when he was gone a sense of great loneliness
+came over him.
+
+"To-night," he repeated, "is the full of the moon. How strange that this
+dreadful adventure should have taken place just the night before. 'Tis
+very strange. Let me see--let me see."
+
+He took from the shelves of a book case the work which Flora had
+mentioned, entitled, "Travels in Norway," in which work he found some
+account of the popular belief in vampyres.
+
+He opened the work at random, and then some of the leaves turned over of
+themselves to a particular place, as the leaves of a book will
+frequently do when it has been kept open a length of time at that part,
+and the binding stretched there more than anywhere else. There was a
+note at the bottom of one of the pages at this part of the book, and
+Henry read as follows:--
+
+"With regard to these vampyres, it is believed by those who are inclined
+to give credence to so dreadful a superstition, that they always
+endeavour to make their feast of blood, for the revival of their bodily
+powers, on some evening immediately preceding a full moon, because if
+any accident befal them, such as being shot, or otherwise killed or
+wounded, they can recover by lying down somewhere where the full moon's
+rays will fall upon them."
+
+Henry let the book drop from his hands with a groan and a shudder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE NIGHT WATCH.--THE PROPOSAL.--THE MOONLIGHT.--THE FEARFUL ADVENTURE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A kind of stupefaction came over Henry Bannerworth, and he sat for about
+a quarter of an hour scarcely conscious of where he was, and almost
+incapable of anything in the shape of rational thought. It was his
+brother, George, who roused him by saying, as he laid his hand upon his
+shoulder,--
+
+"Henry, are you asleep?"
+
+Henry had not been aware of his presence, and he started up as if he had
+been shot.
+
+"Oh, George, is it you?" he said.
+
+"Yes, Henry, are you unwell?"
+
+"No, no; I was in a deep reverie."
+
+"Alas! I need not ask upon what subject," said George, sadly. "I sought
+you to bring you this letter."
+
+"A letter to me?"
+
+"Yes, you see it is addressed to you, and the seal looks as if it came
+from someone of consequence."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, Henry. Read it, and see from whence it comes."
+
+There was just sufficient light by going to the window to enable Henry
+to read the letter, which he did aloud.
+
+It ran thus:--
+
+     "Sir Francis Varney presents his compliments to Mr. Beaumont, and
+     is much concerned to hear that some domestic affliction has
+     fallen upon him. Sir Francis hopes that the genuine and loving
+     sympathy of a neighbour will not be regarded as an intrusion, and
+     begs to proffer any assistance or counsel that may be within the
+     compass of his means.
+
+     "Ratford Abbey."
+
+"Sir Francis Varney!" said Henry, "who is he?"
+
+"Do you not remember, Henry," said George, "we were told a few days ago,
+that a gentleman of that name had become the purchaser of the estate of
+Ratford Abbey."
+
+"Oh, yes, yes. Have you seen him?"
+
+"I have not."
+
+"I do not wish to make any new acquaintance, George. We are very
+poor--much poorer indeed than the general appearance of this place,
+which, I fear, we shall soon have to part with, would warrant any one
+believing. I must, of course, return a civil answer to this gentleman,
+but it must be such as one as shall repress familiarity."
+
+"That will be difficult to do while we remain here, when we come to
+consider the very close proximity of the two properties, Henry."
+
+"Oh, no, not at all. He will easily perceive that we do not want to make
+acquaintance with him, and then, as a gentleman, which doubtless he is,
+he will give up the attempt."
+
+"Let it be so, Henry. Heaven knows I have no desire to form any new
+acquaintance with any one, and more particularly under our present
+circumstances of depression. And now, Henry, you must permit me, as I
+have had some repose, to share with you your night watch in Flora's
+room."
+
+"I would advise you not, George; your health, you know, is very far from
+good."
+
+"Nay, allow me. If not, then the anxiety I shall suffer will do me more
+harm than the watchfulness I shall keep up in her chamber."
+
+This was an argument which Henry felt himself the force of too strongly
+not to admit it in the case of George, and he therefore made no further
+opposition to his wish to make one in the night watch.
+
+"There will be an advantage," said George, "you see, in three of us
+being engaged in this matter, because, should anything occur, two can
+act together, and yet Flora may not be left alone."
+
+"True, true, that is a great advantage."
+
+Now a soft gentle silvery light began to spread itself over the heavens.
+The moon was rising, and as the beneficial effects of the storm of the
+preceding evening were still felt in the clearness of the air, the rays
+appeared to be more lustrous and full of beauty than they commonly were.
+
+Each moment the night grew lighter, and by the time the brothers were
+ready to take their places in the chamber of Flora, the moon had risen
+considerably.
+
+Although neither Henry nor George had any objection to the company of
+Mr. Marchdale, yet they gave him the option, and rather in fact urged
+him not to destroy his night's repose by sitting up with them; but he
+said,--
+
+"Allow me to do so; I am older, and have calmer judgment than you can
+have. Should anything again appear, I am quite resolved that it shall
+not escape me."
+
+"What would you do?"
+
+"With the name of God upon my lips," said Mr. Marchdale, solemnly, "I
+would grapple with it."
+
+"You laid hands upon it last night."
+
+"I did, and have forgotten to show you what I tore from it. Look
+here,--what should you say this was?"
+
+He produced a piece of cloth, on which was an old-fashioned piece of
+lace, and two buttons. Upon a close inspection, this appeared to be a
+portion of the lapel of a coat of ancient times, and suddenly, Henry,
+with a look of intense anxiety, said,--
+
+"This reminds me of the fashion of garments very many years ago, Mr.
+Marchdale."
+
+"It came away in my grasp as if rotten and incapable of standing any
+rough usage."
+
+"What a strange unearthly smell it has!"
+
+"Now you mention it yourself," added Mr. Marchdale, "I must confess it
+smells to me as if it had really come from the very grave."
+
+"It does--it does. Say nothing of this relic of last night's work to any
+one."
+
+"Be assured I shall not. I am far from wishing to keep up in any one's
+mind proofs of that which I would fain, very fain refute."
+
+Mr. Marchdale replaced the portion of the coat which the figure had worn
+in his pocket, and then the whole three proceeded to the chamber of
+Flora.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was within a very few minutes of midnight, the moon had climbed high
+in the heavens, and a night of such brightness and beauty had seldom
+shown itself for a long period of time.
+
+Flora slept, and in her chamber sat the two brothers and Mr. Marchdale,
+silently, for she had shown symptoms of restlessness, and they much
+feared to break the light slumber into which she had fallen.
+
+Occasionally they had conversed in whispers, which could not have the
+effect of rousing her, for the room, although smaller than the one she
+had before occupied, was still sufficiently spacious to enable them to
+get some distance from the bed.
+
+Until the hour of midnight now actually struck, they were silent, and
+when the last echo of the sounds had died away, a feeling of uneasiness
+came over them, which prompted some conversation to get rid of it.
+
+"How bright the moon is now," said Henry, in a low tone.
+
+"I never saw it brighter," replied Marchdale. "I feel as if I were
+assured that we shall not to-night be interrupted."
+
+"It was later than this," said Henry.
+
+"It was--it was."
+
+"Do not then yet congratulate us upon no visit."
+
+"How still the house is!" remarked George; "it seems to me as if I had
+never found it so intensely quiet before."
+
+"It is very still."
+
+"Hush! she moves."
+
+Flora moaned in her sleep, and made a slight movement. The curtains were
+all drawn closely round the bed to shield her eyes from the bright
+moonlight which streamed into the room so brilliantly. They might have
+closed the shutters of the window, but this they did not like to do, as
+it would render their watch there of no avail at all, inasmuch as they
+would not be able to see if any attempt was made by any one to obtain
+admittance.
+
+A quarter of an hour longer might have thus passed when Mr. Marchdale
+said in a whisper,--
+
+"A thought has just struck me that the piece of coat I have, which I
+dragged from the figure last night, wonderfully resembles in colour and
+appearance the style of dress of the portrait in the room which Flora
+lately slept in."
+
+"I thought of that," said Henry, "when first I saw it; but, to tell the
+honest truth, I dreaded to suggest any new proof connected with last
+night's visitation."
+
+"Then I ought not to have drawn your attention to it," said Mr.
+Marchdale, "and regret I have done so."
+
+"Nay, do not blame yourself on such an account," said Henry. "You are
+quite right, and it is I who am too foolishly sensitive. Now, however,
+since you have mentioned it, I must own I have a great desire to test
+the accuracy of the observation by a comparison with the portrait."
+
+"That may easily be done."
+
+"I will remain here," said George, "in case Flora awakens, while you two
+go if you like. It is but across the corridor."
+
+Henry immediately rose, saying--
+
+"Come, Mr. Marchdale, come. Let us satisfy ourselves at all events upon
+this point at once. As George says it is only across the corridor, and
+we can return directly."
+
+"I am willing," said Mr. Marchdale, with a tone of sadness.
+
+There was no light needed, for the moon stood suspended in a cloudless
+sky, so that from the house being a detached one, and containing
+numerous windows, it was as light as day.
+
+Although the distance from one chamber to the other was only across the
+corridor, it was a greater space than these words might occupy, for the
+corridor was wide, neither was it directly across, but considerably
+slanting. However, it was certainly sufficiently close at hand for any
+sound of alarm from one chamber to reach another without any difficulty.
+
+A few moments sufficed to place Henry and Mr. Marchdale in that antique
+room, where, from the effect of the moonlight which was streaming over
+it, the portrait on the panel looked exceedingly life like.
+
+And this effect was probably the greater because the rest of the room
+was not illuminated by the moon's rays, which came through a window in
+the corridor, and then at the open door of that chamber upon the
+portrait.
+
+Mr. Marchdale held the piece of cloth he had close to the dress of the
+portrait, and one glance was sufficient to show the wonderful likeness
+between the two.
+
+"Good God!" said Henry, "it is the same."
+
+Mr. Marchdale dropped the piece of cloth and trembled.
+
+"This fact shakes even your scepticism," said Henry.
+
+"I know not what to make of it."
+
+"I can tell you something which bears upon it. I do not know if you are
+sufficiently aware of my family history to know that this one of my
+ancestors, I wish I could say worthy ancestors, committed suicide, and
+was buried in his clothes."
+
+"You--you are sure of that?"
+
+"Quite sure."
+
+"I am more and more bewildered as each moment some strange corroborative
+fact of that dreadful supposition we so much shrink from seems to come
+to light and to force itself upon our attention."
+
+There was a silence of a few moments duration, and Henry had turned
+towards Mr. Marchdale to say something, when the cautious tread of a
+footstep was heard in the garden, immediately beneath that balcony.
+
+A sickening sensation came over Henry, and he was compelled to lean
+against the wall for support, as in scarcely articulate accents he
+said--
+
+"The vampyre--the vampyre! God of heaven, it has come once again!"
+
+"Now, Heaven inspire us with more than mortal courage," cried Mr.
+Marchdale, and he dashed open the window at once, and sprang into the
+balcony.
+
+Henry in a moment recovered himself sufficiently to follow him, and when
+he reached his side in the balcony, Marchdale said, as he pointed
+below,--
+
+"There is some one concealed there."
+
+"Where--where?"
+
+"Among the laurels. I will fire a random shot, and we may do some
+execution."
+
+"Hold!" said a voice from below; "don't do any such thing, I beg of
+you."
+
+"Why, that is Mr. Chillingworth's voice," cried Henry.
+
+"Yes, and it's Mr. Chillingworth's person, too," said the doctor, as he
+emerged from among some laurel bushes.
+
+"How is this?" said Marchdale.
+
+"Simply that I made up my mind to keep watch and ward to-night outside
+here, in the hope of catching the vampyre. I got into here by climbing
+the gate."
+
+"But why did you not let me know?" said Henry.
+
+"Because I did not know myself, my young friend, till an hour and a half
+ago."
+
+"Have you seen anything?"
+
+"Nothing. But I fancied I heard something in the park outside the wall."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"What say you, Henry," said Mr. Marchdale, "to descending and taking a
+hasty examination of the garden and grounds?"
+
+"I am willing; but first allow me to speak to George, who otherwise
+might be surprised at our long absence."
+
+Henry walked rapidly to the bed chamber of Flora, and he said to
+George,--
+
+"Have you any objection to being left alone here for about half an hour,
+George, while we make an examination of the garden?"
+
+"Let me have some weapon and I care not. Remain here while I fetch a
+sword from my own room."
+
+Henry did so, and when George returned with a sword, which he always
+kept in his bed-room, he said,--
+
+"Now go, Henry. I prefer a weapon of this description to pistols much.
+Do not be longer gone than necessary."
+
+"I will not, George, be assured."
+
+George was then left alone, and Henry returned to the balcony, where Mr.
+Marchdale was waiting for him. It was a quicker mode of descending to
+the garden to do so by clambering over the balcony than any other, and
+the height was not considerable enough to make it very objectionable, so
+Henry and Mr. Marchdale chose that way of joining Mr. Chillingworth.
+
+"You are, no doubt, much surprised at finding me here," said the doctor;
+"but the fact is, I half made up my mind to come while I was here; but I
+had not thoroughly done so, therefore I said nothing to you about it."
+
+"We are much indebted to you," said Henry, "for making the attempt."
+
+"I am prompted to it by a feeling of the strongest curiosity."
+
+"Are you armed, sir?" said Marchdale.
+
+"In this stick," said the doctor, "is a sword, the exquisite temper of
+which I know I can depend upon, and I fully intended to run through any
+one whom I saw that looked in the least of the vampyre order."
+
+"You would have done quite right," replied Mr. Marchdale. "I have a
+brace of pistols here, loaded with ball; will you take one, Henry, if
+you please, and then we shall be all armed."
+
+Thus, then, prepared for any exigency, they made the whole round of the
+house; but found all the fastenings secure, and everything as quiet as
+possible.
+
+"Suppose, now, we take a survey of the park outside the garden wall,"
+said Mr. Marchdale.
+
+This was agreed to; but before they had proceeded far, Mr. Marchdale
+said,--
+
+"There is a ladder lying on the wall; would it not be a good plan to
+place it against the very spot the supposed vampyre jumped over last
+night, and so, from a more elevated position, take a view of the open
+meadows. We could easily drop down on the outer side, if we saw anything
+suspicious."
+
+"Not a bad plan," said the doctor. "Shall we do it?"
+
+"Certainly," said Henry; and they accordingly carried the ladder, which
+had been used for pruning the trees, towards the spot at the end of the
+long walk, at which the vampyre had made good, after so many fruitless
+efforts, his escape from the premises.
+
+They made haste down the long vista of trees until they reached the
+exact spot, and then they placed the ladder as near as possible, exactly
+where Henry, in his bewilderment on the evening before, had seen the
+apparition from the grave spring to.
+
+"We can ascend singly," said Marchdale; "but there is ample space for us
+all there to sit on the top of the wall and make our observations."
+
+This was seen to be the case, and in about a couple of minutes they had
+taken up their positions on the wall, and, although the height was but
+trifling, they found that they had a much more extensive view than they
+could have obtained by any other means.
+
+"To contemplate the beauty of such a night as this," said Mr.
+Chillingworth, "is amply sufficient compensation for coming the distance
+I have."
+
+"And who knows," remarked Marchdale, "we may yet see something which may
+throw a light upon our present perplexities God knows that I would give
+all I can call mine in the world to relieve you and your sister, Henry
+Bannerworth, from the fearful effect which last night's proceedings
+cannot fail to have upon you."
+
+"Of that I am well assured, Mr. Marchdale," said Henry. "If the
+happiness of myself and family depended upon you, we should be happy
+indeed."
+
+"You are silent, Mr. Chillingworth," remarked Marchdale, after a slight
+pause.
+
+"Hush!" said Mr. Chillingworth--"hush--hush!"
+
+"Good God, what do you hear?" cried Henry.
+
+The doctor laid his hand upon Henry's arm as he said,--
+
+"There is a young lime tree yonder to the right."
+
+"Yes--yes."
+
+"Carry your eye from it in a horizontal line, as near as you can,
+towards the wood."
+
+Henry did so, and then he uttered a sudden exclamation of surprise, and
+pointed to a rising spot of ground, which was yet, in consequence of the
+number of tall trees in its vicinity, partially enveloped in shadow.
+
+"What is that?" he said.
+
+"I see something," said Marchdale. "By Heaven! it is a human form lying
+stretched there."
+
+"It is--as if in death."
+
+"What can it be?" said Chillingworth.
+
+"I dread to say," replied Marchdale; "but to my eyes, even at this
+distance, it seems like the form of him we chased last night."
+
+"The vampyre?"
+
+"Yes--yes. Look, the moonbeams touch him. Now the shadows of the trees
+gradually recede. God of Heaven! the figure moves."
+
+Henry's eyes were riveted to that fearful object, and now a scene
+presented itself which filled them all with wonder and astonishment,
+mingled with sensations of the greatest awe and alarm.
+
+As the moonbeams, in consequence of the luminary rising higher and
+higher in the heavens, came to touch this figure that lay extended on
+the rising ground, a perceptible movement took place in it. The limbs
+appeared to tremble, and although it did not rise up, the whole body
+gave signs of vitality.
+
+"The vampyre--the vampyre!" said Mr. Marchdale. "I cannot doubt it now.
+We must have hit him last night with the pistol bullets, and the
+moonbeams are now restoring him to a new life."
+
+Henry shuddered, and even Mr. Chillingworth turned pale. But he was the
+first to recover himself sufficiently to propose some course of action,
+and he said,--
+
+"Let us descend and go up to this figure. It is a duty we owe to
+ourselves as much as to society."
+
+"Hold a moment," said Mr. Marchdale, as he produced a pistol. "I am an
+unerring shot, as you well know, Henry. Before we move from this
+position we now occupy, allow me to try what virtue may be in a bullet
+to lay that figure low again."
+
+"He is rising!" exclaimed Henry.
+
+Mr. Marchdale levelled the pistol--he took a sure and deliberate aim,
+and then, just as the figure seemed to be struggling to its feet, he
+fired, and, with a sudden bound, it fell again.
+
+"You have hit it," said Henry.
+
+"You have indeed," exclaimed the doctor. "I think we can go now."
+
+"Hush!" said Marchdale--"Hush! Does it not seem to you that, hit it as
+often as you will, the moonbeams will recover it?"
+
+"Yes--yes," said Henry, "they will--they will."
+
+"I can endure this no longer," said Mr. Chillingworth, as he sprung from
+the wall. "Follow me or not, as you please, I will seek the spot where
+this being lies."
+
+"Oh, be not rash," cried Marchdale. "See, it rises again, and its form
+looks gigantic."
+
+"I trust in Heaven and a righteous cause," said the doctor, as he drew
+the sword he had spoken of from the stick, and threw away the scabbard.
+"Come with me if you like, or I go alone."
+
+Henry at once jumped down from the wall, and then Marchdale followed
+him, saying,--
+
+"Come on; I will not shrink."
+
+They ran towards the piece of rising ground; but before they got to it,
+the form rose and made rapidly towards a little wood which was in the
+immediate neighbourhood of the hillock.
+
+"It is conscious of being pursued," cried the doctor. "See how it
+glances back, and then increases its speed."
+
+"Fire upon it, Henry," said Marchdale.
+
+He did so; but either his shot did not take effect, or it was quite
+unheeded if it did, by the vampyre, which gained the wood before they
+could have a hope of getting sufficiently near it to effect, or
+endeavour to effect, a capture.
+
+"I cannot follow it there," said Marchdale. "In open country I would
+have pursued it closely; but I cannot follow it into the intricacies of
+a wood."
+
+"Pursuit is useless there," said Henry. "It is enveloped in the deepest
+gloom."
+
+"I am not so unreasonable," remarked Mr. Chillingworth, "as to wish you
+to follow into such a place as that. I am confounded utterly by this
+affair."
+
+"And I," said Marchdale. "What on earth is to be done?"
+
+"Nothing--nothing!" exclaimed Henry, vehemently; "and yet I have,
+beneath the canopy of Heaven, declared that I will, so help me God!
+spare neither time nor trouble in the unravelling of this most fearful
+piece of business. Did either of you remark the clothing which this
+spectral appearance wore?"
+
+"They were antique clothes," said Mr. Chillingworth, "such as might have
+been fashionable a hundred years ago, but not now."
+
+"Such was my impression," added Marchdale.
+
+"And such my own," said Henry, excitedly. "Is it at all within the
+compass of the wildest belief that what we have seen is a vampyre, and
+no other than my ancestor who, a hundred years ago, committed suicide?"
+
+There was so much intense excitement, and evidence of mental suffering,
+that Mr. Chillingworth took him by the arm, saying,--
+
+"Come home--come home; no more of this at present; you will but make
+yourself seriously unwell."
+
+"No--no--no."
+
+"Come home now, I pray you; you are by far too much excited about this
+matter to pursue it with the calmness which should be brought to bear
+upon it."
+
+"Take advice, Henry," said Marchdale, "take advice, and come home at
+once."
+
+"I will yield to you; I feel that I cannot control my own feelings--I
+will yield to you, who, as you say, are cooler on this subject than I
+can be. Oh, Flora, Flora, I have no comfort to bring to you now."
+
+Poor Henry Bannerworth appeared to be in a complete state of mental
+prostration, on account of the distressing circumstances that had
+occurred so rapidly and so suddenly in his family, which had had quite
+enough to contend with without having superadded to every other evil the
+horror of believing that some preternatural agency was at work to
+destroy every hope of future happiness in this world, under any
+circumstances.
+
+He suffered himself to be led home by Mr. Chillingworth and Marchdale;
+he no longer attempted to dispute the dreadful fact concerning the
+supposed vampyre; he could not contend now against all the corroborating
+circumstances that seemed to collect together for the purpose of proving
+that which, even when proved, was contrary to all his notions of Heaven,
+and at variance with all that was recorded and established is part and
+parcel of the system of nature.
+
+"I cannot deny," he said, when they had reached home, "that such things
+are possible; but the probability will not bear a moment's
+investigation."
+
+"There are more things," said Marchdale, solemnly, "in Heaven, and on
+earth, than are dreamed of in our philosophy."
+
+"There are indeed, it appears," said Mr. Chillingworth.
+
+"And are you a convert?" said Henry, turning to him.
+
+"A convert to what?"
+
+"To a belief in--in--these vampyres?"
+
+"I? No, indeed; if you were to shut me up in a room full of vampyres, I
+would tell them all to their teeth that I defied them."
+
+"But after what we have seen to-night?"
+
+"What have we seen?"
+
+"You are yourself a witness."
+
+"True; I saw a man lying down, and then I saw a man get up; he seemed
+then to be shot, but whether he was or not he only knows; and then I saw
+him walk off in a desperate hurry. Beyond that, I saw nothing."
+
+"Yes; but, taking such circumstances into combination with others, have
+you not a terrible fear of the truth of the dreadful appearance?"
+
+"No--no; on my soul, no. I will die in my disbelief of such an outrage
+upon Heaven as one of these creatures would most assuredly be."
+
+"Oh! that I could think like you; but the circumstance strikes too
+nearly to my heart."
+
+"Be of better cheer, Henry--be of better cheer," said Marchdale; "there
+is one circumstance which we ought to consider, it is that, from all we
+have seen, there seems to be some things which would favour an opinion,
+Henry, that your ancestor, whose portrait hangs in the chamber which was
+occupied by Flora, is the vampyre."
+
+"The dress was the same," said Henry.
+
+"I noted it was."
+
+"And I."
+
+"Do you not, then, think it possible that something might be done to set
+that part of the question at rest?"
+
+"What--what?"
+
+"Where is your ancestor buried?"
+
+"Ah! I understand you now."
+
+"And I," said Mr. Chillingworth; "you would propose a visit to his
+mansion?"
+
+"I would," added Marchdale; "anything that may in any way tend to assist
+in making this affair clearer, and divesting it of its mysterious
+circumstances, will be most desirable."
+
+Henry appeared to rouse for some moments and then he said,--
+
+"He, in common with many other members of the family, no doubt occupies
+place in the vault under the old church in the village."
+
+"Would it be possible," asked Marchdale, "to get into that vault without
+exciting general attention?"
+
+"It would," said Henry; "the entrance to the vault is in the flooring of
+the pew which belongs to the family in the old church."
+
+"Then it could be done?" asked Mr. Chillingworth.
+
+"Most undoubtedly."
+
+"Will you under take such an adventure?" said Mr. Chillingworth. "It may
+ease your mind."
+
+"He was buried in the vault, and in his clothes," said Henry, musingly;
+"I will think of it. About such a proposition I would not decide
+hastily. Give me leave to think of it until to-morrow."
+
+"Most certainly."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+They now made their way to the chamber of Flora, and they heard from
+George that nothing of an alarming character had occurred to disturb him
+on his lonely watch. The morning was now again dawning, and Henry
+earnestly entreated Mr. Marchdale to go to bed, which he did, leaving
+the two brothers to continue as sentinels by Flora's bed side, until the
+morning light should banish all uneasy thoughts.
+
+Henry related to George what had taken place outside the house, and the
+two brothers held a long and interesting conversation for some hours
+upon that subject, as well as upon others of great importance to their
+welfare. It was not until the sun's early rays came glaring in at the
+casement that they both rose, and thought of awakening Flora, who had
+now slept soundly for so many hours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A GLANCE AT THE BANNERWORTH FAMILY.--THE PROBABLE CONSEQUENCES OF THE
+MYSTERIOUS APPARITION'S APPEARANCE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Having thus far, we hope, interested our readers in the fortunes of a
+family which had become subject to so dreadful a visitation, we trust
+that a few words concerning them, and the peculiar circumstances in
+which they are now placed, will not prove altogether out of place, or
+unacceptable. The Bannerworth family then were well known in the part of
+the country where they resided. Perhaps, if we were to say they were
+better known by name than they were liked, on account of that name, we
+should be near the truth, for it had unfortunately happened that for a
+very considerable time past the head of the family had been the very
+worst specimen of it that could be procured. While the junior branches
+were frequently amiable and most intelligent, and such in mind and
+manner as were calculated to inspire goodwill in all who knew them, he
+who held the family property, and who resided in the house now occupied
+by Flora and her brothers, was a very so--so sort of character.
+
+This state of things, by some strange fatality, had gone on for nearly a
+hundred years, and the consequence was what might have been fairly
+expected, namely--that, what with their vices and what with their
+extravagances, the successive heads of the Bannerworth family had
+succeeded in so far diminishing the family property that, when it came
+into the hands of Henry Bannerworth, it was of little value, on account
+of the numerous encumbrances with which it was saddled.
+
+The father of Henry had not been a very brilliant exception to the
+general rule, as regarded the head of the family. If he were not quite
+so bad as many of his ancestors, that gratifying circumstance was to be
+accounted for by the supposition that he was not quite so bold, and that
+the change in habits, manners, and laws, which had taken place in a
+hundred years, made it not so easy for even a landed proprietor to play
+the petty tyrant.
+
+He had, to get rid of those animal spirits which had prompted many of
+his predecessors to downright crimes, had recourse to the gaming-table,
+and, after raising whatever sums he could upon the property which
+remained, he naturally, and as might have been fully expected, lost them
+all.
+
+He was found lying dead in the garden of the house one day, and by his
+side was his pocket-book, on one leaf of which, it was the impression of
+the family, he had endeavoured to write something previous to his
+decease, for he held a pencil firmly in his grasp.
+
+The probability was that he had felt himself getting ill, and, being
+desirous of making some communication to his family which pressed
+heavily upon his mind, he had attempted to do so, but was stopped by the
+too rapid approach of the hand of death.
+
+For some days previous to his decease, his conduct had been extremely
+mysterious. He had announced an intention of leaving England for
+ever--of selling the house and grounds for whatever they would fetch
+over and above the sums for which they were mortgaged, and so clearing
+himself of all encumbrances.
+
+He had, but a few hours before he was found lying dead, made the
+following singular speech to Henry,--
+
+"Do not regret, Henry, that the old house which has been in our family
+so long is about to be parted with. Be assured that, if it is but for
+the first time in my life, I have good and substantial reasons now for
+what I am about to do. We shall be able to go some other country, and
+there live like princes of the land."
+
+Where the means were to come from to live like a prince, unless Mr.
+Bannerworth had some of the German princes in his eye, no one knew but
+himself, and his sudden death buried with him that most important
+secret.
+
+There were some words written on the leaf of his pocket-book, but they
+were of by far too indistinct and ambiguous a nature to lead to
+anything. They were these:--
+
+"The money is ----------"
+
+And then there was a long scrawl of the pencil, which seemed to have
+been occasioned by his sudden decease.
+
+Of course nothing could be made of these words, except in the way of a
+contradiction as the family lawyer said, rather more facetiously than a
+man of law usually speaks, for if he had written "The money is not," he
+would have been somewhere remarkably near the truth.
+
+However, with all his vices he was regretted by his children, who chose
+rather to remember him in his best aspect than to dwell upon his faults.
+
+For the first time then, within the memory of man, the head of the
+family of the Bannerworths was a gentleman, in every sense of the word.
+Brave, generous, highly educated, and full of many excellent and noble
+qualities--for such was Henry, whom we have introduced to our readers
+under such distressing circumstances.
+
+And now, people said, that the family property having been all
+dissipated and lost, there would take place a change, and that the
+Bannerworths would have to take to some course of honourable industry
+for a livelihood, and that then they would be as much respected as they
+had before been detested and disliked.
+
+Indeed, the position which Henry held was now a most precarious one--for
+one of the amazingly clever acts of his father had been to encumber the
+property with overwhelming claims, so that when Henry administered to
+the estate, it was doubted almost by his attorney if it were at all
+desirable to do so.
+
+An attachment, however, to the old house of his family, had induced the
+young man to hold possession of it as long as he could, despite any
+adverse circumstance which might eventually be connected with it.
+
+Some weeks, however, only after the decease of his father, and when he
+fairly held possession, a sudden and a most unexpected offer came to him
+from a solicitor in London, of whom he knew nothing, to purchase the
+house and grounds, for a client of his, who had instructed him so to do,
+but whom he did not mention.
+
+The offer made was a liberal one, and beyond the value of the place.
+The lawyer who had conducted Henry's affairs for him since his father's
+decease, advised him by all means to take it; but after a consultation
+with his mother and sister, and George, they all resolved to hold by
+their own house as long as they could, and, consequently, he refused the
+offer.
+
+He was then asked to let the place, and to name his own price for the
+occupation of it; but that he would not do: so the negotiation went off
+altogether, leaving only, in the minds of the family, much surprise at
+the exceeding eagerness of some one, whom they knew not, to get
+possession of the place on any terms.
+
+There was another circumstance perhaps which materially aided in
+producing a strong feeling on the minds of the Bannerworths, with regard
+to remaining where they were.
+
+That circumstance occurred thus: a relation of the family, who was now
+dead, and with whom had died all his means, had been in the habit, for
+the last half dozen years of his life, of sending a hundred pounds to
+Henry, for the express purpose of enabling him and his brother George
+and his sifter Flora to take a little continental or home tour, in the
+autumn of the year.
+
+A more acceptable present, or for a more delightful purpose, to young
+people, could not be found; and, with the quiet, prudent habits of all
+three of them, they contrived to go far and to see much for the sum
+which was thus handsomely placed at their disposal.
+
+In one of those excursions, when among the mountains of Italy, an
+adventure occurred which placed the life of Flora in imminent hazard.
+
+They were riding along a narrow mountain path, and, her horse slipping,
+she fell over the ledge of a precipice.
+
+In an instant, a young man, a stranger to the whole party, who was
+travelling in the vicinity, rushed to the spot, and by his knowledge and
+exertions, they felt convinced her preservation was effected.
+
+He told her to lie quiet; he encouraged her to hope for immediate
+succour; and then, with much personal exertion, and at immense risk to
+himself, he reached the ledge of rock on which she lay, and then he
+supported her until the brothers had gone to a neighbouring house,
+which, bye-the-bye, was two good English miles off, and got assistance.
+
+There came on, while they were gone, a terrific storm, and Flora felt
+that but for him who was with her she must have been hurled from the
+rock, and perished in an abyss below, which was almost too deep for
+observation.
+
+Suffice it to say that she was rescued; and he who had, by his
+intrepidity, done so much towards saving her, was loaded with the most
+sincere and heartfelt acknowledgments by the brothers as well as by
+herself.
+
+He frankly told them that his name was Holland; that he was travelling
+for amusement and instruction, and was by profession an artist.
+
+He travelled with them for some time; and it was not at all to be
+wondered at, under the circumstances, that an attachment of the
+tenderest nature should spring up between him and the beautiful girl,
+who felt that she owed to him her life.
+
+Mutual glances of affection were exchanged between them, and it was
+arranged that when he returned to England, he should come at once as an
+honoured guest to the house of the family of the Bannerworths.
+
+All this was settled satisfactorily with the full knowledge and
+acquiescence of the two brothers, who had taken a strange attachment to
+the young Charles Holland, who was indeed in every way likely to
+propitiate the good opinion of all who knew him.
+
+Henry explained to him exactly how they were situated, and told him that
+when he came he would find a welcome from all, except possibly his
+father, whose wayward temper he could not answer for.
+
+Young Holland stated that he was compelled to be away for a term of two
+years, from certain family arrangements he had entered into, and that
+then he would return and hope to meet Flora unchanged as he should be.
+
+It happened that this was the last of the continental excursions of the
+Bannerworths, for, before another year rolled round, the generous
+relative who had supplied them with the means of making such delightful
+trips was no more; and, likewise, the death of the father had occurred
+in the manner we have related, so that there was no chance as had been
+anticipated and hoped for by Flora, of meeting Charles Holland on the
+continent again, before his two years of absence from England should be
+expired.
+
+Such, however, being the state of things, Flora felt reluctant to give
+up the house, where he would be sure to come to look for her, and her
+happiness was too dear to Henry to induce him to make any sacrifice of
+it to expediency.
+
+Therefore was it that Bannerworth Hall, as it was sometimes called, was
+retained, and fully intended to be retained at all events until after
+Charles Holland had made his appearance, and his advice (for he was, by
+the young people, considered as one of the family) taken, with regard to
+what was advisable to be done.
+
+With one exception this was the state of affairs at the hall, and that
+exception relates to Mr. Marchdale.
+
+He was a distant relation of Mrs. Bannerworth, and, in early life, had
+been sincerely and tenderly attached to her. She, however, with the want
+of steady reflection of a young girl, as she then was, had, as is
+generally the case among several admirers, chosen the very worst: that
+is, the man who treated her with the most indifference, and who paid her
+the least attention, was of course, thought the most of, and she gave
+her hand to him.
+
+That man was Mr. Bannerworth. But future experience had made her
+thoroughly awake to her former error; and, but for the love she bore her
+children, who were certainly all that a mother's heart could wish, she
+would often have deeply regretted the infatuation which had induced her
+to bestow her hand in the quarter she had done so.
+
+About a month after the decease of Mr. Bannerworth, there came one to
+the hall, who desired to see the widow. That one was Mr. Marchdale.
+
+It might have been some slight tenderness towards him which had never
+left her, or it might be the pleasure merely of seeing one whom she had
+known intimately in early life, but, be that as it may, she certainly
+gave him a kindly welcome; and he, after consenting to remain for some
+time as a visitor at the hall, won the esteem of the whole family by his
+frank demeanour and cultivated intellect.
+
+He had travelled much and seen much, and he had turned to good account
+all he had seen, so that not only was Mr. Marchdale a man of sterling
+sound sense, but he was a most entertaining companion.
+
+His intimate knowledge of many things concerning which they knew little
+or nothing; his accurate modes of thought, and a quiet, gentlemanly
+demeanour, such as is rarely to be met with, combined to make him
+esteemed by the Bannerworths. He had a small independence of his own,
+and being completely alone in the world, for he had neither wife nor
+child, Marchdale owned that he felt a pleasure in residing with the
+Bannerworths.
+
+Of course he could not, in decent terms, so far offend them as to offer
+to pay for his subsistence, but he took good care that they should
+really be no losers by having him as an inmate, a matter which he could
+easily arrange by little presents of one kind and another, all of which
+he managed should be such as were not only ornamental, but actually
+spared his kind entertainers some positive expense which otherwise they
+must have gone to.
+
+Whether or not this amiable piece of manoeuvring was seen through by the
+Bannerworths it is not our purpose to inquire. If it was seen through,
+it could not lower him in their esteem, for it was probably just what
+they themselves would have felt a pleasure in doing under similar
+circumstances, and if they did not observe it, Mr. Marchdale would,
+probably, be all the better pleased.
+
+Such then may be considered by our readers as a brief outline of the
+state of affairs among the Bannerworths--a state which was pregnant with
+changes, and which changes were now likely to be rapid and conclusive.
+
+How far the feelings of the family towards the ancient house of their
+race would be altered by the appearance at it of so fearful a visitor as
+a vampyre, we will not stop to inquire, inasmuch as such feelings will
+develop themselves as we proceed.
+
+That the visitation had produced a serious effect upon all the household
+was sufficiently evident, as well among the educated as among the
+ignorant. On the second morning, Henry received notice to quit his
+service from the three servants he with difficulty had contrived to keep
+at the hall. The reason why he received such notice he knew well enough,
+and therefore he did not trouble himself to argue about a superstition
+to which he felt now himself almost, compelled to give way; for how
+could he say there was no such thing as a vampyre, when he had, with his
+own eyes, had the most abundant evidence of the terrible fact?
+
+He calmly paid the servants, and allowed them to leave him at once
+without at all entering into the matter, and, for the time being, some
+men were procured, who, however, came evidently with fear and trembling,
+and probably only took the place, on account of not being able, to
+procure any other. The comfort of the household was likely to be
+completely put an end to, and reasons now for leaving the hall appeared
+to be most rapidly accumulating.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE VISIT TO THE VAULT OF THE BANNERWORTHS, AND ITS UNPLEASANT
+RESULT.--THE MYSTERY.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Henry and his brother roused Flora, and after agreeing together that it
+would be highly imprudent to say anything to her of the proceedings of
+the night, they commenced a conversation with her in encouraging and
+kindly accents.
+
+"Well, Flora," said Henry, "you see you have been quite undisturbed
+to-night."
+
+"I have slept long, dear Henry."
+
+"You have, and pleasantly too, I hope."
+
+"I have not had any dreams, and I feel much refreshed, now, and quite
+well again."
+
+"Thank Heaven!" said George.
+
+"If you will tell dear mother that I am awake, I will get up with her
+assistance."
+
+The brothers left the room, and they spoke to each other of it as a
+favourable sign, that Flora did not object to being left alone now, as
+she had done on the preceding morning.
+
+"She is fast recovering, now, George," said Henry. "If we could now but
+persuade ourselves that all this alarm would pass away, and that we
+should hear no more of it, we might return to our old and comparatively
+happy condition."
+
+"Let us believe, Henry, that we shall."
+
+"And yet, George, I shall not be satisfied in my mind, until I have paid
+a visit."
+
+"A visit? Where?"
+
+"To the family vault."
+
+"Indeed, Henry! I thought you had abandoned that idea."
+
+"I had. I have several times abandoned it; but it comes across my mind
+again and again."
+
+"I much regret it."
+
+"Look you, George; as yet, everything that has happened has tended to
+confirm a belief in this most horrible of all superstitions concerning
+vampyres."
+
+"It has."
+
+"Now, my great object, George, is to endeavour to disturb such a state
+of things, by getting something, however slight, or of a negative
+character, for the mind to rest upon on the other side of the question."
+
+"I comprehend you, Henry."
+
+"You know that at present we are not only led to believe, almost
+irresistibly that we have been visited here by a vampyre but that that
+vampyre is our ancestor, whose portrait is on the panel of the wall of
+the chamber into which he contrived to make his way."
+
+"True, most true."
+
+"Then let us, by an examination of the family vault, George, put an end
+to one of the evidences. If we find, as most surely we shall, the coffin
+of the ancestor of ours, who seems, in dress and appearance, so horribly
+mixed up in this affair, we shall be at rest on that head."
+
+"But consider how many years have elapsed."
+
+"Yes, a great number."
+
+"What then, do you suppose, could remain of any corpse placed in a vault
+so long ago?"
+
+"Decomposition must of course have done its work, but still there must
+be a something to show that a corpse has so undergone the process common
+to all nature. Double the lapse of time surely could not obliterate all
+traces of that which had been."
+
+"There is reason in that, Henry."
+
+"Besides, the coffins are all of lead, and some of stone, so that they
+cannot have all gone."
+
+"True, most true."
+
+"If in the one which, from the inscription and the date, we discover to
+be that of our ancestor whom we seek, we find the evident remains of a
+corpse, we shall be satisfied that he has rested in his tomb in peace."
+
+"Brother, you seem bent on this adventure," said George; "if you go, I
+will accompany you."
+
+"I will not engage rashly in it, George. Before I finally decide, I will
+again consult with Mr. Marchdale. His opinion will weigh much with me."
+
+"And in good time, here he comes across the garden," said George, as he
+looked from the window of the room in which they sat.
+
+It was Mr. Marchdale, and the brothers warmly welcomed him as he entered
+the apartment.
+
+"You have been early afoot," said Henry.
+
+"I have," he said. "The fact is, that although at your solicitation I
+went to bed, I could not sleep, and I went out once more to search about
+the spot where we had seen the--the I don't know what to call it, for I
+have a great dislike to naming it a vampyre."
+
+"There is not much in a name," said George.
+
+"In this instance there is," said Marchdale. "It is a name suggestive of
+horror."
+
+"Made you any discovery?" said Henry.
+
+"None whatever."
+
+"You saw no trace of any one?"
+
+"Not the least."
+
+"Well, Mr. Marchdale, George and I were talking over this projected
+visit to the family vault."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And we agreed to suspend our judgments until we saw you, and learned
+your opinion."
+
+"Which I will tell you frankly," said Mr. Marchdale, "because I know you
+desire it freely."
+
+"Do so."
+
+"It is, that you make the visit."
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Yes, and for this reason. You have now, as you cannot help having, a
+disagreeable feeling, that you may find that one coffin is untenanted.
+Now, if you do find it so, you scarcely make matters worse, by an
+additional confirmation of what already amounts to a strong supposition,
+and one which is likely to grow stronger by time."
+
+"True, most true."
+
+"On the contrary, if you find indubitable proofs that your ancestor has
+slept soundly in the tomb, and gone the way of all flesh, you will find
+yourselves much calmer, and that an attack is made upon the train of
+events which at present all run one way."
+
+"That is precisely the argument I was using to George," said Henry, "a
+few moments since."
+
+"Then let us go," said George, "by all means."
+
+"It is so decided then," said Henry.
+
+"Let it be done with caution," replied Mr. Marchdale.
+
+"If any one can manage it, of course we can."
+
+"Why should it not be done secretly and at night? Of course we lose
+nothing by making a night visit to a vault into which daylight, I
+presume, cannot penetrate."
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Then let it be at night."
+
+"But we shall surely require the concurrence of some of the church
+authorities."
+
+"Nay, I do not see that," interposed Mr. Marchdale. "It is the vault
+actually vested in and belonging to yourself you wish to visit, and,
+therefore, you have right to visit it in any manner or at any time that
+may be most suitable to yourself."
+
+"But detection in a clandestine visit might produce unpleasant
+consequences."
+
+"The church is old," said George, "and we could easily find means of
+getting into it. There is only one objection that I see, just now, and
+that is, that we leave Flora unprotected."
+
+"We do, indeed," said Henry. "I did not think of that."
+
+"It must be put to herself, as a matter for her own consideration," said
+Mr. Marchdale, "if she will consider herself sufficiently safe with the
+company and protection of your mother only."
+
+"It would be a pity were we not all three present at the examination of
+the coffin," remarked Henry.
+
+"It would, indeed. There is ample evidence," said Mr. Marchdale, "but we
+must not give Flora a night of sleeplessness and uneasiness on that
+account, and the more particularly as we cannot well explain to her
+where we are going, or upon what errand."
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Let us talk to her, then, about it," said Henry. "I confess I am much
+bent upon the plan, and fain would not forego it; neither should I like
+other than that we three should go together."
+
+"If you determine, then, upon it," said Marchdale, "we will go to-night;
+and, from your acquaintance with the place, doubtless you will be able
+to decide what tools are necessary."
+
+"There is a trap-door at the bottom of the pew," said Henry; "it is not
+only secured down, but it is locked likewise, and I have the key in my
+possession."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; immediately beneath is a short flight of stone steps, which
+conduct at once into the vault."
+
+"Is it large?"
+
+"No; about the size of a moderate chamber, and with no intricacies about
+it."
+
+"There can be no difficulties, then."
+
+"None whatever, unless we meet with actual personal interruption, which
+I am inclined to think is very far from likely. All we shall require
+will be a screwdriver, with which to remove the screws, and then
+something with which to wrench open the coffin."
+
+"Those we can easily provide, along with lights," remarked Mr.
+Marchdale.
+
+"I hope to Heaven that this visit to the tomb will have the effect of
+easing your minds, and enabling you to make a successful stand against
+the streaming torrent of evidence that has poured in upon us regarding
+this most fearful of apparitions."
+
+"I do, indeed, hope so," added Henry; "and now I will go at once to
+Flora, and endeavour to convince her she is safe without us to-night."
+
+"By-the-bye, I think," said Marchdale, "that if we can induce Mr.
+Chillingworth to come with us, it will be a great point gained in the
+investigation."
+
+"He would," said Henry, "be able to come to an accurate decision with
+respect to the remains--if any--in the coffin, which we could not."
+
+"Then have him, by all means," said George. "He did not seem averse last
+night to go on such an adventure."
+
+"I will ask him when he makes his visit this morning upon Flora; and
+should he not feel disposed to join us, I am quite sure he will keep the
+secret of our visit."
+
+All this being arranged, Henry proceeded to Flora, and told her that he
+and George, and Mr. Marchdale wished to go out for about a couple of
+hours in the evening after dark, if she felt sufficiently well to feel a
+sense of security without them.
+
+Flora changed colour, and slightly trembled, and then, as if ashamed of
+her fears, she said,--
+
+"Go, go; I will not detain you. Surely no harm can come to me in
+presence of my mother."
+
+"We shall not be gone longer than the time I mention to you," said
+Henry.
+
+"Oh, I shall be quite content. Besides, am I to be kept thus in fear all
+my life? Surely, surely not. I ought, too, to learn to defend myself."
+
+Henry caught at the idea, as he said,--
+
+"If fire-arms were left you, do you think you would have courage to use
+them?"
+
+"I do, Henry."
+
+"Then you shall have them; and let me beg of you to shoot any one
+without the least hesitation who shall come into your chamber."
+
+"I will, Henry. If ever human being was justified in the use of deadly
+weapons, I am now. Heaven protect me from a repetition of the visit to
+which I have now been once subjected. Rather, oh, much rather would I
+die a hundred deaths than suffer what I have suffered."
+
+"Do not allow it, dear Flora, to press too heavily upon your mind in
+dwelling upon it in conversation. I still entertain a sanguine
+expectation that something may arise to afford a far less dreadful
+explanation of what has occurred than what you have put upon it. Be of
+good cheer, Flora, we shall go one hour after sunset, and return in
+about two hours from the time at which we leave here, you may be
+assured."
+
+Notwithstanding this ready and courageous acquiescence of Flora in the
+arrangement, Henry was not without his apprehension that when the night
+should come again, her fears would return with it; but he spoke to Mr.
+Chillingworth upon the subject, and got that gentleman's ready consent
+to accompany them.
+
+He promised to meet them at the church porch exactly at nine o'clock,
+and matters were all arranged, and Henry waited with much eagerness and
+anxiety now for the coming night, which he hoped would dissipate one of
+the fearful deductions which his imagination had drawn from recent
+circumstances.
+
+He gave to Flora a pair of pistols of his own, upon which he knew he
+could depend, and he took good care to load them well, so that there
+could be no likelihood whatever of their missing fire at a critical
+moment.
+
+"Now, Flora," he said, "I have seen you use fire-arms when you were much
+younger than you are now, and therefore I need give you no instructions.
+If any intruder does come, and you do fire, be sure you take a good aim,
+and shoot low."
+
+"I will, Henry, I will; and you will be back in two hours?"
+
+"Most assuredly I will."
+
+The day wore on, evening came, and then deepened into night. It turned
+out to be a cloudy night, and therefore the moon's brilliance was
+nothing near equal to what it had been on the preceding night Still,
+however, it had sufficient power over the vapours that frequently
+covered it for many minutes together, to produce a considerable light
+effect upon the face of nature, and the night was consequently very far,
+indeed, from what might be called a dark one.
+
+George, Henry, and Marchdale, met in one of the lower rooms of the
+house, previous to starting upon their expedition; and after satisfying
+themselves that they had with them all the tools that were necessary,
+inclusive of the same small, but well-tempered iron crow-bar with which
+Marchdale had, on the night of the visit of the vampyre, forced open the
+door of Flora's chamber, they left the hall, and proceeded at a rapid
+pace towards the church.
+
+"And Flora does not seem much alarmed," said Marchdale, "at being left
+alone?"
+
+"No," replied Henry, "she has made up her mind with a strong natural
+courage which I knew was in her disposition to resist as much as
+possible the depressing effects of the awful visitation she has
+endured."
+
+"It would have driven some really mad."
+
+"It would, indeed; and her own reason tottered on its throne, but, thank
+Heaven, she has recovered."
+
+"And I fervently hope that, through her life," added Marchdale, "she may
+never have such another trial."
+
+"We will not for a moment believe that such a thing can occur twice."
+
+"She is one among a thousand. Most young girls would never at all have
+recovered the fearful shock to the nerves."
+
+"Not only has she recovered," said Henry, "but a spirit, which I am
+rejoiced to see, because it is one which will uphold her, of resistance
+now possesses her."
+
+"Yes, she actually--I forgot to tell you before--but she actually asked
+me for arms to resist any second visitation."
+
+"You much surprise me."
+
+"Yes, I was surprised, as well as pleased, myself."
+
+"I would have left her one of my pistols had I been aware of her having
+made such a request. Do you know if she can use fire-arms?"
+
+"Oh, yes; well."
+
+"What a pity. I have them both with me."
+
+"Oh, she is provided."
+
+"Provided?"
+
+"Yes; I found some pistols which I used to take with me on the
+continent, and she has them both well loaded, so that if the vampyre
+makes his appearance, he is likely to meet with rather a warm
+reception."
+
+"Good God! was it not dangerous?"
+
+"Not at all, I think."
+
+"Well, you know best, certainly, of course. I hope the vampyre may come,
+and that we may have the pleasure, when we return, of finding him dead.
+By-the-bye, I--I--. Bless me, I have forgot to get the materials for
+lights, which I pledged myself to do."
+
+"How unfortunate."
+
+"Walk on slowly, while I run back and get them."
+
+"Oh, we are too far--"
+
+"Hilloa!" cried a man at this moment, some distance in front of them.
+
+"It is Mr. Chillingworth," said Henry.
+
+"Hilloa," cried the worthy doctor again. "Is that you, my friend, Henry
+Bannerworth?"
+
+"It is," cried Henry.
+
+Mr. Chillingworth now came up to them and said,--
+
+"I was before my time, so rather than wait at the church porch, which
+would have exposed me to observation perhaps, I thought it better to
+walk on, and chance meeting with you."
+
+"You guessed we should come this way?'
+
+"Yes, and so it turns out, really. It is unquestionably your most direct
+route to the church."
+
+"I think I will go back," said Mr Marchdale.
+
+"Back!" exclaimed the doctor; "what for?"
+
+"I forgot the means of getting lights. We have candles, but no means of
+lighting them."
+
+"Make yourselves easy on that score," said Mr. Chillingworth. "I am
+never without some chemical matches of my own manufacture, so that as
+you have the candles, that can be no bar to our going on a once."
+
+"That is fortunate," said Henry.
+
+"Very," added Marchdale; "for it seems a mile's hard walking for me, or
+at least half a mile from the hall. Let us now push on."
+
+They did push on, all four walking at a brisk pace. The church, although
+it belonged to the village, was not in it. On the contrary, it was
+situated at the end of a long lane, which was a mile nearly from the
+village, in the direction of the hall, therefore, in going to it from
+the hall, that amount of distance was saved, although it was always
+called and considered the village church.
+
+It stood alone, with the exception of a glebe house and two cottages,
+that were occupied by persons who held situations about the sacred
+edifice, and who were supposed, being on the spot, to keep watch and
+ward over it.
+
+It was an ancient building of the early English style of architecture,
+or rather Norman, with one of those antique, square, short towers, built
+of flint stones firmly embedded in cement, which, from time, had
+acquired almost the consistency of stone itself. There were numerous
+arched windows, partaking something of the more florid gothic style,
+although scarcely ornamental enough to be called such. The edifice stood
+in the centre of a grave-yard, which extended over a space of about half
+an acre, and altogether it was one of the prettiest and most rural old
+churches within many miles of the spot.
+
+Many a lover of the antique and of the picturesque, for it was both,
+went out of his way while travelling in the neighbourhood to look at it,
+and it had an extensive and well-deserved reputation as a fine specimen
+of its class and style of building.
+
+In Kent, to the present day, are some fine specimens of the old Roman
+style of church, building; and, although they are as rapidly pulled down
+as the abuse of modern architects, and the cupidity of speculators, and
+the vanity of clergymen can possibly encourage, in older to erect
+flimsy, Italianised structures in their stead, yet sufficient of them
+remain dotted over England to interest the traveller. At Walesden there
+is a church of this description which will well repay a visit. This,
+then, was the kind of building into which it was the intention of our
+four friends to penetrate, not on an unholy, or an unjustifiable errand,
+but on one which, proceeding from good and proper motives, it was highly
+desirable to conduct in as secret a manner as possible.
+
+The moon was more densely covered by clouds than it had yet been that
+evening, when they reached the little wicket-gate which led into the
+churchyard, through which was a regularly used thoroughfare.
+
+"We have a favourable night," remarked Henry, "for we are not so likely
+to be disturbed."
+
+"And now, the question is, how are we to get in?" said Mr.
+Chillingworth, as he paused, and glanced up at the ancient building.
+
+"The doors," said George, "would effectually resist us."
+
+"How can it be done, then?"
+
+"The only way I can think of," said Henry, "is to get out one of the
+small diamond-shaped panes of glass from one of the low windows, and
+then we can one of us put in our hands, and undo the fastening, which is
+very simple, when the window opens like a door, and it is but a step
+into the church."
+
+"A good way," said Marchdale. "We will lose no time."
+
+They walked round the church till they came to a very low window indeed,
+near to an angle of the wall, where a huge abutment struck far out into
+the burial-ground.
+
+"Will you do it, Henry?" said George.
+
+"Yes. I have often noticed the fastenings. Just give me a slight hoist
+up, and all will be right."
+
+George did so, and Henry with his knife easily bent back some of the
+leadwork which held in one of the panes of glass, and then got it out
+whole. He handed it down to George, saying,--
+
+"Take this, George. We can easily replace it when we leave, so that
+there can be no signs left of any one having been here at all."
+
+George took the piece of thick, dim-coloured glass, and in another
+moment Henry had succeeded in opening the window, and the mode of
+ingress to the old church was fair and easy before them all, had there
+been ever so many.
+
+"I wonder," said Marchdale, "that a place so inefficiently protected has
+never been robbed."
+
+"No wonder at all," remarked Mr. Chillingworth. "There is nothing to
+take that I am aware of that would repay anybody the trouble of taking."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Not an article. The pulpit, to be sure, is covered with faded velvet;
+but beyond that, and an old box, in which I believe nothing is left but
+some books, I think there is no temptation."
+
+"And that, Heaven knows, is little enough, then."
+
+"Come on," said Henry. "Be careful; there is nothing beneath the window,
+and the depth is about two feet."
+
+Thus guided, they all got fairly into the sacred edifice, and then Henry
+closed the window, and fastened it on the inside as he said,--
+
+"We have nothing to do now but to set to work opening a way into the
+vault, and I trust that Heaven will pardon me for thus desecrating the
+tomb of my ancestors, from a consideration of the object I have in view
+by so doing."
+
+"It does seem wrong thus to tamper with the secrets of the tomb,"
+remarked Mr. Marchdale.
+
+"The secrets of a fiddlestick!" said the doctor. "What secrets has the
+tomb I wonder?"
+
+"Well, but, my dear sir--"
+
+"Nay, my dear sir, it is high time that death, which is, then, the
+inevitable fate of us all, should be regarded with more philosophic eyes
+than it is. There are no secrets in the tomb but such as may well be
+endeavoured to be kept secret."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"There is one which very probably we shall find unpleasantly revealed."
+
+"Which is that?"
+
+"The not over pleasant odour of decomposed animal remains--beyond that I
+know of nothing of a secret nature that the tomb can show us."
+
+"Ah, your profession hardens you to such matters."
+
+"And a very good thing that it does, or else, if all men were to look
+upon a dead body as something almost too dreadful to look upon, and by
+far too horrible to touch, surgery would lose its value, and crime, in
+many instances of the most obnoxious character, would go unpunished."
+
+"If we have a light here," said Henry, "we shall run the greatest chance
+in the world of being seen, for the church has many windows."
+
+"Do not have one, then, by any means," said Mr. Chillingworth. "A match
+held low down in the pew may enable us to open the vault."
+
+"That will be the only plan."
+
+Henry led them to the pew which belonged to his family, and in the floor
+of which was the trap door.
+
+"When was it last opened?" inquired Marchdale.
+
+"When my father died," said Henry; "some ten months ago now, I should
+think."
+
+"The screws, then, have had ample time to fix themselves with fresh
+rust."
+
+"Here is one of my chemical matches," said Mr. Chillingworth, as he
+suddenly irradiated the pew with a clear and beautiful flame, that
+lasted about a minute.
+
+The heads of the screws were easily discernible, and the short time that
+the light lasted had enabled Henry to turn the key he had brought with
+him in the lock.
+
+"I think that without a light now," he said, "I can turn the screws
+well."
+
+"Can you?"
+
+"Yes; there are but four."
+
+"Try it, then."
+
+Henry did so, and from the screws having very large heads, and being
+made purposely, for the convenience of removal when required, with deep
+indentations to receive the screw-driver, he found no difficulty in
+feeling for the proper places, and extracting the screws without any
+more light than was afforded to him from the general whitish aspect of
+the heavens.
+
+"Now, Mr. Chillingworth," he said "another of your matches, if you
+please. I have all the screws so loose that I can pick them up with my
+fingers."
+
+"Here," said the doctor.
+
+In another moment the pew was as light as day, and Henry succeeded in
+taking out the few screws, which he placed in his pocket for their
+greater security, since, of course, the intention was to replace
+everything exactly as it was found, in order that not the least surmise
+should arise in the mind of any person that the vault had been opened,
+and visited for any purpose whatever, secretly or otherwise.
+
+"Let us descend," said Henry. "There is no further obstacle, my friends.
+Let us descend."
+
+"If any one," remarked George, in a whisper, as they slowly descended
+the stairs which conducted into the vault--"if any one had told me that
+I should be descending into a vault for the purpose of ascertaining if a
+dead body, which had been nearly a century there, was removed or not,
+and had become a vampyre, I should have denounced the idea as one of the
+most absurd that ever entered the brain of a human being."
+
+"We are the very slaves of circumstances," said Marchdale, "and we never
+know what we may do, or what we may not. What appears to us so
+improbable as to border even upon the impossible at one time, is at
+another the only course of action which appears feasibly open to us to
+attempt to pursue."
+
+They had now reached the vault, the floor of which was composed of flat
+red tiles, laid in tolerable order the one beside the other. As Henry
+had stated, the vault was by no means of large extent. Indeed, several
+of the apartments for the living, at the hall, were much larger than was
+that one destined for the dead.
+
+The atmosphere was dump and noisome, but not by any means so bad as
+might have been expected, considering the number of months which had
+elapsed since last the vault was opened to receive one of its ghastly
+and still visitants.
+
+"Now for one of your lights. Mr. Chillingworth. You say you have the
+candles, I think, Marchdale, although you forgot the matches."
+
+"I have. They are here."
+
+Marchdale took from his pocket a parcel which contained several wax
+candles, and when it was opened, a smaller packet fell to the ground.
+
+"Why, these are instantaneous matches," said Mr. Chillingworth, as he
+lifted the small packet up.
+
+"They are; and what a fruitless journey I should have had back to the
+hall," said Mr. Marchdale, "if you had not been so well provided as you
+are with the means of getting a light. These matches, which I thought I
+had not with me, have been, in the hurry of departure, enclosed, you
+see, with the candles. Truly, I should have hunted for them at home in
+vain."
+
+Mr. Chillingworth lit the wax candle which was now handed to him by
+Marchdale, and in another moment the vault from one end of it to the
+other was quite clearly discernible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE COFFIN.--THE ABSENCE OF THE DEAD.--THE MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE, AND
+THE CONSTERNATION OF GEORGE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+They were all silent for a few moments as they looked around them with
+natural feelings of curiosity. Two of that party had of course never
+been in that vault at all, and the brothers, although they had descended
+into it upon the occasion, nearly a year before, of their father being
+placed in it, still looked upon it with almost as curious eyes as they
+who now had their first sight of it.
+
+If a man be at all of a thoughtful or imaginative cast of mind, some
+curious sensations are sure to come over him, upon standing in such a
+place, where he knows around him lie, in the calmness of death, those in
+whose veins have flowed kindred blood to him--who bore the same name,
+and who preceded him in the brief drama of his existence, influencing
+his destiny and his position in life probably largely by their actions
+compounded of their virtues and their vices.
+
+Henry Bannerworth and his brother George were just the kind of persons
+to feel strongly such sensations. Both were reflective, imaginative,
+educated young men, and, as the light from the wax candle flashed upon
+their faces, it was evident how deeply they felt the situation in which
+they were placed.
+
+Mr. Chillingworth and Marchdale were silent. They both knew what was
+passing in the minds of the brothers, and they had too much delicacy to
+interrupt a train of thought which, although from having no affinity
+with the dead who lay around, they could not share in, yet they
+respected. Henry at length, with a sudden start, seemed to recover
+himself from his reverie.
+
+"This is a time for action, George," he said, "and not for romantic
+thought. Let us proceed."
+
+"Yes, yes," said George, and he advanced a step towards the centre of
+the vault.
+
+"Can you find out among all these coffins, for there seem to be nearly
+twenty," said Mr. Chillingworth, "which is the one we seek?"
+
+"I think we may," replied Henry. "Some of the earlier coffins of our
+race, I know, were made of marble, and others of metal, both of which
+materials, I expect, would withstand the encroaches of time for a
+hundred years, at least."
+
+"Let us examine," said George.
+
+There were shelves or niches built into the walls all round, on which
+the coffins were placed, so that there could not be much difficulty in a
+minute examination of them all, the one after the other.
+
+When, however, they came to look, they found that "decay's offensive
+fingers" had been more busy than they could have imagined, and that
+whatever they touched of the earlier coffins crumbled into dust before
+their very fingers.
+
+In some cases the inscriptions were quite illegible, and, in others, the
+plates that had borne them had fallen on to the floor of the vault, so
+that it was impossible to say to which coffin they belonged.
+
+Of course, the more recent and fresh-looking coffins they did not
+examine, because they could not have anything to do with the object of
+that melancholy visit.
+
+"We shall arrive at no conclusion," said George. "All seems to have
+rotted away among those coffins where we might expect to find the one
+belonging to Marmaduke Bannerworth, our ancestor."
+
+"Here is a coffin plate," said Marchdale, taking one from the floor.
+
+He handed it to Mr. Chillingworth, who, upon an inspection of it, close
+to the light, exclaimed,--
+
+"It must have belonged to the coffin you seek."
+
+"What says it?"
+
+"Ye mortale remains of Marmaduke Bannerworth, Yeoman. God reste his
+soule. A.D. 1540."
+
+"It is the plate belonging to his coffin," said Henry, "and now our
+search is fruitless."
+
+"It is so, indeed," exclaimed George, "for how can we tell to which of
+the coffins that have lost the plates this one really belongs?"
+
+"I should not be so hopeless," said Marchdale. "I have, from time to
+time, in the pursuit of antiquarian lore, which I was once fond of,
+entered many vaults, and I have always observed that an inner coffin of
+metal was sound and good, while the outer one of wood had rotted away,
+and yielded at once to the touch of the first hand that was laid upon
+it."
+
+"But, admitting that to be the case," said Henry, "how does that assist
+us in the identification of a coffin?"
+
+"I have always, in my experience, found the name and rank of the
+deceased engraved upon the lid of the inner coffin, as well as being set
+forth in a much more perishable manner on the plate which was secured to
+the outer one."
+
+"He is right," said Mr. Chillingworth. "I wonder we never thought of
+that. If your ancestor was buried in a leaden coffin, there will be no
+difficulty in finding which it is."
+
+Henry seized the light, and proceeding to one of the coffins, which
+seemed to be a mass of decay, he pulled away some of the rotted wood
+work, and then suddenly exclaimed,--
+
+"You are quite right. Here is a firm strong leaden coffin within, which,
+although quite black, does not otherwise appear to have suffered."
+
+"What is the inscription on that?" said George.
+
+With difficulty the name on the lid was deciphered, but it was found not
+to be the coffin of him whom they sought.
+
+"We can make short work of this," said Marchdale, "by only examining
+those leaden coffins which have lost the plates from off their outer
+cases. There do not appear to be many in such a state."
+
+He then, with another light, which he lighted from the one that Henry
+now carried, commenced actively assisting in the search, which was
+carried on silently for more than ten minutes.
+
+Suddenly Mr. Marchdale cried, in a tone of excitement,--
+
+"I have found it. It is here."
+
+They all immediately surrounded the spot where he was, and then he
+pointed to the lid of a coffin, which he had been rubbing with his
+handkerchief, in order to make the inscription more legible, and said,--
+
+"See. It is here."
+
+By the combined light of the candles they saw the words,--
+
+"Marmaduke Bannerworth, Yeoman, 1640."
+
+"Yes, there can be no mistake here," said Henry. "This is the coffin,
+and it shall be opened."
+
+"I have the iron crowbar here," said Marchdale. "It is an old friend of
+mine, and I am accustomed to the use of it. Shall I open the coffin?"
+
+"Do so--do so," said Henry.
+
+They stood around in silence, while Mr. Marchdale, with much care,
+proceeded to open the coffin, which seemed of great thickness, and was
+of solid lead.
+
+It was probably the partial rotting of the metal, in consequence of the
+damps of that place, that made it easier to open the coffin than it
+otherwise would have been, but certain it was that the top came away
+remarkably easily. Indeed, so easily did it come off, that another
+supposition might have been hazarded, namely, that it had never at all
+been effectually fastened.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The few moments that elapsed were ones of very great suspense to every
+one there present; and it would, indeed, be quite sure to assert, that
+all the world was for the time forgotten in the absorbing interest which
+appertained to the affair which was in progress.
+
+The candles were now both held by Mr. Chillingworth, and they were so
+held as to cast a full and clear light upon the coffin. Now the lid slid
+off, and Henry eagerly gazed into the interior.
+
+There lay something certainly there, and an audible "Thank God!" escaped
+his lips.
+
+"The body is there!" exclaimed George.
+
+"All right," said Marchdale, "here it is. There is something, and what
+else can it be?"
+
+"Hold the lights," said Mr. Chillingworth; "hold the lights, some of
+you; let us be quite certain."
+
+George took the lights, and Mr. Chillingworth, without any hesitation,
+dipped his hands at once into the coffin, and took up some fragments of
+rags which were there. They were so rotten, that they fell to pieces in
+his grasp, like so many pieces of tinder.
+
+There was a death-like pause for some few moments, and then Mr.
+Chillingworth said, in a low voice,--
+
+"There is not the least vestige of a dead body here."
+
+Henry gave a deep groan, as he said,--
+
+"Mr. Chillingworth, can you take upon yourself to say that no corpse has
+undergone the process of decomposition in this coffin?"
+
+"To answer your question exactly, as probably in your hurry you have
+worded it," said Mr. Chillingworth, "I cannot take upon myself to say
+any such thing; but this I can say, namely, that in this coffin there
+are no animal remains, and that it is quite impossible that any corpse
+enclosed here could, in any lapse of time, have so utterly and entirely
+disappeared."
+
+"I am answered," said Henry.
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed George, "and has this but added another damning
+proof, to those we have already on our minds, of one of the must
+dreadful superstitions that ever the mind of man conceived?"
+
+"It would seem so," said Marchdale, sadly.
+
+"Oh, that I were dead! This is terrible. God of heaven, why are these
+things? Oh, if I were but dead, and so spared the torture of supposing
+such things possible."
+
+"Think again, Mr. Chillingworth; I pray you think again," cried
+Marchdale.
+
+"If I were to think for the remainder of my existence," he replied, "I
+could come to no other conclusion. It is not a matter of opinion; it is
+a matter of fact."
+
+"You are positive, then," said Henry, "that the dead body of Marmaduke
+Bannerworth is not rested here?"
+
+"I am positive. Look for yourselves. The lead is but slightly
+discoloured; it looks tolerably clean and fresh; there is not a vestige
+of putrefaction--no bones, no dust even."
+
+They did all look for themselves, and the most casual glance was
+sufficient to satisfy the most sceptical.
+
+"All is over," said Henry; "let us now leave this place; and all I can
+now ask of you, my friends, is to lock this dreadful secret deep in your
+own hearts."
+
+"It shall never pass my lips," said Marchdale.
+
+"Nor mine, you may depend," said the doctor. "I was much in hopes that
+this night's work would have had the effect of dissipating, instead of
+adding to, the gloomy fancies that now possess you."
+
+"Good heavens!" cried George, "can you call them fancies, Mr.
+Chillingworth?"
+
+"I do, indeed."
+
+"Have you yet a doubt?"
+
+"My young friend, I told you from the first, that I would not believe in
+your vampyre; and I tell you now, that if one was to come and lay hold
+of me by the throat, as long as I could at all gasp for breath I would
+tell him he was a d----d impostor."
+
+"This is carrying incredulity to the verge of obstinacy."
+
+"Far beyond it, if you please."
+
+"You will not be convinced?" said Marchdale.
+
+"I most decidedly, on this point, will not."
+
+"Then you are one who would doubt a miracle, if you saw it with your own
+eyes."
+
+"I would, because I do not believe in miracles. I should endeavour to
+find some rational and some scientific means of accounting for the
+phenomenon, and that's the very reason why we have no miracles
+now-a-days, between you and I, and no prophets and saints, and all that
+sort of thing."
+
+"I would rather avoid such observations in such a place as this," said
+Marchdale.
+
+"Nay, do not be the moral coward," cried Mr. Chillingworth, "to make
+your opinions, or the expression of them, dependent upon any certain
+locality."
+
+"I know not what to think," said Henry; "I am bewildered quite. Let us
+now come away."
+
+Mr. Marchdale replaced the lid of the coffin, and then the little party
+moved towards the staircase. Henry turned before he ascended, and
+glanced back into the vault.
+
+"Oh," he said, "if I could but think there had been some mistake, some
+error of judgment, on which the mind could rest for hope."
+
+"I deeply regret," said Marchdale, "that I so strenuously advised this
+expedition. I did hope that from it would have resulted much good."
+
+"And you had every reason so to hope," said Chillingworth. "I advised it
+likewise, and I tell you that its result perfectly astonishes me,
+although I will not allow myself to embrace at once all the conclusions
+to which it would seem to lead me."
+
+"I am satisfied," said Henry; "I know you both advised me for the best.
+The curse of Heaven seems now to have fallen upon me and my house."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" said Chillingworth. "What for?"
+
+"Alas! I know not."
+
+"Then you may depend that Heaven would never act so oddly. In the first
+place, Heaven don't curse anybody; and, in the second, it is too just to
+inflict pain where pain is not amply deserved."
+
+They ascended the gloomy staircase of the vault. The countenances of
+both George and Henry were very much saddened, and it was quite evident
+that their thoughts were by far too busy to enable them to enter into
+any conversation. They did not, and particularly George, seem to hear
+all that was said to them. Their intellects seemed almost stunned by the
+unexpected circumstance of the disappearance of the body of their
+ancestor.
+
+All along they had, although almost unknown to themselves, felt a sort
+of conviction that they must find some remains of Marmaduke Bannerworth,
+which would render the supposition, even in the most superstitious
+minds, that he was the vampyre, a thing totally and physically
+impossible.
+
+But now the whole question assumed a far more bewildering shape. The
+body was not in its coffin--it had not there quietly slept the long
+sleep of death common to humanity. Where was it then? What had become of
+it? Where, how, and under what circumstances had it been removed? Had it
+itself burst the bands that held it, and hideously stalked forth into
+the world again to make one of its seeming inhabitants, and kept up for
+a hundred years a dreadful existence by such adventures as it had
+consummated at the hall, where, in the course of ordinary human life, it
+had once lived?
+
+All these were questions which irresistibly pressed themselves upon the
+consideration of Henry and his brother. They were awful questions.
+
+And yet, take any sober, sane, thinking, educated man, and show him all
+that they had seen, subject him to all to which they had been subjected,
+and say if human reason, and all the arguments that the subtlest brain
+could back it with, would be able to hold out against such a vast
+accumulation of horrible evidences, and say--"I don't believe it."
+
+Mr. Chillingworth's was the only plan. He would not argue the question.
+He said at once,--
+
+"I will not believe this thing--upon this point I will yield to no
+evidence whatever."
+
+That was the only way of disposing of such a question; but there are not
+many who could so dispose of it, and not one so much interested in it as
+were the brothers Bannerworth, who could at all hope to get into such a
+state of mind.
+
+The boards were laid carefully down again, and the screws replaced.
+Henry found himself unequal to the task, so it was done by Marchdale,
+who took pains to replace everything in the same state in which they had
+found it, even to the laying even the matting at the bottom of the pew.
+
+Then they extinguished the light, and, with heavy hearts, they all
+walked towards the window, to leave the sacred edifice by the same means
+they had entered it.
+
+"Shall we replace the pane of glass?" said Marchdale.
+
+"Oh, it matters not--it matters not," said Henry, listlessly; "nothing
+matters now. I care not what becomes of me--I am getting weary of a life
+which now must be one of misery and dread."
+
+"You must not allow yourself to fall into such a state of mind as this,"
+said the doctor, "or you will become a patient of mine very quickly."
+
+"I cannot help it."
+
+"Well, but be a man. If there are serious evils affecting you, fight out
+against them the best way you can."
+
+"I cannot."
+
+"Come, now, listen to me. We need not, I think, trouble ourselves about
+the pane of glass, so come along."
+
+He took the arm of Henry and walked on with him a little in advance of
+the others.
+
+"Henry," he said, "the best way, you may depend, of meeting evils, be
+they great or small, is to get up an obstinate feeling of defiance
+against them. Now, when anything occurs which is uncomfortable to me, I
+endeavour to convince myself, and I have no great difficulty in doing
+so, that I am a decidedly injured man."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; I get very angry, and that gets up a kind of obstinacy, which
+makes me not feel half so much mental misery as would be my portion, if
+I were to succumb to the evil, and commence whining over it, as many
+people do, under the pretence of being resigned."
+
+"But this family affliction of mine transcends anything that anybody
+else ever endured."
+
+"I don't know that; but it is a view of the subject which, if I were
+you, would only make me more obstinate."
+
+"What can I do?"
+
+"In the first place, I would say to myself, 'There may or there may not
+be supernatural beings, who, from some physical derangement of the
+ordinary nature of things, make themselves obnoxious to living people;
+if there are, d--n them! There may be vampyres; and if there are, I defy
+them.' Let the imagination paint its very worst terrors; let fear do
+what it will and what it can in peopling the mind with horrors. Shrink
+from nothing, and even then I would defy them all."
+
+"Is not that like defying Heaven?"
+
+"Most certainly not; for in all we say and in all we do we act from the
+impulses of that mind which is given to us by Heaven itself. If Heaven
+creates an intellect and a mind of a certain order, Heaven will not
+quarrel that it does the work which it was adapted to do."
+
+"I know these are your opinions. I have heard you mention them before."
+
+"They are the opinions of every rational person. Henry Bannerworth,
+because they will stand the test of reason; and what I urge upon you is,
+not to allow yourself to be mentally prostrated, even if a vampyre has
+paid a visit to your house. Defy him, say I--fight him.
+Self-preservation is a great law of nature, implanted in all our hearts;
+do you summon it to your aid."
+
+"I will endeavour to think as you would have me. I thought more than
+once of summoning religion to my aid."
+
+"Well, that is religion."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"I consider so, and the most rational religion of all. All that we read
+about religion that does not seem expressly to agree with it, you may
+consider as an allegory."
+
+"But, Mr. Chillingworth, I cannot and will not renounce the sublime
+truths of Scripture. They may be incomprehensible; they may be
+inconsistent; and some of them may look ridiculous; but still they are
+sacred and sublime, and I will not renounce them although my reason may
+not accord with them, because they are the laws of Heaven."
+
+No wonder this powerful argument silenced Mr. Chillingworth, who was one
+of those characters in society who hold most dreadful opinions, and who
+would destroy religious beliefs, and all the different sects in the
+world, if they could, and endeavour to introduce instead some horrible
+system of human reason and profound philosophy.
+
+But how soon the religious man silences his opponent; and let it not be
+supposed that, because his opponent says no more upon the subject, he
+does so because he is disgusted with the stupidity of the other; no, it
+is because he is completely beaten, and has nothing more to say.
+
+The distance now between the church and the hall was nearly traversed,
+and Mr. Chillingworth, who was a very good man, notwithstanding his
+disbelief in certain things of course paved the way for him to hell,
+took a kind leave of Mr. Marchdale and the brothers, promising to call
+on the following morning and see Flora.
+
+Henry and George then, in earnest conversation with Marchdale, proceeded
+homewards. It was evident that the scene in the vault had made a deep
+and saddening impression upon them, and one which was not likely easily
+to be eradicated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE OCCURRENCES OF THE NIGHT AT THE HALL.--THE SECOND APPEARANCE OF THE
+VAMPYRE, AND THE PISTOL-SHOT.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Despite the full and free consent which Flora had given to her brothers
+to entrust her solely to the care of her mother and her own courage at
+the hall, she felt greater fear creep over her after they were gone than
+she chose to acknowledge.
+
+A sort of presentiment appeared to come over her that some evil was
+about to occur, and more than once she caught herself almost in the act
+of saying,--
+
+"I wish they had not gone."
+
+Mrs. Bannerworth, too, could not be supposed to be entirely destitute of
+uncomfortable feelings, when she came to consider how poor a guard she
+was over her beautiful child, and how much terror might even deprive of
+the little power she had, should the dreadful visitor again make his
+appearance.
+
+"But it is but for two hours," thought Flora, "and two hours will soon
+pass away."
+
+There was, too, another feeling which gave her some degree of
+confidence, although it arose from a bad source, inasmuch as it was one
+which showed powerfully how much her mind was dwelling on the
+particulars of the horrible belief in the class of supernatural beings,
+one of whom she believed had visited her.
+
+That consideration was this. The two hours of absence from the hall of
+its male inhabitants, would be from nine o'clock until eleven, and those
+were not the two hours during which she felt that she would be most
+timid on account of the vampyre.
+
+"It was after midnight before," she thought, "when it came, and perhaps
+it may not be able to come earlier. It may not have the power, until
+that time, to make its hideous visits, and, therefore, I will believe
+myself safe."
+
+She had made up her mind not to go to bed until the return of her
+brothers, and she and her mother sat in a small room that was used as a
+breakfast-room, and which had a latticed window that opened on to the
+lawn.
+
+This window had in the inside strong oaken shutters, which had been
+fastened as securely as their construction would admit of some time
+before the departure of the brothers and Mr. Marchdale on that
+melancholy expedition, the object of which, if it had been known to her,
+would have added so much to the terrors of poor Flora.
+
+It was not even guessed at, however remotely, so that she had not the
+additional affliction of thinking, that while she was sitting there, a
+prey to all sorts of imaginative terrors, they were perhaps gathering
+fresh evidence, as, indeed, they were, of the dreadful reality of the
+appearance which, but for the collateral circumstances attendant upon
+its coming and its going, she would fain have persuaded herself was but
+the vision of a dream.
+
+It was before nine that the brothers started, but in her own mind Flora
+gave them to eleven, and when she heard ten o'clock sound from a clock
+which stood in the hall, she felt pleased to think that in another hour
+they would surely be at home.
+
+"My dear," said her mother, "you look more like yourself, now."
+
+"Do, I, mother?"
+
+"Yes, you are well again."
+
+"Ah, if I could forget--"
+
+"Time, my dear Flora, will enable you to do so, and all the fear of what
+made you so unwell will pass away. You will soon forget it all."
+
+"I will hope to do so."
+
+"Be assured that, some day or another, something will occur, as Henry
+says, to explain all that has happened, in some way consistent with
+reason and the ordinary nature of things, my dear Flora."
+
+"Oh, I will cling to such a belief; I will get Henry, upon whose
+judgment I know I can rely, to tell me so, and each time that I hear
+such words from his lips, I will contrive to dismiss some portion of the
+terror which now, I cannot but confess, clings to my heart."
+
+Flora laid her hand upon her mother's arm, and in a low, anxious tone of
+voice, said,--"Listen, mother."
+
+Mrs. Bannerworth turned pale, as she said,--"Listen to what, dear?"
+
+"Within these last ten minutes," said Flora, "I have thought three or
+four times that I heard a slight noise without. Nay, mother, do not
+tremble--it may be only fancy."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Flora herself trembled, and was of a death-like paleness; once or twice
+she passed her hand across her brow, and altogether she presented a
+picture of much mental suffering.
+
+They now conversed in anxious whispers, and almost all they said
+consisted in anxious wishes for the return of the brothers and Mr.
+Marchdale.
+
+"You will be happier and more assured, my dear, with some company," said
+Mrs. Bannerworth. "Shall I ring for the servants, and let them remain in
+the room with us, until they who are our best safeguards next to Heaven
+return?"
+
+"Hush--hush--hush, mother!"
+
+"What do you hear?"
+
+"I thought--I heard a faint sound."
+
+"I heard nothing, dear."
+
+"Listen again, mother. Surely I could not be deceived so often. I have
+now, at least, six times heard a sound as if some one was outside by the
+windows."
+
+"No, no, my darling, do not think; your imagination is active and in a
+state of excitement."
+
+"It is, and yet--"
+
+"Believe me, it deceives you."
+
+"I hope to Heaven it does!"
+
+There was a pause of some minutes' duration, and then Mrs. Bannerworth
+again urged slightly the calling of some of the servants, for she
+thought that their presence might have the effect of giving a different
+direction to her child's thoughts; but Flora saw her place her hand upon
+the bell, and she said,--
+
+"No, mother, no--not yet, not yet. Perhaps I am deceived."
+
+Mrs. Bannerworth upon this sat down, but no sooner had she done so than
+she heartily regretted she had not rung the bell, for, before, another
+word could be spoken, there came too perceptibly upon their ears for
+there to be any mistake at all about it, a strange scratching noise upon
+the window outside.
+
+A faint cry came from Flora's lips, as she exclaimed, in a voice of
+great agony,--
+
+"Oh, God!--oh, God! It has come again!"
+
+Mrs. Bannerworth became faint, and unable to move or speak at all; she
+could only sit like one paralysed, and unable to do more than listen to
+and see what was going on.
+
+The scratching noise continued for a few seconds, and then altogether
+ceased. Perhaps, under ordinary circumstances, such a sound outside the
+window would have scarcely afforded food for comment at all, or, if it
+had, it would have been attributed to some natural effect, or to the
+exertions of some bird or animal to obtain admittance to the house.
+
+But there had occurred now enough in that family to make any little
+sound of wonderful importance, and these things which before would have
+passed completely unheeded, at all events without creating much alarm,
+were now invested with a fearful interest.
+
+When the scratching noise ceased, Flora spoke in a low, anxious whisper,
+as she said,--
+
+"Mother, you heard it then?"
+
+Mrs. Bannerworth tried to speak, but she could not; and then suddenly,
+with a loud clash, the bar, which on the inside appeared to fasten the
+shutters strongly, fell as if by some invisible agency, and the shutters
+now, but for the intervention of the window, could be easily pushed open
+from without.
+
+Mrs. Bannerworth covered her face with her hands, and, after rocking to
+and fro for a moment, she fell off her chair, having fainted with the
+excess of terror that came over her.
+
+For about the space of time in which a fast speaker could count twelve,
+Flora thought her reason was leaving her, but it did not. She found
+herself recovering; and there she sat, with her eyes fixed upon the
+window, looking more like some exquisitely-chiselled statue of despair
+than a being of flesh and blood, expecting each moment to have its eyes
+blasted by some horrible appearance, such as might be supposed to drive
+her to madness.
+
+And now again came the strange knocking or scratching against the glass
+of the window.
+
+This continued for some minutes, during which it appeared likewise to
+Flora that some confusion was going on at another part of the house, for
+she fancied she heard voices and the banging of doors.
+
+It seemed to her as if she must have sat looking at the shutters of that
+window a long time before she saw them shake, and then one wide hinged
+portion of them slowly opened.
+
+Once again horror appeared to be on the point of producing madness in
+her brain, and then, as before, a feeling of calmness rapidly ensued.
+
+She was able to see plainly that something was by the window, but what
+it was she could not plainly discern, in consequence of the lights she
+had in the room. A few moments, however, sufficed to settle that
+mystery, for the window was opened and a figure stood before her.
+
+One glance, one terrified glance, in which her whole soul was
+concentrated, sufficed to shew her who and what the figure was. There
+was the tall, gaunt form--there was the faded ancient apparel--the
+lustrous metallic-looking eyes--its half-opened month, exhibiting the
+tusk-like teeth! It was--yes, it was--_the vampyre!_
+
+It stood for a moment gazing at her, and then in the hideous way it had
+attempted before to speak, it apparently endeavoured to utter some words
+which it could not make articulate to human ears. The pistols lay before
+Flora. Mechanically she raised one, and pointed it at the figure. It
+advanced a step, and then she pulled the trigger.
+
+A stunning report followed. There was a loud cry of pain, and the
+vampyre fled. The smoke and the confusion that was incidental to the
+spot prevented her from seeing if the figure walked or ran away. She
+thought she heard a crashing sound among the plants outside the window,
+as if it had fallen, but she did not feel quite sure.
+
+It was no effort of any reflection, but a purely mechanical movement,
+that made her raise the other pistol, and discharge that likewise in the
+direction the vampyre had taken. Then casting the weapon away, she rose,
+and made a frantic rush from the room. She opened the door, and was
+dashing out, when she found herself caught in the circling arms of some
+one who either had been there waiting, or who had just at that moment
+got there.
+
+The thought that it was the vampyre, who by some mysterious means, had
+got there, and was about to make her his prey, now overcame her
+completely, and she sunk into a state of utter insensibility on the
+moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE RETURN FROM THE VAULT.--THE ALARM, AND THE SEARCH AROUND THE HALL.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It so happened that George and Henry Bannerworth, along with Mr.
+Marchdale, had just reached the gate which conducted into the garden of
+the mansion when they all were alarmed by the report of a pistol. Amid
+the stillness of the night, it came upon them with so sudden a shock,
+that they involuntarily paused, and there came from the lips of each an
+expression of alarm.
+
+"Good heavens!" cried George, "can that be Flora firing at any
+intruder?"
+
+"It must be," cried Henry; "she has in her possession the only weapons
+in the house."
+
+Mr. Marchdale turned very pale, and trembled slightly, but he did not
+speak.
+
+"On, on," cried Henry; "for God's sake, let us hasten on."
+
+As he spoke, he cleared the gate at a bound, and at a terrific pace he
+made towards the house, passing over beds, and plantations, and flowers
+heedlessly, so that he went the most direct way to it.
+
+Before, however, it was possible for any human speed to accomplish even
+half of the distance, the report of the other shot came upon his ears,
+and he even fancied he heard the bullet whistle past his head in
+tolerably close proximity. This supposition gave him a clue to the
+direction at all events from whence the shots proceeded, otherwise he
+knew not from which window they were fired, because it had not occurred
+to him, previous to leaving home, to inquire in which room Flora and his
+mother were likely to be seated waiting his return.
+
+He was right as regarded the bullet. It was that winged messenger of
+death which had passed his head in such very dangerous proximity, and
+consequently he made with tolerable accuracy towards the open window
+from whence the shots had been fired.
+
+The night was not near so dark as it had been, although even yet it was
+very far from being a light one, and he was soon enabled to see that
+there was a room, the window of which was wide open, and lights burning
+on the table within. He made towards it in a moment, and entered it. To
+his astonishment, the first objects he beheld were Flora and a stranger,
+who was now supporting her in his arms. To grapple him by the throat was
+the work of a moment, but the stranger cried aloud in a voice which
+sounded familiar to Harry,--
+
+"Good God, are you all mad?"
+
+Henry relaxed his hold, and looked in his face.
+
+"Gracious heavens, it is Mr. Holland!" he said.
+
+"Yes; did you not know me?"
+
+Henry was bewildered. He staggered to a seat, and, in doing so, he saw
+his mother, stretched apparently lifeless upon the floor. To raise her
+was the work of a moment, and then Marchdale and George, who had
+followed him as fast as they could, appeared at the open window.
+
+Such a strange scene as that small room now exhibited had never been
+equalled in Bannerworth Hall. There was young Mr. Holland, of whom
+mention has already been made, as the affianced lover of Flora,
+supporting her fainting form. There was Henry doing equal service to his
+mother; and on the floor lay the two pistols, and one of the candles
+which had been upset in the confusion; while the terrified attitudes of
+George and Mr. Marchdale at the window completed the strange-looking
+picture.
+
+"What is this--oh! what has happened?" cried George.
+
+"I know not--I know not," said Henry. "Some one summon the servants; I
+am nearly mad."
+
+Mr. Marchdale at once rung the bell, for George looked so faint and ill
+as to be incapable of doing so; and he rung it so loudly and so
+effectually, that the two servants who had been employed suddenly upon
+the others leaving came with much speed to know what was the matter.
+
+"See to your mistress," said Henry. "She is dead, or has fainted. For
+God's sake, let who can give me some account of what has caused all this
+confusion here."
+
+"Are you aware, Henry," said Marchdale, "that a stranger is present in
+the room?"
+
+He pointed to Mr. Holland as he spoke, who, before Henry could reply,
+said,--
+
+"Sir, I may be a stranger to you, as you are to me, and yet no stranger
+to those whose home this is."
+
+"No, no," said Henry, "you are no stranger to us, Mr. Holland, but are
+thrice welcome--none can be more welcome. Mr. Marchdale, this is Mr
+Holland, of whom you have heard me speak."
+
+"I am proud to know you, sir," said Marchdale.
+
+"Sir, I thank you," replied Holland, coldly.
+
+It will so happen; but, at first sight, it appeared as if those two
+persons had some sort of antagonistic feeling towards each other, which
+threatened to prevent effectually their ever becoming intimate friends.
+
+The appeal of Henry to the servants to know if they could tell him what
+had occurred was answered in the negative. All they knew was that they
+had heard two shots fired, and that, since then, they had remained where
+they were, in a great fright, until the bell was rung violently. This
+was no news at all and, therefore, the only chance was, to wait
+patiently for the recovery of the mother, or of Flora, from one or the
+other of whom surely some information could be at once then procured.
+
+Mrs. Bannerworth was removed to her own room, and so would Flora have
+been; but Mr. Holland, who was supporting her in his arms, said,--
+
+"I think the air from the open window is recovering her, and it is
+likely to do so. Oh, do not now take her from me, after so long an
+absence. Flora, Flora, look up; do you not know me? You have not yet
+given me one look of acknowledgment. Flora, dear Flora!"
+
+The sound of his voice seemed to act as the most potent of charms in
+restoring her to consciousness; it broke through the death-like trance
+in which she lay, and, opening her beautiful eyes, she fixed them upon
+his face, saying,--
+
+"Yes, yes; it is Charles--it is Charles."
+
+She burst into a hysterical flood of tears, and clung to him like some
+terrified child to its only friend in the whole wide world.
+
+"Oh, my dear friends," cried Charles Holland, "do not deceive me; has
+Flora been ill?"
+
+"We have all been ill," said George.
+
+"All ill?"
+
+"Ay, and nearly mad," exclaimed Harry.
+
+Holland looked from one to the other in surprise, as well he might, nor
+was that surprise at all lessened when Flora made an effort to extricate
+herself from his embrace, as she exclaimed,--
+
+"You must leave me--you must leave me, Charles, for ever! Oh! never,
+never look upon my face again!"
+
+"I--I am bewildered," said Charles.
+
+"Leave me, now," continued Flora; "think me unworthy; think what you
+will, Charles, but I cannot, I dare not, now be yours."
+
+"Is this a dream?"
+
+"Oh, would it were. Charles, if we had never met, you would be
+happier--I could not be more wretched."
+
+"Flora, Flora, do you say these words of so great cruelty to try my
+love?"
+
+"No, as Heaven is my judge, I do not."
+
+"Gracious Heaven, then, what do they mean?"
+
+Flora shuddered, and Henry, coming up to her, took her hand in his
+tenderly, as he said,--
+
+"Has it been again?"
+
+"It has."
+
+"You shot it?"
+
+"I fired full upon it, Henry, but it fled."
+
+"It did--fly?"
+
+"It did, Henry, but it will come again--it will be sure to come again."
+
+"You--you hit it with the bullet?" interposed Mr. Marchdale. "Perhaps
+you killed it?"
+
+"I think I must have hit it, unless I am mad."
+
+Charles Holland looked from one to the other with such a look of intense
+surprise, that George remarked it, and said at once to him,--
+
+"Mr. Holland, a full explanation is due to you, and you shall have it."
+
+"You seem the only rational person here," said Charles. "Pray what is it
+that everybody calls '_it_?'"
+
+"Hush--hush!" said Henry; "you shall hear soon, but not at present."
+
+"Hear me, Charles," said Flora. "From this moment mind, I do release you
+from every vow, from every promise made to me of constancy and love; and
+if you are wise, Charles, and will be advised, you will now this moment
+leave this house never to return to it."
+
+"No," said Charles--"no; by Heaven I love you, Flora! I have come to say
+again all that in another clime I said with joy to you. When I forget
+you, let what trouble may oppress you, may God forget me, and my own
+right hand forget to do me honest service."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Oh! no more--no more!" sobbed Flora.
+
+"Yes, much more, if you will tell me of words which shall be stronger
+than others in which to paint my love, my faith, and my constancy."
+
+"Be prudent," said Henry. "Say no more."
+
+"Nay, upon such a theme I could speak for ever. You may cast me off,
+Flora; but until you tell me you love another, I am yours till the
+death, and then with a sanguine hope at my heart that we shall meet
+again, never, dearest, to part."
+
+Flora sobbed bitterly.
+
+"Oh!" she said, "this is the unkindest blow of all--this is worse than
+all."
+
+"Unkind!" echoed Holland.
+
+"Heed her not," said Henry; "she means not you."
+
+"Oh, no--no!" she cried. "Farewell, Charles--dear Charles."
+
+"Oh, say that word again!" he exclaimed, with animation. "It is the
+first time such music has met my ears."
+
+"It must be the last."
+
+"No, no--oh, no."
+
+"For your own sake I shall be able now, Charles, to show you that I
+really loved you."
+
+"Not by casting me from you?"
+
+"Yes, even so. That will be the way to show you that I love you."
+
+She held up her hands wildly, as she added, in an excited voice,--
+
+"The curse of destiny is upon me! I am singled out as one lost and
+accursed. Oh, horror--horror! would that I were dead!"
+
+Charles staggered back a pace or two until he came to the table, at
+which he clutched for support. He turned very pale as he said, in a
+faint voice,--
+
+"Is--is she mad, or am I?"
+
+"Tell him I am mad, Henry," cried Flora. "Do not, oh, do not make his
+lonely thoughts terrible with more than that. Tell him I am mad."
+
+"Come with me," whispered Henry to Holland. "I pray you come with me at
+once, and you shall know all."
+
+"I--will."
+
+"George, stay with Flora for a time. Come, come, Mr. Holland, you ought,
+and you shall know all; then you can come to a judgment for yourself.
+This way, sir. You cannot, in the wildest freak of your imagination,
+guess that which I have now to tell you."
+
+Never was mortal man so utterly bewildered by the events of the last
+hour of his existence as was now Charles Holland, and truly he might
+well be so. He had arrived in England, and made what speed he could to
+the house of a family whom he admired for their intelligence, their high
+culture, and in one member of which his whole thoughts of domestic
+happiness in this world were centered, and he found nothing but
+confusion, incoherence, mystery, and the wildest dismay.
+
+Well might he doubt if he were sleeping or waking--well might he ask if
+he or they were mad.
+
+And now, as, after a long, lingering look of affection upon the pale,
+suffering face of Flora, he followed Henry from the room, his thoughts
+were busy in fancying a thousand vague and wild imaginations with
+respect to the communication which was promised to be made to him.
+
+But, as Henry had truly said to him, not in the wildest freak of his
+imagination could he conceive of any thing near the terrible strangeness
+and horror of that which he had to tell him, and consequently he found
+himself closeted with Henry in a small private room, removed from the
+domestic part of the hall, to the full in as bewildered a state as he
+had been from the first.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE COMMUNICATIONS TO THE LOVER.--THE HEART'S DESPAIR.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Consternation is sympathetic, and any one who had looked upon the
+features of Charles Holland, now that he was seated with Henry
+Bannerworth, in expectation of a communication which his fears told him
+was to blast all his dearest and most fondly cherished hopes for ever,
+would scarce have recognised in him the same young man who, one short
+hour before, had knocked so loudly, and so full of joyful hope and
+expectation, at the door of the hall.
+
+But so it was. He knew Henry Bannerworth too well to suppose that any
+unreal cause could blanch his cheek. He knew Flora too well to imagine
+for one moment that caprice had dictated the, to him, fearful words of
+dismissal she had uttered to him.
+
+Happier would it at that time have been for Charles Holland had she
+acted capriciously towards him, and convinced him that his true heart's
+devotion had been cast at the feet of one unworthy of so really noble a
+gift. Pride would then have enabled him, no doubt, successfully to
+resist the blow. A feeling of honest and proper indignation at having
+his feelings trifled with, would, no doubt, have sustained him, but,
+alas! the case seemed widely different.
+
+True, she implored him to think of her no more--no longer to cherish in
+his breast the fond dream of affection which had been its guest so long;
+but the manner in which she did so brought along with it an irresistible
+conviction, that she was making a noble sacrifice of her own feelings
+for him, from some cause which was involved in the profoundest mystery.
+
+But now he was to hear all. Henry had promised to tell him, and as he
+looked into his pale, but handsomely intellectual face, he half dreaded
+the disclosure he yet panted to hear.
+
+"Tell me all, Henry--tell me all," he said. "Upon the words that come
+from your lips I know I can rely."
+
+"I will have no reservations with you," said Henry, sadly. "You ought to
+know all, and you shall. Prepare yourself for the strangest revelation
+you ever heard."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Ay. One which in hearing you may well doubt; and one which, I hope, you
+will never find an opportunity of verifying."
+
+"You speak in riddles."
+
+"And yet speak truly, Charles. You heard with what a frantic vehemence
+Flora desired you to think no more of her?"
+
+"I did--I did."
+
+"She was right. She is a noble-hearted girl for uttering those words. A
+dreadful incident in our family has occurred, which might well induce
+you to pause before uniting your fate with that of any member of it."
+
+"Impossible. Nothing can possibly subdue the feelings of affection I
+entertain for Flora. She is worthy of any one, and, as such, amid all
+changes--all mutations of fortune, she shall be mine."
+
+"Do not suppose that any change of fortune has produced the scene you
+were witness to."
+
+"Then, what else?"
+
+"I will tell you, Holland. In all your travels, and in all your reading,
+did you ever come across anything about vampyres?"
+
+"About what?" cried Charles, drawing his chair forward a little. "About
+what?"
+
+"You may well doubt the evidence of your own ears, Charles Holland, and
+wish me to repeat what I said. I say, do you know anything about
+vampyres?"
+
+Charles Holland looked curiously in Henry's face, and the latter
+immediately added,--
+
+"I can guess what is passing in your mind at present, and I do not
+wonder at it. You think I must be mad."
+
+"Well, really, Henry, your extraordinary question--"
+
+"I knew it. Were I you, I should hesitate to believe the tale; but the
+fact is, we have every reason to believe that one member of our own
+family is one of those horrible preternatural beings called vampyres."
+
+"Good God, Henry, can you allow your judgment for a moment to stoop to
+such a supposition?"
+
+"That is what I have asked myself a hundred times; but, Charles Holland,
+the judgment, the feelings, and all the prejudices, natural and
+acquired, must succumb to actual ocular demonstration. Listen to me, and
+do not interrupt me. You shall know all, and you shall know it
+circumstantially."
+
+Henry then related to the astonished Charles Holland all that had
+occurred, from the first alarm of Flora, up to that period when he,
+Holland, caught her in his arms as she was about to leave the room.
+
+"And now," he said, in conclusion, "I cannot tell what opinion you may
+come to as regards these most singular events. You will recollect that
+here is the unbiassed evidence of four or five people to the facts, and,
+beyond that, the servants, who have seen something of the horrible
+visitor."
+
+"You bewilder me, utterly," said Charles Holland.
+
+"As we are all bewildered."
+
+"But--but, gracious Heaven! it cannot be."
+
+"It is."
+
+"No--no. There is--there must be yet some dreadful mistake."
+
+"Can you start any supposition by which we can otherwise explain any of
+the phenomena I have described to you? If you can, for Heaven's sake do
+so, and you will find no one who will cling to it with more tenacity
+than I."
+
+"Any other species or kind of supernatural appearance might admit of
+argument; but this, to my perception, is too wildly improbable--too much
+at variance with all we see and know of the operations of nature."
+
+"It is so. All that we have told ourselves repeatedly, and yet is all
+human reason at once struck down by the few brief words of--'We have
+seen it.'"
+
+"I would doubt my eyesight."
+
+"One might; but many cannot be labouring under the same delusion."
+
+"My friend, I pray you, do not make me shudder at the supposition that
+such a dreadful thing as this is at all possible."
+
+"_I_ am, believe me, Charles, most unwilling to oppress anyone with the
+knowledge of these evils; but you are so situated with us, that you
+ought to know, and you will clearly understand that you may, with
+perfect honour, now consider yourself free from all engagements you have
+entered into with Flora."
+
+"No, no! By Heaven, no!"
+
+"Yes, Charles. Reflect upon the consequences now of a union with such a
+family."
+
+"Oh, Henry Bannerworth, can you suppose me so dead to all good feeling,
+so utterly lost to honourable impulses, as to eject from my heart her
+who has possession of it entirely, on such a ground as this?"
+
+"You would be justified."
+
+"Coldly justified in prudence I might be. There are a thousand
+circumstances in which a man may be justified in a particular course of
+action, and that course yet may be neither honourable nor just. I love
+Flora; and were she tormented by the whole of the supernatural world, I
+should still love her. Nay, it becomes, then, a higher and a nobler duty
+on my part to stand between her and those evils, if possible."
+
+"Charles--Charles," said Henry, "I cannot of course refuse to you my
+meed of praise and admiration for your generosity of feeling; but,
+remember, if we are compelled, despite all our feelings and all our
+predilections to the contrary, to give in to a belief in the existence
+of vampyres, why may we not at once receive as the truth all that is
+recorded of them?"
+
+"To what do you allude?"
+
+"To this. That one who has been visited by a vampyre, and whose blood
+has formed a horrible repast for such a being, becomes, after death, one
+of the dreadful race, and visits others in the same way."
+
+"Now this must be insanity," cried Charles.
+
+"It bears the aspect of it, indeed," said Henry; "oh, that you could by
+some means satisfy yourself that I am mad."
+
+"There may be insanity in this family," thought Charles, with such an
+exquisite pang of misery, that he groaned aloud.
+
+"Already," added Henry, mournfully, "already the blighting influence of
+the dreadful tale is upon you, Charles. Oh, let me add my advice to
+Flora's entreaties. She loves you, and we all esteem you; fly, then,
+from us, and leave us to encounter our miseries alone. Fly from us,
+Charles Holland, and take with you our best wishes for happiness which
+you cannot know here."
+
+"Never," cried Charles; "I devote my existence to Flora. I will not play
+the coward, and fly from one whom I love, on such grounds. I devote my
+life to her."
+
+Henry could not speak for emotion for several minutes, and when at
+length, in a faltering voice, he could utter some words, he said,--
+
+"God of heaven, what happiness is marred by these horrible events? What
+have we all done to be the victims of such a dreadful act of vengeance?"
+
+"Henry, do not talk in that way," cried Charles. "Rather let us bend all
+our energies to overcoming the evil, than spend any time in useless
+lamentations. I cannot even yet give in to a belief in the existence of
+such a being as you say visited Flora."
+
+"But the evidences."
+
+"Look you here, Henry: until I am convinced that some things have
+happened which it is totally impossible could happen by any human means
+whatever, I will not ascribe them to supernatural influence."
+
+"But what human means, Charles, could produce what I have now narrated
+to you?"
+
+"I do not know, just at present, but I will give the subject the most
+attentive consideration. Will you accommodate me here for a time?"
+
+"You know you are as welcome here as if the house were your own, and all
+that it contains."
+
+"I believe so, most truly. You have no objection, I presume, to my
+conversing with Flora upon this strange subject?"
+
+"Certainly not. Of course you will be careful to say nothing which can
+add to her fears."
+
+"I shall be most guarded, believe me. You say that your brother George,
+Mr. Chillingworth, yourself, and this Mr. Marchdale, have all been
+cognisant of the circumstances."
+
+"Yes--yes."
+
+"Then with the whole of them you permit me to hold free communication
+upon the subject?"
+
+"Most certainly."
+
+"I will do so then. Keep up good heart, Henry, and this affair, which
+looks so full of terror at first sight, may yet be divested of some of
+its hideous aspect."
+
+"I am rejoiced, if anything can rejoice me now," said Henry, "to see you
+view the subject with so much philosophy."
+
+"Why," said Charles, "you made a remark of your own, which enabled me,
+viewing the matter in its very worst and most hideous aspect, to gather
+hope."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"You said, properly and naturally enough, that if ever we felt that
+there was such a weight of evidence in favour of a belief in the
+existence of vampyres that we are compelled to succumb to it, we might
+as well receive all the popular feelings and superstitions concerning
+them likewise."
+
+"I did. Where is the mind to pause, when once we open it to the
+reception of such things?"
+
+"Well, then, if that be the case, we will watch this vampyre and catch
+it."
+
+"Catch it?"
+
+"Yes; surely it can be caught; as I understand, this species of being is
+not like an apparition, that may be composed of thin air, and utterly
+impalpable to the human touch, but it consists of a revivified corpse."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"Then it is tangible and destructible. By Heaven! if ever I catch a
+glimpse of any such thing, it shall drag me to its home, be that where
+it may, or I will make it prisoner."
+
+"Oh, Charles! you know not the feeling of horror that will come across
+you when you do. You have no idea of how the warm blood will seem to
+curdle in your veins, and how you will be paralysed in every limb."
+
+"Did you feel so?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"I will endeavour to make head against such feelings. The love of Flora
+shall enable me to vanquish them. Think you it will come again
+to-morrow?"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"I can have no thought the one way or the other."
+
+"It may. We must arrange among us all, Henry, some plan of watching
+which, without completely prostrating our health and strength, will
+always provide that one shall be up all night and on the alert."
+
+"It must be done."
+
+"Flora ought to sleep with the consciousness now that she has ever at
+hand some intrepid and well-armed protector, who is not only himself
+prepared to defend her, but who can in a moment give an alarm to us all,
+in case of necessity requiring it."
+
+"It would be a dreadful capture to make to seize a vampyre," said Henry.
+
+"Not at all; it would be a very desirable one. Being a corpse
+revivified, it is capable of complete destruction, so as to render it no
+longer a scourge to any one."
+
+"Charles, Charles, are you jesting with me, or do you really give any
+credence to the story?"
+
+"My dear friend, I always make it a rule to take things at their worst,
+and then I cannot be disappointed. I am content to reason upon this
+matter as if the fact of the existence of a vampyre were thoroughly
+established, and then to think upon what is best to be done about it."
+
+"You are right."
+
+"If it should turn out then that there is an error in the fact, well and
+good--we are all the better off; but if otherwise, we are prepared, and
+armed at all points."
+
+"Let it be so, then. It strikes me, Charles, that you will be the
+coolest and the calmest among us all on this emergency; but the hour now
+waxes late, I will get them to prepare a chamber for you, and at least
+to-night, after what has occurred already, I should think we can be
+under no apprehension."
+
+"Probably not. But, Henry, if you would allow me to sleep in that room
+where the portrait hangs of him whom you suppose to be the vampyre, I
+should prefer it."
+
+"Prefer it!"
+
+"Yes; I am not one who courts danger for danger's sake, but I would
+rather occupy that room, to see if the vampyre, who perhaps has a
+partiality for it, will pay me a visit."
+
+"As you please, Charles. You can have the apartment. It is in the same
+state as when occupied by Flora. Nothing has been, I believe, removed
+from it."
+
+"You will let me, then, while I remain here, call it my room?"
+
+"Assuredly."
+
+This arrangement was accordingly made to the surprise of all the
+household, not one of whom would, indeed, have slept, or attempted to
+sleep there for any amount of reward. But Charles Holland had his own
+reasons for preferring that chamber, and he was conducted to it in the
+course of half an hour by Henry, who looked around it with a shudder, as
+he bade his young friend good night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+CHARLES HOLLAND'S SAD FEELINGS.--THE PORTRAIT.--THE OCCURRENCE OF THE
+NIGHT AT THE HALL.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Charles Holland wished to be alone, if ever any human being had wished
+fervently to be so. His thoughts were most fearfully oppressive.
+
+The communication that had been made to him by Henry Bannerworth, had
+about it too many strange, confirmatory circumstances to enable him to
+treat it, in his own mind, with the disrespect that some mere freak of a
+distracted and weak imagination would, most probably, have received from
+him.
+
+He had found Flora in a state of excitement which could arise only from
+some such terrible cause as had been mentioned by her brother, and then
+he was, from an occurrence which certainly never could have entered into
+his calculations, asked to forego the bright dream of happiness which he
+had held so long and so rapturously to his heart.
+
+How truly he found that the course of true love ran not smooth; and yet
+how little would any one have suspected that from such a cause as that
+which now oppressed his mind, any obstruction would arise.
+
+Flora might have been fickle and false; he might have seen some other
+fairer face, which might have enchained his fancy, and woven for him a
+new heart's chain; death might have stepped between him and the
+realization of his fondest hopes; loss of fortune might have made the
+love cruel which would have yoked to its distresses a young and
+beautiful girl, reared in the lap of luxury, and who was not, even by
+those who loved her, suffered to feel, even in later years, any of the
+pinching necessities of the family.
+
+All these things were possible--some of them were probable; and yet none
+of them had occurred. She loved him still; and he, although he had
+looked on many a fair face, and basked in the sunny smiles of beauty,
+had never for a moment forgotten her faith, or lost his devotion to his
+own dear English girl.
+
+Fortune he had enough for both; death had not even threatened to rob him
+of the prize of such a noble and faithful heart which he had won. But a
+horrible superstition had arisen, which seemed to place at once an
+impassable abyss between them, and to say to him, in a voice of
+thundering denunciation,--
+
+"Charles Holland, will you have a vampyre for your bride?"
+
+The thought was terrific. He paced the gloomy chamber to and fro with
+rapid strides, until the idea came across his mind that by so doing he
+might not only be proclaiming to his kind entertainers how much he was
+mentally distracted, but he likewise might be seriously distracting
+them.
+
+The moment this occurred to him he sat down, and was profoundly still
+for some time. He then glanced at the light which had been given to him,
+and he found himself almost unconsciously engaged in a mental
+calculation as to how long it would last him in the night.
+
+Half ashamed, then, of such terrors, as such a consideration would seem
+to indicate, he was on the point of hastily extinguishing it, when he
+happened to cast his eyes on the now mysterious and highly interesting
+portrait in the panel.
+
+The picture, as a picture, was well done, whether it was a correct
+likeness or not of the party whom it represented. It was one of those
+kind of portraits that seem so life-like, that, as you look at them,
+they seem to return your gaze fully, and even to follow you with their
+eyes from place to place.
+
+By candle-light such an effect is more likely to become striking and
+remarkable than by daylight; and now, as Charles Holland shaded his own
+eyes from the light, so as to cast its full radiance upon the portrait,
+he felt wonderfully interested in its life-like appearance.
+
+"Here is true skill," he said; "such as I have not before seen. How
+strangely this likeness of a man whom I never saw seems to gaze upon
+me."
+
+Unconsciously, too, he aided the effect, which he justly enough called
+life-like, by a slight movement of the candle, such as any one not
+blessed with nerves of iron would be sure to make, and such a movement
+made the face look as if it was inspired with vitality.
+
+Charles remained looking at the portrait for a considerable period of
+time. He found a kind of fascination in it which prevented him from
+drawing his eyes away from it. It was not fear which induced him to
+continue gazing on it, but the circumstance that it was a likeness of
+the man who, after death, was supposed to have borrowed so new and so
+hideous an existence, combined with its artistic merits, chained him to
+the spot.
+
+"I shall now," he said, "know that face again, let me see it where I
+may, or under what circumstances I may. Each feature is now indelibly
+fixed upon my memory--I never can mistake it."
+
+He turned aside as he uttered these words, and as he did so his eyes
+fell upon a part of the ornamental frame which composed the edge of the
+panel, and which seemed to him to be of a different colour from the
+surrounding portion.
+
+Curiosity and increased interest prompted him at once to make a closer
+inquiry into the matter; and, by a careful and diligent scrutiny, he was
+almost induced to come to the positive opinion, that it no very distant
+period in time past, the portrait had been removed from the place it
+occupied.
+
+When once this idea, even vague and indistinct as it was, in consequence
+of the slight grounds he formed it on, had got possession of his mind,
+he felt most anxious to prove its verification or its fallacy.
+
+He held the candle in a variety of situations, so that its light fell in
+different ways on the picture; and the more he examined it, the more he
+felt convinced that it must have been moved lately.
+
+It would appear as if, in its removal, a piece of the old oaken carved
+framework of the panel had been accidentally broken off, which caused
+the new look of the fracture, and that this accident, from the nature of
+the broken bit of framing, could have occurred in any other way than
+from an actual or attempted removal of the picture, he felt was
+extremely unlikely.
+
+He set down the candle on a chair near at hand, and tried if the panel
+was fast in its place. Upon the very first touch, he felt convinced it
+was not so, and that it easily moved. How to get it out, though,
+presented a difficulty, and to get it out was tempting.
+
+"Who knows," he said to himself, "what may be behind it? This is an old
+baronial sort of hall, and the greater portion of it was, no doubt,
+built at a time when the construction of such places as hidden chambers
+and intricate staircases were, in all buildings of importance,
+considered a disiderata."
+
+That he should make some discovery behind the portrait, now became an
+idea that possessed him strongly, although he certainly had no definite
+grounds for really supposing that he should do so.
+
+Perhaps the wish was more father to the thought than he, in the partial
+state of excitement he was in, really imagined; but so it was. He felt
+convinced that he should not be satisfied until he had removed that
+panel from the wall, and seen what was immediately behind it.
+
+After the panel containing the picture had been placed where it was, it
+appeared that pieces of moulding had been inserted all around, which had
+had the effect of keeping it in its place, and it was a fracture of one
+of these pieces which had first called Charles Holland's attention to
+the probability of the picture having been removed. That he should have
+to get two, at least, of the pieces of moulding away, before he could
+hope to remove the picture, was to him quite apparent, and he was
+considering how he should accomplish such a result, when he was suddenly
+startled by a knock at his chamber door.
+
+Until that sudden demand for admission at his door came, he scarcely
+knew to what a nervous state he had worked himself up. It was an odd
+sort of tap--one only--a single tap, as if some one demanded admittance,
+and wished to awaken his attention with the least possible chance of
+disturbing any one else.
+
+"Come in," said Charles, for he knew he had not fastened his door; "come
+in."
+
+There was no reply, but after a moment's pause, the same sort of low tap
+came again.
+
+Again he cried "come in," but, whoever it was, seemed determined that
+the door should be opened for him, and no movement was made from the
+outside. A third time the tap came, and Charles was very close to the
+door when he heard it, for with a noiseless step he had approached it
+intending to open it. The instant this third mysterious demand for
+admission came, he did open it wide. There was no one there! In an
+instant he crossed the threshold into the corridor, which ran right and
+left. A window at one end of it now sent in the moon's rays, so that it
+was tolerably light, but he could see no one. Indeed, to look for any
+one, he felt sure was needless, for he had opened his chamber-door
+almost simultaneously with the last knock for admission.
+
+"It is strange," he said, as he lingered on the threshold of his room
+door for some moments; "my imagination could not so completely deceive
+me. There was most certainly a demand for admission."
+
+Slowly, then, he returned to his room again, and closed the door behind
+him.
+
+"One thing is evident," he said, "that if I am in this apartment to be
+subjected to these annoyances, I shall get no rest, which will soon
+exhaust me."
+
+This thought was a very provoking one, and the more he thought that he
+should ultimately find a necessity for giving up that chamber he had
+himself asked as a special favour to be allowed to occupy, the more
+vexed he became to think what construction might be put upon his conduct
+for so doing.
+
+"They will all fancy me a coward," he thought, "and that I dare not
+sleep here. They may not, of course, say so, but they will think that my
+appearing so bold was one of those acts of bravado which I have not
+courage to carry fairly out."
+
+Taking this view of the matter was just the way to enlist a young man's
+pride in staying, under all circumstances, where he was, and, with a
+slight accession of colour, which, even although he was alone, would
+visit his cheeks, Charles Holland said aloud,--
+
+"I will remain the occupant of this room come what may, happen what may.
+No terrors, real or unsubstantial, shall drive me from it: I will brave
+them all, and remain here to brave them."
+
+Tap came the knock at the door again, and now, with more an air of
+vexation than fear, Charles turned again towards it, and listened. Tap
+in another minute again succeeded, and much annoyed, he walked close to
+the door, and laid his hand upon the lock, ready to open it at the
+precise moment of another demand for admission being made.
+
+He had not to wait long. In about half a minute it came again, and,
+simultaneously with the sound, the door flew open. There was no one to
+be seen; but, as he opened the door, he heard a strange sound in the
+corridor--a sound which scarcely could be called a groan, and scarcely a
+sigh, but seemed a compound of both, having the agony of the one
+combined with the sadness of the other. From what direction it came he
+could not at the moment decide, but he called out,--
+
+"Who's there? who's there?"
+
+The echo of his own voice alone answered him for a few moments, and then
+he heard a door open, and a voice, which he knew to be Henry's, cried,--
+
+"What is it? who speaks?"
+
+"Henry," said Charles.
+
+"Yes--yes--yes."
+
+"I fear I have disturbed you."
+
+"You have been disturbed yourself, or you would not have done so. I
+shall be with you in a moment."
+
+Henry closed his door before Charles Holland could tell him not to come
+to him, as he intended to do, for he felt ashamed to have, in a manner
+of speaking, summoned assistance for so trifling a cause of alarm as
+that to which he had been subjected. However, he could not go to Henry's
+chamber to forbid him from coming to his, and, more vexed than before,
+he retired to his room again to await his coming.
+
+He left the door open now, so that Henry Bannerworth, when he had got on
+some articles of dress, walked in at once, saying,--
+
+"What has happened, Charles?"
+
+"A mere trifle, Henry, concerning which I am ashamed you should have
+been at all disturbed."
+
+"Never mind that, I was wakeful."
+
+"I heard a door open, which kept me listening, but I could not decide
+which door it was till I heard your voice in the corridor."
+
+"Well, it was this door; and I opened it twice in consequence of the
+repeated taps for admission that came to it; some one has been knocking
+at it, and, when I go to it, lo! I can see nobody."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Such is the case."
+
+"You surprise me."
+
+"I am very sorry to have disturbed you, because, upon such a ground, I
+do not feel that I ought to have done so; and, when I called out in the
+corridor, I assure you it was with no such intention."
+
+"Do not regret it for a moment," said Henry; "you were quite justified
+in making an alarm on such an occasion."
+
+"It's strange enough, but still it may arise from some accidental cause;
+admitting, if we did but know it, of some ready enough explanation."
+
+"It may, certainly, but, after what has happened already, we may well
+suppose a mysterious connexion between any unusual sight or sound, and
+the fearful ones we have already seen."
+
+"Certainly we may."
+
+"How earnestly that strange portrait seems to look upon us, Charles."
+
+"It does, and I have been examining it carefully. It seems to have been
+removed lately."
+
+"Removed!"
+
+"Yes, I think, as far as I can judge, that it has been taken from its
+frame; I mean, that the panel on which it is painted has been taken
+out."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"If you touch it you will find it loose, and, upon a close examination,
+you will perceive that a piece of the moulding which holds it in its
+place has been chipped off, which is done in such a place that I think
+it could only have arisen during the removal of the picture."
+
+"You must be mistaken."
+
+"I cannot, of course, take upon myself, Henry, to say precisely such is
+the case," said Charles.
+
+"But there is no one here to do so."
+
+"That I cannot say. Will you permit me and assist me to remove it? I
+have a great curiosity to know what is behind it."
+
+"If you have, I certainly will do so. We thought of taking it away
+altogether, but when Flora left this room the idea was given up as
+useless. Remain here a few moments, and I will endeavour to find
+something which shall assist us in its removal."
+
+Henry left the mysterious chamber in order to search in his own for some
+means of removing the frame-work of the picture, so that the panel would
+slip easily out, and while he was gone, Charles Holland continued gazing
+upon it with greater interest, if possible, than before.
+
+In a few minutes Henry returned, and although what he had succeeded in
+finding were very inefficient implements for the purpose, yet with this
+aid the two young men set about the task.
+
+It is said, and said truly enough, that "where there is a will there is
+a way," and although the young men had no tools at all adapted for the
+purpose, they did succeed in removing the moulding from the sides of the
+panel, and then by a little tapping at one end of it, and using a knife
+at a lever at the other end of the panel, they got it fairly out.
+
+Disappointment was all they got for their pains. On the other side there
+was nothing but a rough wooden wall, against which the finer and more
+nicely finished oak panelling of the chamber rested.
+
+"There is no mystery here," said Henry.
+
+"None whatever," said Charles, as he tapped the wall with his knuckles,
+and found it all hard and sound. "We are foiled."
+
+"We are indeed."
+
+"I had a strange presentiment, now," added Charles, "that we should make
+some discovery that would repay us for our trouble. It appears, however,
+that such is not to be the case; for you see nothing presents itself to
+us but the most ordinary appearances."
+
+"I perceive as much; and the panel itself, although of more than
+ordinary thickness, is, after all, but a bit of planed oak, and
+apparently fashioned for no other object than to paint the portrait on."
+
+"True. Shall we replace it?"
+
+Charles reluctantly assented, and the picture was replaced in its
+original position. We say Charles reluctantly assented, because,
+although he had now had ocular demonstration that there was really
+nothing behind the panel but the ordinary woodwork which might have been
+expected from the construction of the old house, yet he could not, even
+with such a fact staring him in the face, get rid entirely of the
+feeling that had come across him, to the effect that the picture had
+some mystery or another.
+
+"You are not yet satisfied," said Henry, as he observed the doubtful
+look of Charles Holland's face.
+
+"My dear friend," said Charles, "I will not deceive you. I am much
+disappointed that we have made no discovery behind that picture."
+
+"Heaven knows we have mysteries enough in our family," said Henry.
+
+Even as he spoke they were both startled by a strange clattering noise
+at the window, which was accompanied by a shrill, odd kind of shriek,
+which sounded fearful and preternatural on the night air.
+
+"What is that?" said Charles.
+
+"God only knows," said Henry.
+
+The two young men naturally turned their earnest gaze in the direction
+of the window, which we have before remarked was one unprovided with
+shutters, and there, to their intense surprise, they saw, slowly rising
+up from the lower part of it, what appeared to be a human form. Henry
+would have dashed forward, but Charles restrained him, and drawing
+quickly from its case a large holster pistol, he levelled it carefully
+at the figure, saying in a whisper,--
+
+"Henry, if I don't hit it, I will consent to forfeit my head."
+
+He pulled the trigger--a loud report followed--the room was filled with
+smoke, and then all was still. A circumstance, however, had occurred, as
+a consequence of the concussion of air produced by the discharge of the
+pistol, which neither of the young men had for the moment calculated
+upon, and that was the putting out of the only light they there had.
+
+In spite of this circumstance, Charles, the moment he had discharged the
+pistol, dropped it and sprung forward to the window. But here he was
+perplexed, for he could not find the old fashioned, intricate fastening
+which held it shut, and he had to call to Henry,--
+
+"Henry! For God's sake open the window for me, Henry! The fastening of
+the window is known to you, but not to me. Open it for me."
+
+Thus called upon, Henry sprung forward, and by this time the report of
+the pistol had effectually alarmed the whole household. The flashing of
+lights from the corridor came into the room, and in another minute, just
+as Henry succeeded in getting the window wide open, and Charles Holland
+had made his way on to the balcony, both George Bannerworth and Mr.
+Marchdale entered the chamber, eager to know what had occurred. To their
+eager questions Henry replied,--
+
+"Ask me not now;" and then calling to Charles, he said,--"Remain where
+you are, Charles, while I run down to the garden immediately beneath the
+balcony."
+
+"Yes--yes," said Charles.
+
+Henry made prodigious haste, and was in the garden immediately below the
+bay window in a wonderfully short space of time. He spoke to Charles,
+saying,--
+
+"Will you now descend? I can see nothing here; but we will both make a
+search."
+
+George and Mr. Marchdale were both now in the balcony, and they would
+have descended likewise, but Henry said,--
+
+"Do not all leave the house. God only knows, now, situated as we are,
+what might happen."
+
+"I will remain, then," said George. "I have been sitting up to-night as
+the guard, and, therefore, may as well continue to do so."
+
+Marchdale and Charles Holland clambered over the balcony, and easily,
+from its insignificant height, dropped into the garden. The night was
+beautiful, and profoundly still. There was not a breath of air
+sufficient to stir a leaf on a tree, and the very flame of the candle
+which Charles had left burning in the balcony burnt clearly and
+steadily, being perfectly unruffled by any wind.
+
+It cast a sufficient light close to the window to make everything very
+plainly visible, and it was evident at a glance that no object was
+there, although had that figure, which Charles shot at, and no doubt
+hit, been flesh and blood, it must have dropped immediately below.
+
+As they looked up for a moment after a cursory examination of the
+ground, Charles exclaimed,--
+
+"Look at the window! As the light is now situated, you can see the hole
+made in one of the panes of glass by the passage of the bullet from my
+pistol."
+
+They did look, and there the clear, round hole, without any starring,
+which a bullet discharged close to a pane of glass will make in it, was
+clearly and plainly discernible.
+
+"You must have hit him," said Henry.
+
+"One would think so," said Charles; "for that was the exact place where
+the figure was."
+
+"And there is nothing here," added Marchdale. "What can we think of
+these events--what resource has the mind against the most dreadful
+suppositions concerning them?"
+
+Charles and Henry were both silent; in truth, they knew not what to
+think, and the words uttered by Marchdale were too strikingly true to
+dispute for a moment. They were lost in wonder.
+
+"Human means against such an appearance as we saw to-night," said
+Charles, "are evidently useless."
+
+"My dear young friend," said Marchdale, with much emotion, as he grasped
+Henry Bannerworth's hand, and the tears stood in his eyes as he did
+so,--"my dear young friend, these constant alarms will kill you. They
+will drive you, and all whose happiness you hold dear, distracted. You
+must control these dreadful feelings, and there is but one chance that I
+can see of getting now the better of these."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"By leaving this place for ever."
+
+"Alas! am I to be driven from the home of my ancestors from such a cause
+as this? And whither am I to fly? Where are we to find a refuge? To
+leave here will be at once to break up the establishment which is now
+held together, certainly upon the sufferance of creditors, but still to
+their advantage, inasmuch as I am doing what no one else would do,
+namely, paying away to within the scantiest pittance the whole proceeds
+of the estate that spreads around me."
+
+"Heed nothing but an escape from such horrors as seem to be accumulating
+now around you."
+
+"If I were sure that such a removal would bring with it such a
+corresponding advantage, I might, indeed, be induced to risk all to
+accomplish it."
+
+"As regards poor dear Flora," said Mr. Marchdale, "I know not what to
+say, or what to think; she has been attacked by a vampyre, and after
+this mortal life shall have ended, it is dreadful to think there may be
+a possibility that she, with all her beauty, all her excellence and
+purity of mind, and all those virtues and qualities which should make
+her the beloved of all, and which do, indeed, attach all hearts towards
+her, should become one of that dreadful tribe of beings who cling to
+existence by feeding, in the most dreadful manner, upon the life blood
+of others--oh, it is too dreadful to contemplate! Too horrible--too
+horrible!"
+
+"Then wherefore speak of it?" said Charles, with some asperity. "Now, by
+the great God of Heaven, who sees all our hearts, I will not give in to
+such a horrible doctrine! I will not believe it; and were death itself
+my portion for my want of faith, I would this moment die in my disbelief
+of anything so truly fearful!"
+
+"Oh, my young friend," added Marchdale, "if anything could add to the
+pangs which all who love, and admire, and respect Flora Bannerworth must
+feel at the unhappy condition in which she is placed, it would be the
+noble nature of you, who, under happier auspices, would have been her
+guide through life, and the happy partner of her destiny."
+
+"As I will be still."
+
+"May Heaven forbid it! We are now among ourselves, and can talk freely
+upon such a subject. Mr. Charles Holland, if you wed, you would look
+forward to being blessed with children--those sweet ties which bind the
+sternest hearts to life with so exquisite a bondage. Oh, fancy, then,
+for a moment, the mother of your babes coming at the still hour of
+midnight to drain from their veins the very life blood she gave to them.
+To drive you and them mad with the expected horror of such
+visitations--to make your nights hideous--your days but so many hours of
+melancholy retrospection. Oh, you know not the world of terror, on the
+awful brink of which you stand, when you talk of making Flora
+Bannerworth a wife."
+
+"Peace! oh, peace!" said Henry.
+
+"Nay, I know my words are unwelcome," continued Mr. Marchdale. "It
+happens, unfortunately for human nature, that truth and some of our best
+and holiest feelings are too often at variance, and hold a sad
+contest--"
+
+"I will hear no more of this," cried Charles Holland.--"I will hear no
+more."
+
+"I have done," said Mr. Marchdale.
+
+"And 'twere well you had not begun."
+
+"Nay, say not so. I have but done what I considered was a solemn duty."
+
+"Under that assumption of doing duty--a solemn duty--heedless of the
+feelings and the opinions of others," said Charles, sarcastically, "more
+mischief is produced--more heart-burnings and anxieties caused, than by
+any other two causes of such mischievous results combined. I wish to
+hear no more of this."
+
+"Do not be angered with Mr. Marchdale, Charles," said Henry. "He can
+have no motive but our welfare in what he says. We should not condemn a
+speaker because his words may not sound pleasant to our ears."
+
+"By Heaven!" said Charles, with animation, "I meant not to be illiberal;
+but I will not because I cannot see a man's motives for active
+interference in the affairs of others, always be ready, merely on
+account of such ignorance, to jump to a conclusion that they must be
+estimable."
+
+"To-morrow, I leave this house," said Marchdale.
+
+"Leave us?" exclaimed Henry.
+
+"Ay, for ever."
+
+"Nay, now, Mr. Marchdale, is this generous?"
+
+"Am I treated generously by one who is your own guest, and towards whom
+I was willing to hold out the honest right hand of friendship?"
+
+Henry turned to Charles Holland, saying,--
+
+"Charles, I know your generous nature. Say you meant no offence to my
+mother's old friend."
+
+"If to say I meant no offence," said Charles, "is to say I meant no
+insult, I say it freely."
+
+"Enough," cried Marchdale; "I am satisfied."
+
+"But do not," added Charles, "draw me any more such pictures as the one
+you have already presented to my imagination, I beg of you. From the
+storehouse of my own fancy I can find quite enough to make me wretched,
+if I choose to be so; but again and again do I say I will not allow this
+monstrous superstition to tread me down, like the tread of a giant on a
+broken reed. I will contend against it while I have life to do so."
+
+"Bravely spoken."
+
+"And when I desert Flora Bannerworth, may Heaven, from that moment,
+desert me!"
+
+"Charles!" cried Henry, with emotion, "dear Charles, my more than
+friend--brother of my heart--noble Charles!"
+
+"Nay, Henry, I am not entitled to your praises. I were base indeed to be
+other than that which I purpose to be. Come weal or woe--come what may,
+I am the affianced husband of your sister, and she, and she only, can
+break asunder the tie that binds me to her."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE OFFER FOR THE HALL.--THE VISIT TO SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.--THE STRANGE
+RESEMBLANCE.--A DREADFUL SUGGESTION.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The party made a strict search through every nook and corner of the
+garden, but it proved to be a fruitless one: not the least trace of any
+one could be found. There was only one circumstance, which was pondered
+over deeply by them all, and that was that, beneath the window of the
+room in which Flora and her mother sat while the brothers were on their
+visit to the vault of their ancestors, were visible marks of blood to a
+considerable extent.
+
+It will be remembered that Flora had fired a pistol at the spectral
+appearance, and that immediately upon that it had disappeared, after
+uttering a sound which might well be construed into a cry of pain from a
+wound.
+
+That a wound then had been inflicted upon some one, the blood beneath
+the window now abundantly testified; and when it was discovered, Henry
+and Charles made a very close examination indeed of the garden, to
+discover what direction the wounded figure, be it man or vampyre, had
+taken.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+But the closest scrutiny did not reveal to them a single spot of blood,
+beyond the space immediately beneath the window;--there the apparition
+seemed to have received its wound, and then, by some mysterious means,
+to have disappeared.
+
+At length, wearied with the continued excitement, combined with want of
+sleep, to which they had been subjected, they returned to the hall.
+
+Flora, with the exception of the alarm she experienced from the firing
+of the pistol, had met with no disturbance, and that, in order to spare
+her painful reflections, they told her was merely done as a
+precautionary measure, to proclaim to any one who might be lurking in
+the garden that the inmates of the house were ready to defend themselves
+against any aggression.
+
+Whether or not she believed this kind deceit they knew not. She only
+sighed deeply, and wept. The probability is, that she more than
+suspected the vampyre had made another visit, but they forbore to press
+the point; and, leaving her with her mother, Henry and George went from
+her chamber again--the former to endeavour to seek some repose, as it
+would be his turn to watch on the succeeding night, and the latter to
+resume his station in a small room close to Flora's chamber, where it
+had been agreed watch and ward should be kept by turns while the alarm
+lasted.
+
+At length, the morning again dawned upon that unhappy family, and to
+none were its beams more welcome.
+
+The birds sang their pleasant carols beneath the window. The sweet,
+deep-coloured autumnal sun shone upon all objects with a golden luster;
+and to look abroad, upon the beaming face of nature, no one could for a
+moment suppose, except from sad experience, that there were such things
+as gloom, misery, and crime, upon the earth.
+
+"And must I," said Henry, as he gazed from a window of the hall upon the
+undulating park, the majestic trees, the flowers, the shrubs, and the
+many natural beauties with which the place was full,--"must I be chased
+from this spot, the home of my self and of my kindred, by a
+phantom--must I indeed seek refuge elsewhere, because my own home has
+become hideous?"
+
+It was indeed a cruel and a painful thought! It was one he yet would
+not, could not be convinced was absolutely necessary. But now the sun
+was shining: it was morning; and the feelings, which found a home in his
+breast amid the darkness, the stillness, and the uncertainty of night,
+were chased away by those glorious beams of sunlight, that fell upon
+hill, valley, and stream, and the thousand sweet sounds of life and
+animation that filled that sunny air!
+
+Such a revulsion of feeling was natural enough. Many of the distresses
+and mental anxieties of night vanish with the night, and those which
+oppressed the heart of Henry Bannerworth were considerably modified.
+
+He was engaged in these reflections when he heard the sound of the lodge
+bell, and as a visitor was now somewhat rare at this establishment, he
+waited with some anxiety to see to whom he was indebted for so early a
+call.
+
+In the course of a few minutes, one of the servants came to him with a
+letter in her hand.
+
+It bore a large handsome seal, and, from its appearance, would seem to
+have come from some personage of consequence. A second glance at it
+shewed him the name of "Varney" in the corner, and, with some degree of
+vexation, he muttered to himself,
+
+"Another condoling epistle from the troublesome neighbour whom I have
+not yet seen."
+
+"If you please, sir," said the servant who had brought him the letter,
+"as I'm here, and you are here, perhaps you'll have no objection to give
+me what I'm to have for the day and two nights as I've been here, cos I
+can't stay in a family as is so familiar with all sorts o' ghostesses: I
+ain't used to such company."
+
+"What do you mean?" said Henry.
+
+The question was a superfluous one--: too well he knew what the woman
+meant, and the conviction came across his mind strongly that no domestic
+would consent to live long in a house which was subject to such dreadful
+visitations.
+
+"What does I mean!" said the woman,--"why, sir, if it's all the same to
+you, I don't myself come of a wampyre family, and I don't choose to
+remain in a house where there is sich things encouraged. That's what I
+means, sir."
+
+"What wages are owing to you?" said Henry.
+
+"Why, as to wages, I only comed here by the day."
+
+"Go, then, and settle with my mother. The sooner you leave this house,
+the better."
+
+"Oh, indeed. I'm sure I don't want to stay."
+
+This woman was one of those who were always armed at all points for a
+row, and she had no notion of concluding any engagement, of any
+character whatever, without some disturbance; therefore, to see Henry
+take what she said with such provoking calmness was aggravating in the
+extreme; but there was no help for such a source of vexation. She could
+find no other ground of quarrel than what was connected with the
+vampyre, and, as Henry would not quarrel with her on such a score, she
+was compelled to give it up in despair.
+
+When Henry found himself alone, and free from the annoyance of this
+woman, he turned his attention to the letter he held in his hand, and
+which, from the autograph in the corner, he knew came from his new
+neighbour, Sir Francis Varney, whom, by some chance or another, he had
+never yet seen.
+
+To his great surprise, he found that the letter contained the following
+words:--
+
+     Dear Sir,--"As a neighbour, by purchase of an estate contiguous
+     to your own, I am quite sure you have excused, and taken in good
+     part, the cordial offer I made to you of friendship and service
+     some short time since; but now, in addressing to you a distinct
+     proposition, I trust I shall meet with an indulgent
+     consideration, whether such proposition be accordant with your
+     views or not.
+
+     "What I have heard from common report induces me to believe that
+     Bannerworth Hall cannot be a desirable residence for yourself, or
+     your amiable sister. If I am right in that conjecture, and you
+     have any serious thought of leaving the place, I would earnestly
+     recommend you, as one having some experience in such descriptions
+     of property, to sell it at once.
+
+     "Now, the proposition with which I conclude this letter is, I
+     know, of a character to make you doubt the disinterestedness of
+     such advice; but that it is disinterested, nevertheless, is a
+     fact of which I can assure my own heart, and of which I beg to
+     assure you. I propose, then, should you, upon consideration,
+     decide upon such a course of proceeding, to purchase of you the
+     Hall. I do not ask for a bargain on account of any extraneous
+     circumstances which may at the present time depreciate the value
+     of the property, but I am willing to give a fair price for it.
+     Under these circumstances, I trust, sir, that you will give a
+     kindly consideration to my offer, and even if you reject it, I
+     hope that, as neighbours, we may live long in peace and amity,
+     and in the interchange of those good offices which should subsist
+     between us. Awaiting your reply,
+
+     "Believe me to be, dear sir,
+
+     "Your very obedient servant,
+
+     "FRANCIS VARNEY.
+
+     "To Henry Bannerworth, Esq."
+
+Henry, after having read this most unobjectionable letter through,
+folded it up again, and placed it in his pocket. Clasping his hands,
+then, behind his back, a favourite attitude of his when he was in deep
+contemplation, he paced to and fro in the garden for some time in deep
+thought.
+
+"How strange," he muttered. "It seems that every circumstance combines
+to induce me to leave my old ancestral home. It appears as if everything
+now that happened had that direct tendency. What can be the meaning of
+all this? 'Tis very strange--amazingly strange. Here arise circumstances
+which are enough to induce any man to leave a particular place. Then a
+friend, in whose single-mindedness and judgment I know I can rely,
+advises the step, and immediately upon the back of that comes a fair and
+candid offer."
+
+There was an apparent connexion between all these circumstances which
+much puzzled Henry. He walked to and fro for nearly an hour, until he
+heard a hasty footstep approaching him, and upon looking in the
+direction from whence it came, he saw Mr. Marchdale.
+
+"I will seek Marchdale's advice," he said, "upon this matter. I will
+hear what he says concerning it."
+
+"Henry," said Marchdale, when he came sufficiently near to him for
+conversation, "why do you remain here alone?"
+
+"I have received a communication from our neighbour, Sir Francis
+Varney," said Henry.
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"It is here. Peruse it for yourself, and then tell me, Marchdale,
+candidly what you think of it."
+
+"I suppose," said Marchdale, as he opened the letter, "it is another
+friendly note of condolence on the state of your domestic affairs,
+which, I grieve to say, from the prattling of domestics, whose tongues
+it is quite impossible to silence, have become food for gossip all over
+the neighbouring villages and estates."
+
+"If anything could add another pang to those I have already been made to
+suffer," said Henry, "it would certainly arise from being made the food
+of vulgar gossip. But read the letter, Marchdale. You will find its
+contents of a more important character than you anticipate."
+
+"Indeed!" said Marchdale, as he ran his eyes eagerly over the note.
+
+When he had finished it he glanced at Henry, who then said,--
+
+"Well, what is your opinion?"
+
+"I know not what to say, Henry. You know that my own advice to you has
+been to get rid of this place."
+
+"It has."
+
+"With the hope that the disagreeable affair connected with it now may
+remain connected with it as a house, and not with you and yours as a
+family."
+
+"It may be so."
+
+"There appears to me every likelihood of it."
+
+"I do not know," said Henry, with a shudder. "I must confess, Marchdale,
+that to my own perceptions it seems more probable that the infliction we
+have experienced from the strange visitor, who seems now resolved to
+pester us with visits, will rather attach to a family than to a house.
+The vampyre may follow us."
+
+"If so, of course the parting with the Hall would be a great pity, and
+no gain."
+
+"None in the least."
+
+"Henry, a thought has struck me."
+
+"Let's hear it, Marchdale."
+
+"It is this:--Suppose you were to try the experiment of leaving the Hall
+without selling it. Suppose for one year you were to let it to some one,
+Henry."
+
+"It might be done."
+
+"Ay, and it might, with very great promise and candour, be proposed to
+this very gentleman, Sir Francis Varney, to take it for one year, to see
+how he liked it before becoming the possessor of it. Then if he found
+himself tormented by the vampyre, he need not complete the purchase, or
+if you found that the apparition followed you from hence, you might
+yourself return, feeling that perhaps here, in the spots familiar to
+your youth, you might be most happy, even under such circumstances as at
+present oppress you."
+
+"Most happy!" ejaculated Henry.
+
+"Perhaps I should not have used that word."
+
+"I am sure you should not," said Henry, "when you speak of me."
+
+"Well--well; let us hope that the time may not be very far distant when
+I may use the term happy, as applied to you, in the most conclusive and
+the strongest manner it can be used."
+
+"Oh," said Henry, "I will hope; but do not mock me with it now,
+Marchdale, I pray you."
+
+"Heaven forbid that I should mock you!"
+
+"Well--well; I do not believe you are the man to do so to any one. But
+about this affair of the house."
+
+"Distinctly, then, if I were you, I would call upon Sir Francis Varney,
+and make him an offer to become a tenant of the Hall for twelve months,
+during which time you could go where you please, and test the fact of
+absence ridding you or not ridding you of the dreadful visitant who
+makes the night here truly hideous."
+
+"I will speak to my mother, to George, and to my sister of the matter.
+They shall decide."
+
+Mr. Marchdale now strove in every possible manner to raise the spirits
+of Henry Bannerworth, by painting to him the future in far more radiant
+colours than the present, and endeavouring to induce a belief in his
+mind that a short period of time might after all replace in his mind,
+and in the minds of those who were naturally so dear to him, all their
+wonted serenity.
+
+Henry, although he felt not much comfort from these kindly efforts, yet
+could feel gratitude to him who made them; and after expressing such a
+feeling to Marchdale, in strong terms, he repaired to the house, in
+order to hold a solemn consultation with those whom he felt ought to be
+consulted as well as himself as to what steps should be taken with
+regard to the Hall.
+
+The proposition, or rather the suggestion, which had been made by
+Marchdale upon the proposition of Sir Francis Varney, was in every
+respect so reasonable and just, that it met, as was to be expected, with
+the concurrence of every member of the family.
+
+Flora's cheeks almost resumed some of their wonted colour at the mere
+thought now of leaving that home to which she had been at one time so
+much attached.
+
+"Yes, dear Henry," she said, "let us leave here if you are agreeable so
+to do, and in leaving this house, we will believe that we leave behind
+us a world of terror."
+
+"Flora," remarked Henry, in a tone of slight reproach, "if you were so
+anxious to leave Bannerworth Hall, why did you not say so before this
+proposition came from other mouths? You know your feelings upon such a
+subject would have been laws to me."
+
+"I knew you were attached to the old house," said Flora; "and, besides,
+events have come upon us all with such fearful rapidity, there has
+scarcely been time to think."
+
+"True--true."
+
+"And you will leave, Henry?"
+
+"I will call upon Sir Francis Varney myself, and speak to him upon the
+subject."
+
+A new impetus to existence appeared now to come over the whole family,
+at the idea of leaving a place which always would be now associated in
+their minds with so much terror. Each member of the family felt happier,
+and breathed more freely than before, so that the change which had come
+over them seemed almost magical. And Charles Holland, too, was much
+better pleased, and he whispered to Flora,--
+
+"Dear Flora, you will now surely no longer talk of driving from you the
+honest heart that loves you?"
+
+"Hush, Charles, hush!" she said; "meet me an hour hence in the garden,
+and we will talk of this."
+
+"That hour will seem an age," he said.
+
+Henry, now, having made a determination to see Sir Francis Varney, lost
+no time in putting it into execution. At Mr. Marchdale's own request, he
+took him with him, as it was desirable to have a third person present in
+the sort of business negotiation which was going on. The estate which
+had been so recently entered upon by the person calling himself Sir
+Francis Varney, and which common report said he had purchased, was a
+small, but complete property, and situated so close to the grounds
+connected with Bannerworth Hall, that a short walk soon placed Henry and
+Mr. Marchdale before the residence of this gentleman, who had shown so
+kindly a feeling towards the Bannerworth family.
+
+"Have you seen Sir Francis Varney?" asked Henry of Mr. Marchdale, as he
+rung the gate-bell.
+
+"I have not. Have you?"
+
+"No; I never saw him. It is rather awkward our both being absolute
+strangers to his person."
+
+"We can but send in our names, however; and, from the great vein of
+courtesy that runs through his letter, I have no doubt but we shall
+receive the most gentlemanly reception from him."
+
+A servant in handsome livery appeared at the iron-gates, which opened
+upon a lawn in the front of Sir Francis Varney's house, and to this
+domestic Henry Bannerworth handed his card, on which he had written, in
+pencil, likewise the name of Mr. Marchdale.
+
+"If your master," he said, "is within, we shall be glad to see him."
+
+"Sir Francis is at home, sir," was the reply, "although not very well.
+If you will be pleased to walk in, I will announce you to him."
+
+Henry and Marchdale followed the man into a handsome enough
+reception-room, where they were desired to wait while their names were
+announced.
+
+"Do you know if this gentleman be a baronet," said Henry, "or a knight
+merely?"
+
+"I really do not; I never saw him in my life, or heard of him before he
+came into this neighbourhood."
+
+"And I have been too much occupied with the painful occurrences of this
+hall to know anything of our neighbours. I dare say Mr. Chillingworth,
+if we had thought to ask him, would have known something concerning
+him."
+
+"No doubt."
+
+This brief colloquy was put an end to by the servant, who said,--
+
+"My master, gentlemen, is not very well; but he begs me to present his
+best compliments, and to say he is much gratified with your visit, and
+will be happy to see you in his study."
+
+Henry and Marchdale followed the man up a flight of stone stairs, and
+then they were conducted through a large apartment into a smaller one.
+There was very little light in this small room; but at the moment of
+their entrance a tall man, who was seated, rose, and, touching the
+spring of a blind that was to the window, it was up in a moment,
+admitting a broad glare of light. A cry of surprise, mingled with
+terror, came from Henry Bannerworth's lip. _The original of the portrait
+on the panel stood before him!_ There was the lofty stature, the long,
+sallow face, the slightly projecting teeth, the dark, lustrous, although
+somewhat sombre eyes; the expression of the features--all were alike.
+
+"Are you unwell, sir?" said Sir Francis Varney, in soft, mellow accents,
+as he handed a chair to the bewildered Henry.
+
+"God of Heaven!" said Henry; "how like!"
+
+"You seem surprised, sir. Have you ever seen me before?"
+
+Sir Francis drew himself up to his full height, and cast a strange
+glance upon Henry, whose eyes were rivetted upon his face, as if with a
+species of fascination which he could not resist.
+
+"Marchdale," Henry gasped; "Marchdale, my friend, Marchdale. I--I am
+surely mad."
+
+"Hush! be calm," whispered Marchdale.
+
+"Calm--calm--can you not see? Marchdale, is this a dream?
+Look--look--oh! look."
+
+"For God's sake, Henry, compose yourself."
+
+"Is your friend often thus?" said Sir Francis Varney, with the same
+mellifluous tone which seemed habitual to him.
+
+"No, sir, he is not; but recent circumstances have shattered his nerves;
+and, to tell the truth, you bear so strong a resemblance to an old
+portrait, in his house, that I do not wonder so much as I otherwise
+should at his agitation."
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"A resemblance!" said Henry; "a resemblance! God of Heaven! it is the
+face itself."
+
+"You much surprise me," said Sir Francis.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Henry sunk into the chair which was near him, and he trembled violently.
+The rush of painful thoughts and conjectures that came through his mind
+was enough to make any one tremble. "Is this the vampyre?" was the
+horrible question that seemed impressed upon his very brain, in letters
+of flame. "Is this the vampyre?"
+
+"Are you better, sir?" said Sir Francis Varney, in his bland, musical
+voice. "Shall I order any refreshment for you?"
+
+"No--no," gasped Henry; "for the love of truth tell me! Is--is your name
+really Varney!"
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"Have you no other name to which, perhaps, a better title you could
+urge?"
+
+"Mr. Bannerworth, I can assure you that I am too proud of the name of
+the family to which I belong to exchange it for any other, be it what it
+may."
+
+"How wonderfully like!"
+
+"I grieve to see you so much distressed. Mr. Bannerworth. I presume ill
+health has thus shattered your nerves?"
+
+"No; ill health has not done the work. I know not what to say, Sir
+Francis Varney, to you; but recent events in my family have made the
+sight of you full of horrible conjectures."
+
+"What mean you, sir?"
+
+"You know, from common report, that we have had a fearful visitor at our
+house."
+
+"A vampyre, I have heard," said Sir Francis Varney, with a bland, and
+almost beautiful smile, which displayed his white glistening teeth to
+perfection.
+
+"Yes; a vampyre, and--and--"
+
+"I pray you go on, sir; you surely are far above the vulgar superstition
+of believing in such matters?"
+
+"My judgment is assailed in too many ways and shapes for it to hold out
+probably as it ought to do against so hideous a belief, but never was it
+so much bewildered as now."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Because--"
+
+"Nay, Henry," whispered Mr. Marchdale, "it is scarcely civil to tell Sir
+Francis to his face, that he resembles a vampyre."
+
+"I must, I must."
+
+"Pray, sir," interrupted Varney to Marchdale, "permit Mr. Bannerworth to
+speak here freely. There is nothing in the whole world I so much admire
+as candour."
+
+"Then you so much resemble the vampyre," added Henry, "that--that I know
+not what to think."
+
+"Is it possible?" said Varney.
+
+"It is a damning fact."
+
+"Well, it's unfortunate for me, I presume? Ah!"
+
+Varney gave a twinge of pain, as if some sudden bodily ailment had
+attacked him severely.
+
+"You are unwell, sir?" said Marchdale.
+
+"No, no--no," he said; "I--hurt my arm, and happened accidentally to
+touch the arm of this chair with it."
+
+"A hurt?" said Henry.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Bannerworth."
+
+"A--a wound?"
+
+"Yes, a wound, but not much more than skin deep. In fact, little beyond
+an abrasion of the skin."
+
+"May I inquire how you came by it?"
+
+"Oh, yes. A slight fall."
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Remarkable, is it not? Very remarkable. We never know a moment when,
+from same most trifling cause, we may receive really some serious bodily
+harm. How true it is, Mr. Bannerworth, that in the midst of life we are
+in death."
+
+"And equally true, perhaps," said Henry, "that in the midst of death
+there may be found a horrible life."
+
+"Well, I should not wonder. There are really so many strange things in
+this world, that I have left off wondering at anything now."
+
+"There are strange things," said Henry. "You wish to purchase of me the
+Hall, sir?"
+
+"If you wish to sell."
+
+"You--you are perhaps attached to the place? Perhaps you recollected it,
+sir, long ago?"
+
+"Not very long," smiled Sir Francis Varney. "It seems a nice comfortable
+old house; and the grounds, too, appear to be amazingly well wooded,
+which, to one of rather a romantic temperament like myself, is always an
+additional charm to a place. I was extremely pleased with it the first
+time I beheld it, and a desire to call myself the owner of it took
+possession of my mind. The scenery is remarkable for its beauty, and,
+from what I have seen of it, it is rarely to be excelled. No doubt you
+are greatly attached to it."
+
+"It has been my home from infancy," returned Henry, "and being also the
+residence of my ancestors for centuries, it is natural that I should be
+so."
+
+"True--true."
+
+"The house, no doubt, has suffered much," said Henry, "within the last
+hundred years."
+
+"No doubt it has. A hundred years is a tolerable long space of time, you
+know."
+
+"It is, indeed. Oh, how any human life which is spun out to such an
+extent, must lose its charms, by losing all its fondest and dearest
+associations."
+
+"Ah, how true," said Sir Francis Varney. He had some minutes previously
+touched a bell, and at this moment a servant brought in on a tray some
+wine and refreshments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+HENRY'S AGREEMENT WITH SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.--THE SUDDEN ARRIVAL AT THE
+HALL.--FLORA'S ALARM.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+On the tray which the servant brought into the room, were refreshments
+of different kinds, including wine, and after waving his hand for the
+domestic to retire, Sir Francis Varney said,--
+
+"You will be better, Mr. Bannerworth, for a glass of wine after your
+walk, and you too, sir. I am ashamed to say, I have quite forgotten your
+name."
+
+"Marchdale."
+
+"Mr. Marchdale. Ay, Marchdale. Pray, sir, help yourself."
+
+"You take nothing yourself?" said Henry.
+
+"I am under a strict regimen," replied Varney. "The simplest diet alone
+does for me, and I have accustomed myself to long abstinence."
+
+"He will not eat or drink," muttered Henry, abstractedly.
+
+"Will you sell me the Hall?" said Sir Francis Varney.
+
+Henry looked in his face again, from which he had only momentarily
+withdrawn his eyes, and he was then more struck than ever with the
+resemblance between him and the portrait on the panel of what had been
+Flora's chamber. What made that resemblance, too, one about which there
+could scarcely be two opinions, was the mark or cicatrix of a wound in
+the forehead, which the painter had slightly indented in the portrait,
+but which was much more plainly visible on the forehead of Sir Francis
+Varney. Now that Henry observed this distinctive mark, which he had not
+done before, he could feel no doubt, and a sickening sensation came over
+him at the thought that he was actually now in the presence of one of
+those terrible creatures, vampyres.
+
+"You do not drink," said Varney. "Most young men are not so modest with
+a decanter of unimpeachable wine before them. I pray you help yourself."
+
+"I cannot."
+
+Henry rose as he spoke, and turning to Marchdale, he said, in
+addition,--
+
+"Will you come away?"
+
+"If you please," said Marchdale, rising.
+
+"But you have not, my dear sir," said Varney, "given me yet any answer
+about the Hall?"
+
+"I cannot yet," answered Henry, "I will think. My present impression is,
+to let you have it on whatever terms you may yourself propose, always
+provided you consent to one of mine."
+
+"Name it."
+
+"That you never show yourself in my family."
+
+"How very unkind. I understand you have a charming sister, young,
+beautiful, and accomplished. Shall I confess, now, that I had hopes of
+making myself agreeable to her?"
+
+"You make yourself agreeable to her? The sight of you would blast her
+for ever, and drive her to madness."
+
+"Am I so hideous?"
+
+"No, but--you are--"
+
+"What am I?"
+
+"Hush, Henry, hush," cried Marchdale. "Remember you are in this
+gentleman's house."
+
+"True, true. Why does he tempt me to say these dreadful things? I do not
+want to say them."
+
+"Come away, then--come away at once. Sir Francis Varney, my friend, Mr.
+Bannerworth, will think over your offer, and let you know. I think you
+may consider that your wish to become the purchaser of the Hall will be
+complied with."
+
+"I wish to have it," said Varney, "and I can only say, that if I am
+master of it, I shall be very happy to see any of the family on a visit
+at any time."
+
+"A visit!" said Henry, with a shudder. "A visit to the tomb were far
+more desirable. Farewell, sir."
+
+"Adieu," said Sir Francis Varney, and he made one of the most elegant
+bows in the world, while there came over his face a peculiarity of
+expression that was strange, if not painful, to contemplate. In another
+minute Henry and Marchdale were clear of the house, and with feelings of
+bewilderment and horror, which beggar all description, poor Henry
+allowed himself to be led by the arm by Marchdale to some distance,
+without uttering a word. When he did speak, he said,--
+
+"Marchdale, it would be charity of some one to kill me."
+
+"To kill you!"
+
+"Yes, for I am certain otherwise that I must go mad."
+
+"Nay, nay; rouse yourself."
+
+"This man, Varney, is a vampyre."
+
+"Hush! hush!"
+
+"I tell you, Marchdale," cried Henry, in a wild, excited manner, "he is
+a vampyre. He is the dreadful being who visited Flora at the still hour
+of midnight, and drained the life-blood from her veins. He is a vampyre.
+There are such things. I cannot doubt now. Oh, God, I wish now that your
+lightnings would blast me, as here I stand, for over into annihilation,
+for I am going mad to be compelled to feel that such horrors can really
+have existence."
+
+"Henry--Henry."
+
+"Nay, talk not to me. What can I do? Shall I kill him? Is it not a
+sacred duty to destroy such a thing? Oh, horror--horror. He must be
+killed--destroyed--burnt, and the very dust to which he is consumed must
+be scattered to the winds of Heaven. It would be a deed well done,
+Marchdale."
+
+"Hush! hush! These words are dangerous."
+
+"I care not."
+
+"What if they were overheard now by unfriendly ears? What might not be
+the uncomfortable results? I pray you be more cautious what you say of
+this strange man."
+
+"I must destroy him."
+
+"And wherefore?"
+
+"Can you ask? Is he not a vampyre?"
+
+"Yes; but reflect, Henry, for a moment upon the length to which you
+might carry out so dangerous an argument. It is said that vampyres are
+made by vampyres sucking the blood of those who, but for that
+circumstance, would have died and gone to decay in the tomb along with
+ordinary mortals; but that being so attacked during life by a vampyre,
+they themselves, after death, become such."
+
+"Well--well, what is that to me?"
+
+"Have you forgotten Flora?"
+
+A cry of despair came from poor Henry's lips, and in a moment he seemed
+completely, mentally and physically, prostrated.
+
+"God of Heaven!" he moaned, "I had forgotten her!"
+
+"I thought you had."
+
+"Oh, if the sacrifice of my own life would suffice to put an end to all
+this accumulating horror, how gladly would I lay it down. Ay, in any
+way--in any way. No mode of death should appal me. No amount of pain
+make me shrink. I could smile then upon the destroyer, and say,
+'welcome--welcome--most welcome.'"
+
+"Rather, Henry, seek to live for those whom you love than die for them.
+Your death would leave them desolate. In life you may ward off many a
+blow of fate from them."
+
+"I may endeavour so to do."
+
+"Consider that Flora may be wholly dependent upon such kindness as you
+may be able to bestow upon her."
+
+"Charles clings to her."
+
+"Humph!"
+
+"You do not doubt him?"
+
+"My dear friend, Henry Bannerworth, although I am not an old man, yet I
+am so much older than you that I have seen a great deal of the world,
+and am, perhaps, far better able to come to accurate judgments with
+regard to individuals."
+
+"No doubt--no doubt; but yet--"
+
+"Nay, hear me out. Such judgments, founded upon experience, when uttered
+have all the character of prophecy about them. I, therefore, now
+prophecy to you that Charles Holland will yet be so stung with horror at
+the circumstance of a vampyre visiting Flora, that he will never make
+her his wife."
+
+"Marchdale, I differ from you most completely," said Henry. "I know that
+Charles Holland is the very soul of honour."
+
+"I cannot argue the matter with you. It has not become a thing of fact.
+I have only sincerely to hope that I am wrong."
+
+"You are, you may depend, entirely wrong. I cannot be deceived in
+Charles. From you such words produce no effect but one of regret that
+you should so much err in your estimate of any one. From any one but
+yourself they would have produced in me a feeling of anger I might have
+found it difficult to smother."
+
+"It has often been my misfortune through life," said Mr. Marchdale,
+sadly, "to give the greatest offence where I feel the truest friendship,
+because it is in such quarters that I am always tempted to speak too
+freely."
+
+"Nay, no offence," said Henry. "I am distracted, and scarcely know what
+I say. Marchdale, I know you are my sincere friend--but, as I tell you,
+I am nearly mad."
+
+"My dear Henry, be calmer. Consider upon what is to be said concerning
+this interview at home."
+
+"Ay; that is a consideration."
+
+"I should not think it advisable to mention the disagreeable fact, that
+in your neighbour you think you have found out the nocturnal disturber
+of your family."
+
+"No--no."
+
+"I would say nothing of it. It is not at all probable that, after what
+you have said to him this Sir Francis Varney, or whatever his real name
+may be will obtrude himself upon you."
+
+"If he should he die."
+
+"He will, perhaps, consider that such a step would be dangerous to him."
+
+"It would be fatal, so help me. However, and then would I take especial
+care that no power of resuscitation should ever enable that man again to
+walk the earth."
+
+"They say that only way of destroying a vampyre is to fix him to the
+earth with a stake, so that he cannot move, and then, of course,
+decomposition will take its course, as in ordinary cases."
+
+"Fire would consume him, and be a quicker process," said Henry. "But
+these are fearful reflections, and, for the present, we will not pursue
+them. Now to play the hypocrite, and endeavour to look composed and
+serene to my mother, and to Flora while my heart is breaking."
+
+The two friends had by this time reached the hall, and leaving his
+friend Marchdale, Henry Bannerworth, with feelings of the most
+unenviable description, slowly made his way to the apartment occupied by
+his mother and sister.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE OLD ADMIRAL AND HIS SERVANT.--THE COMMUNICATION FROM THE LANDLORD OF
+THE NELSON'S ARMS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+While those matters of most grave and serious import were going on at
+the Hall, while each day, and almost each hour in each day, was
+producing more and more conclusive evidence upon a matter which at first
+had seemed too monstrous to be at all credited, it may well be supposed
+what a wonderful sensation was produced among the gossip-mongers of the
+neighbourhood by the exaggerated reports that had reached them.
+
+The servants, who had left the Hall on no other account, as they
+declared, but sheer fright at the awful visits of the vampyre, spread
+the news far and wide, so that in the adjoining villages and
+market-towns the vampyre of Bannerworth Hall became quite a staple
+article of conversation.
+
+Such a positive godsend for the lovers of the marvellous had not
+appeared in the country side within the memory of that sapient
+individual--the oldest inhabitant.
+
+And, moreover, there was one thing which staggered some people of better
+education and maturer judgments, and that was, that the more they took
+pains to inquire into the matter, in order, if possible, to put an end
+to what they considered a gross lie from the commencement, the more
+evidence they found to stagger their own senses upon the subject.
+
+Everywhere then, in every house, public as well as private, something
+was being continually said of the vampyre. Nursery maids began to think
+a vampyre vastly superior to "old scratch and old bogie" as a means of
+terrifying their infant charges into quietness, if not to sleep, until
+they themselves became too much afraid upon the subject to mention it.
+
+But nowhere was gossiping carried on upon the subject with more
+systematic fervour than at an inn called the Nelson's Arms, which was in
+the high street of the nearest market town to the Hall.
+
+There, it seemed as if the lovers of the horrible made a point of
+holding their head quarters, and so thirsty did the numerous discussions
+make the guests, that the landlord was heard to declare that he, from
+his heart, really considered a vampyre as very nearly equal to a
+contested election.
+
+It was towards evening of the same day that Marchdale and Henry made
+their visit to Sir Francis Varney, that a postchaise drew up to the inn
+we have mentioned. In the vehicle were two persons of exceedingly
+dissimilar appearance and general aspect.
+
+One of these people was a man who seemed fast verging upon seventy years
+of age, although, from his still ruddy and embrowned complexion and
+stentorian voice, it was quite evident he intended yet to keep time at
+arm's-length for many years to come.
+
+He was attired in ample and expensive clothing, but every article had a
+naval animus about it, if we may be allowed such an expression with
+regard to clothing. On his buttons was an anchor, and the general
+assortment and colour of the clothing as nearly assimilated as possible
+to the undress naval uniform of an officer of high rank some fifty or
+sixty years ago.
+
+His companion was a younger man, and about his appearance there was no
+secret at all. He was a genuine sailor, and he wore the shore costume of
+one. He was hearty-looking, and well dressed, and evidently well fed.
+
+As the chaise drove up to the door of the inn, this man made an
+observation to the other to the following effect,--
+
+"A-hoy!"
+
+"Well, you lubber, what now?" cried the other.
+
+"They call this the Nelson's Arms; and you know, shiver me, that for the
+best half of his life he had but one."
+
+"D--n you!" was the only rejoinder he got for this observation; but,
+with that, he seemed very well satisfied.
+
+"Heave to!" he then shouted to the postilion, who was about to drive the
+chaise into the yard. "Heave to, you lubberly son of a gun! we don't
+want to go into dock."
+
+"Ah!" said the old man, "let's get out, Jack. This is the port; and, do
+you hear, and be cursed to you, let's have no swearing, d--n you, nor
+bad language, you lazy swab."
+
+"Aye, aye," cried Jack; "I've not been ashore now a matter o' ten years,
+and not larnt a little shore-going politeness, admiral, I ain't been
+your _walley de sham_ without larning a little about land reckonings.
+Nobody would take me for a sailor now, I'm thinking, admiral."
+
+"Hold your noise!"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir."
+
+Jack, as he was called, bundled out of the chaise when the door was
+opened, with a movement so closely resembling what would have ensued had
+he been dragged out by the collar, that one was tempted almost to
+believe that such a feat must have been accomplished all at once by some
+invisible agency.
+
+He then assisted the old gentleman to alight, and the landlord of the
+inn commenced the usual profusion of bows with which a passenger by a
+postchaise is usually welcomed in preference to one by a stage coach.
+
+"Be quiet, will you!" shouted the admiral, for such indeed he was. "Be
+quiet."
+
+"Best accommodation, sir--good wine--well-aired beds--good
+attendance--fine air--"
+
+"Belay there," said Jack; and he gave the landlord what no doubt he
+considered a gentle admonition, but which consisted of such a dig in the
+ribs, that he made as many evolutions as the clown in a pantomime when
+he vociferates hot codlings.
+
+"Now, Jack, where's the sailing instructions?" said his master.
+
+"Here, sir, in the locker," said Jack, as he took from his pocket a
+letter, which he handed to the admiral.
+
+"Won't you step in, sir?" said the landlord, who had begun now to
+recover a little from the dig in the ribs.
+
+"What's the use of coming into port and paying harbour dues, and all
+that sort of thing, till we know if it's the right, you lubber, eh?"
+
+"No; oh, dear me, sir, of course--God bless me, what can the old
+gentleman mean?"
+
+The admiral opened the letter, and read:--
+
+     "If you stop at the Nelson's Aims at Uxotter, you will hear of
+     me, and I can be sent for, when I will tell you more.
+
+     "Yours, very obediently and humbly,
+
+     "JOSIAH CRINKLES."
+
+"Who the deuce is he?"
+
+"This is Uxotter, sir," said the landlord; "and here you are, sir, at
+the Nelson's Arms. Good beds--good wine--good--"
+
+"Silence!"
+
+"Yes, sir--oh, of course"
+
+"Who the devil is Josiah Crinkles?"
+
+"Ha! ha! ha! ha! Makes me laugh, sir. Who the devil indeed! They do say
+the devil and lawyers, sir, know something of each other--makes me
+smile."
+
+"I'll make you smile on the other side of that d----d great hatchway of
+a mouth of yours in a minute. Who is Crinkles?"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Crinkles, sir, everybody knows, most respectable attorney, sir,
+indeed, highly respectable man, sir."
+
+"A lawyer?"
+
+"Yes, sir, a lawyer."
+
+"Well, I'm d----d!"
+
+Jack gave a long whistle, and both master and man looked at each other
+aghast.
+
+"Now, hang me!" cried the admiral, "if ever I was so taken in in all my
+life."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack.
+
+"To come a hundred and seventy miles see a d----d swab of a rascally
+lawyer."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"I'll smash him--Jack!"
+
+"Yer honour?"
+
+"Get into the chaise again."
+
+"Well, but where's Master Charles? Lawyers, in course, sir, is all
+blessed rogues; but, howsomdever, he may have for once in his life this
+here one of 'em have told us of the right channel, and if so be as he
+has, don't be the Yankee to leave him among the pirates. I'm ashamed on
+you."
+
+"You infernal scoundrel; how dare you preach to me in such a way, you
+lubberly rascal?"
+
+"Cos you desarves it."
+
+"Mutiny--mutiny--by Jove! Jack, I'll have you put in irons--you're a
+scoundrel, and no seaman."
+
+"No seaman!--no seaman!"
+
+"Not a bit of one."
+
+"Very good. It's time, then, as I was off the purser's books. Good bye
+to you; I only hopes as you may get a better seaman to stick to you and
+be your _walley de sham_ nor Jack Pringle, that's all the harm I wish
+you. You didn't call me no seaman in the Bay of Corfu, when the bullets
+were scuttling our nobs."
+
+"Jack, you rascal, give us your fin. Come here, you d----d villain.
+You'll leave me, will you?"
+
+"Not if I know it."
+
+"Come in, then"
+
+"Don't tell me I'm no seaman. Call me a wagabone if you like, but don't
+hurt my feelings. There I'm as tender as a baby, I am.--Don't do it."
+
+"Confound you, who is doing it?"
+
+"The devil."
+
+"Who is?"
+
+"Don't, then."
+
+Thus wrangling, they entered the inn, to the great amusement of several
+bystanders, who had collected to hear the altercation between them.
+
+"Would you like a private room, sir?" said the landlord.
+
+"What's that to you?" said Jack.
+
+"Hold your noise, will you?" cried his master. "Yes, I should like a
+private room, and some grog."
+
+"Strong as the devil!" put in Jack.
+
+"Yes, sir-yes, sir. Good wines--good beds--good--"
+
+"You said all that before, you know," remarked Jack, as he bestowed upon
+the landlord another terrific dig in the ribs.
+
+"Hilloa!" cried the admiral, "you can send for that infernal lawyer,
+Mister Landlord."
+
+"Mr. Crinkles, sir?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"Who may I have the honour to say, sir, wants to see him?"
+
+"Admiral Bell."
+
+"Certainly, admiral, certainly. You'll find him a very conversible,
+nice, gentlemanly little man, sir."
+
+"And tell him as Jack Pringle is here, too," cried the seaman.
+
+"Oh, yes, yes--of course," said the landlord, who was in such a state of
+confusion from the digs in the ribs he had received and the noise his
+guests had already made in his house, that, had he been suddenly put
+upon his oath, he would scarcely have liked to say which was the master
+and which was the man.
+
+"The idea now, Jack," said the admiral, "of coming all this way to see a
+lawyer."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"If he'd said he was a lawyer, we would have known what to do. But it's
+a take in, Jack."
+
+"So I think. Howsomdever, we'll serve him out when we catch him, you
+know."
+
+"Good--so we will."
+
+"And, then, again, he may know something about Master Charles, sir, you
+know. Lord love him, don't you remember when he came aboard to see you
+once at Portsmouth?"
+
+"Ah! I do, indeed."
+
+"And how he said he hated the French, and quite a baby, too. What
+perseverance and sense. 'Uncle,' says he to you, 'when I'm a big man,
+I'll go in a ship, and fight all the French in a heap,' says he. 'And
+beat 'em, my boy, too,' says you; cos you thought he'd forgot that; and
+then he says, 'what's the use of saying that, stupid?--don't we always
+beat 'em?'"
+
+The admiral laughed and rubbed his hands, as he cried aloud,--
+
+"I remember, Jack--I remember him. I was stupid to make such a remark."
+
+"I know you was--a d----d old fool I thought you."
+
+"Come, come. Hilloa, there!"
+
+"Well, then, what do you call me no seaman for?"
+
+"Why, Jack, you bear malice like a marine."
+
+"There you go again. Goodbye. Do you remember when we were yard arm to
+yard arm with those two Yankee frigates, and took 'em both! You didn't
+call me a marine then, when the scuppers were running with blood. Was I
+a seaman then?"
+
+"You were, Jack--you were; and you saved my life."
+
+"I didn't."
+
+"You did."
+
+"I say I didn't--it was a marlin-spike."
+
+"But I say you did, you rascally scoundrel.--I say you did, and I won't
+be contradicted in my own ship."
+
+"Call this your ship?"
+
+"No, d--n it--I--"
+
+"Mr. Crinkles," said the landlord, flinging the door wide open, and so
+at once putting an end to the discussion which always apparently had a
+tendency to wax exceedingly warm.
+
+"The shark, by G--d!" said Jack.
+
+A little, neatly dressed man made his appearance, and advanced rather
+timidly into the room. Perhaps he had heard from the landlord that the
+parties who had sent for him were of rather a violent sort.
+
+"So you are Crinkles, are you?" cried the admiral. "Sit down, though you
+are a lawyer."
+
+"Thank you, sir. I am an attorney, certainly, and my name as certainly
+is Crinkles."
+
+"Look at that."
+
+The admiral placed the letter in the little lawyer's hands, who said,--
+
+"Am I to read it?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure."
+
+"Aloud?"
+
+"Read it to the devil, if you like, in a pig's whisper, or a West India
+hurricane."
+
+"Oh, very good, sir. I--I am willing to be agreeable, so I'll read it
+aloud, if it's all the same to you."
+
+He then opened the letter, and read as follows:--
+
+     "To Admiral Bell.
+
+     "Admiral,--Being, from various circumstances, aware that you take
+     a warm and a praiseworthy interest in your nephew, Charles
+     Holland, I venture to write to you concerning a matter in which
+     your immediate and active co-operation with others may rescue him
+     from a condition which will prove, if allowed to continue, very
+     much to his detriment, and ultimate unhappiness.
+
+     "You are, then, hereby informed, that he, Charles Holland, has,
+     much earlier than he ought to have done, returned to England, and
+     that the object of his return is to contract a marriage into a
+     family in every way objectionable, and with a girl who is highly
+     objectionable.
+
+     "You, admiral, are his nearest and almost his only relative in
+     the world; you are the guardian of his property, and, therefore,
+     it becomes a duty on your part to interfere to save him from the
+     ruinous consequences of a marriage, which is sure to bring ruin
+     and distress upon himself and all who take an interest in his
+     welfare.
+
+     "The family he wishes to marry into is named Bannerworth, and the
+     young lady's name is Flora Bannerworth. When, however, I inform
+     you that a vampyre is in that family, and that if he marries into
+     it, he marries a vampyre, and will have vampyres for children, I
+     trust I have said enough to warn you upon the subject, and to
+     induce you to lose no time in repairing to the spot.
+
+     "If you stop at the Nelson's Arms at Uxotter, you will hear of
+     me. I can be sent for, when I will tell you more.
+
+     "Yours, very obediently and humbly,
+
+     "JOSIAH CRINKLES."
+
+     "P.S. I enclose you Dr. Johnson's definition of a vampyre, which
+     is as follows:
+
+     "VAMPYRE (a German blood-sucker)--by which you perceive how many
+     vampyres, from time immemorial, must have been well entertained
+     at the expense of John Bull, at the court of St. James, where no
+     thing hardly is to be met with but German blood-suckers."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The lawyer ceased to read, and the amazed look with which he glanced at
+the face of Admiral Bell would, under any other circumstances, have much
+amused him. His mind, however, was by far too much engrossed with a
+consideration of the danger of Charles Holland, his nephew, to be amused
+at anything; so, when he found that the little lawyer said nothing, he
+bellowed out,--
+
+"Well, sir?"
+
+"We--we--well," said the attorney.
+
+"I've sent for you, and here you are, and here I am, and here's Jack
+Pringle. What have you got to say?"
+
+"Just this much," said Mr. Crinkles, recovering himself a little, "just
+this much, sir, that I never saw that letter before in all my life."
+
+"You--never--saw--it?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Didn't you write it?"
+
+"On my solemn word of honour, sir, I did not."
+
+Jack Pringle whistled, and the admiral looked puzzled. Like the admiral
+in the song, too, he "grew paler," and then Mr. Crinkles added,--
+
+"Who has forged my name to a letter such as this, I cannot imagine. As
+for writing to you, sir, I never heard of your existence, except
+publicly, as one of those gallant officers who have spent a long life in
+nobly fighting their country's battles, and who are entitled to the
+admiration and the applause of every Englishman."
+
+Jack and the admiral looked at each other in amazement, and then the
+latter exclaimed,--
+
+"What! This from a lawyer?"
+
+"A lawyer, sir," said Crinkles, "may know how to appreciate the deeds of
+gallant men, although he may not be able to imitate them. That letter,
+sir, is a forgery, and I now leave you, only much gratified at the
+incident which has procured me the honour of an interview with a
+gentleman, whose name will live in the history of his country. Good day,
+sir! Good day!"
+
+"No! I'm d----d if you go like that," said Jack, as he sprang to the
+door, and put his back against it. "You shall take a glass with me in
+honour of the wooden walls of Old England, d----e, if you was twenty
+lawyers."
+
+"That's right, Jack," said the admiral. "Come, Mr. Crinkles, I'll think,
+for your sake, there may be two decent lawyers in the world, and you one
+of them. We must have a bottle of the best wine the ship--I mean the
+house--can afford together."
+
+"If it is your command, admiral, I obey with pleasure," said the
+attorney; "and although I assure you, on my honour, I did not write that
+letter, yet some of the matters mentioned in it are so generally
+notorious here, that I can afford you information concerning them."
+
+"Can you?"
+
+"I regret to say I can, for I respect the parties."
+
+"Sit down, then--sit down. Jack, run to the steward's room and get the
+wine. We will go into it now starboard and larboard. Who the deuce could
+have written that letter?"
+
+"I have not the least idea, sir."
+
+"Well--well, never mind; it has brought me here, that's something, so I
+won't grumble much at it. I didn't know my nephew was in England, and I
+dare say he didn't know I was; but here we both are, and I won't rest
+till I've seen him, and ascertained how the what's-its-name--"
+
+"The vampyre."
+
+"Ah! the vampyre."
+
+"Shiver my timbers!" said Jack Pringle, who now brought in some wine
+much against the remonstrances of the waiters of the establishment, who
+considered that he was treading upon their vested interests by so
+doing.--"Shiver my timbers, if I knows what a _wamphigher_ is, unless
+he's some distant relation to Davy Jones!"
+
+"Hold your ignorant tongue," said the admiral; "nobody wants you to make
+a remark, you great lubber!"
+
+"Very good," said Jack, and he sat down the wine on the table, and then
+retired to the other end of the room, remarking to himself that he was
+not called a great lubber on a certain occasion, when bullets were
+scuttling their nobs, and they were yard arm and yard arm with God knows
+who.
+
+"Now, mister lawyer," said Admiral Bell, who had about him a large share
+of the habits of a rough sailor. "Now, mister lawyer, here is a glass
+first to our better acquaintance, for d----e, if I don't like you!"
+
+"You are very good, sir."
+
+"Not at all. There was a time, when I'd just as soon have thought of
+asking a young shark to supper with me in my own cabin as a lawyer, but
+I begin to see that there may be such a thing as a decent, good sort of
+a fellow seen in the law; so here's good luck to you, and you shall
+never want a friend or a bottle while Admiral Bell has a shot in the
+locker."
+
+"Gammon," said Jack.
+
+"D--n you, what do you mean by that?" roared the admiral, in a furious
+tone.
+
+"I wasn't speaking to you," shouted Jack, about two octaves higher.
+"It's two boys in the street as is pretending they're a going to fight,
+and I know d----d well they won't."
+
+"Hold your noise."
+
+"I'm going. I wasn't told to hold my noise, when our nobs were being
+scuttled off Beyrout."
+
+"Never mind him, mister lawyer," added the admiral. "He don't know what
+he's talking about. Never mind him. You go on and tell me all you know
+about the--the--"
+
+"The vampyre!"
+
+"Ah! I always forget the names of strange fish. I suppose, after all,
+it's something of the mermaid order?"
+
+"That I cannot say, sir; but certainly the story, in all its painful
+particulars, has made a great sensation all over the country."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, sir. You shall hear how it occurred. It appears that one night
+Miss Flora Bannersworth, a young lady of great beauty, and respected and
+admired by all who knew her was visited by a strange being who came in
+at the window."
+
+"My eye," said Jack, "it waren't me, I wish it had a been."
+
+"So petrified by fear was she, that she had only time to creep half out
+of the bed, and to utter one cry of alarm, when the strange visitor
+seized her in his grasp."
+
+"D--n my pig tail," said Jack, "what a squall there must have been, to
+be sure."
+
+"Do you see this bottle?" roared the admiral.
+
+"To be sure, I does; I think as it's time I seed another."
+
+"You scoundrel, I'll make you feel it against that d----d stupid head of
+yours, if you interrupt this gentleman again."
+
+"Don't be violent."
+
+"Well, as I was saying," continued the attorney, "she did, by great good
+fortune, manage to scream, which had the effect of alarming the whole
+house. The door of her chamber, which was fast, was broken open."
+
+"Yes, yes--"
+
+"Ah," cried Jack.
+
+"You may imagine the horror and the consternation of those who entered
+the room to find her in the grasp of a fiend-like figure, whose teeth
+were fastened on her neck, and who was actually draining her veins of
+blood."
+
+"The devil!"
+
+"Before any one could lay hands sufficiently upon the figure to detain
+it, it had fled precipitately from its dreadful repast. Shots were fired
+after it in vain."
+
+"And they let it go?"
+
+"They followed it, I understand, as well as they were able, and saw it
+scale the garden wall of the premises; there it escaped, leaving, as you
+may well imagine, on all their minds, a sensation of horror difficult to
+describe."
+
+"Well, I never did hear anything the equal of that. Jack, what do you
+think of it?"
+
+"I haven't begun to think, yet," said Jack.
+
+"But what about my nephew, Charles?" added the admiral.
+
+"Of him I know nothing."
+
+"Nothing?"
+
+"Not a word, admiral. I was not aware you had a nephew, or that any
+gentleman bearing that, or any other relationship to you, had any sort
+of connexion with these mysterious and most unaccountable circumstances.
+I tell you all I have gathered from common report about this vampyre
+business. Further I know not, I assure you."
+
+"Well, a man can't tell what he don't know. It puzzles me to think who
+could possibly have written me this letter."
+
+"That I am completely at a loss to imagine," said Crinkles. "I assure
+you, my gallant sir, that I am much hurt at the circumstance of any one
+using my name in such a way. But, nevertheless, as you are here, permit
+me to say, that it will be my pride, my pleasure, and the boast of the
+remainder of my existence, to be of some service to so gallant a
+defender of my country, and one whose name, along with the memory of his
+deeds, is engraved upon the heart of every Briton."
+
+"Quite ekal to a book, he talks," said Jack. "I never could read one
+myself, on account o' not knowing how, but I've heard 'em read, and
+that's just the sort o' incomprehensible gammon."
+
+"We don't want any of your ignorant remarks," said the admiral, "so you
+be quiet."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"Now, Mister Lawyer, you are an honest fellow, and an honest fellow is
+generally a sensible fellow."
+
+"Sir, I thank you."
+
+"If so be as what this letter says is true, my nephew Charles has got a
+liking for this girl, who has had her neck bitten by a vampyre, you
+see."
+
+"I perceive, sir."
+
+"Now what would you do?"
+
+"One of the most difficult, as well, perhaps, as one of the most
+ungracious of tasks," said the attorney, "is to interfere with family
+affairs. The cold and steady eye of reason generally sees things in such
+very different lights to what they appear to those whose feelings and
+whose affections are much compromised in their results."
+
+"Very true. Go on."
+
+"Taking, my dear sir, what in my humble judgment appears to be a
+reasonable view of this subject, I should say it would be a dreadful
+thing for your nephew to marry into a family any member of which was
+liable to the visitations of a vampyre."
+
+"It wouldn't be pleasant."
+
+"The young lady might have children."
+
+"Oh, lots," cried Jack.
+
+"Hold your noise, Jack."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"And she might herself actually, when after death she became a vampyre,
+come and feed on her own children."
+
+"Become a vampyre! What, is she going to be a vampyre too?"
+
+"My dear sir, don't you know that it is a remarkable fact, as regards
+the physiology of vampyres, that whoever is bitten by one of those
+dreadful beings, becomes a vampyre?"
+
+"The devil!"
+
+"It is a fact, sir."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Jack; "she might bite us all, and we should be a whole
+ship's crew o' _wamphighers_. There would be a confounded go!"
+
+"It's not pleasant," said the admiral, as he rose from his chair, and
+paced to and fro in the room, "it's not pleasant. Hang me up at my own
+yard-arm if it is."
+
+"Who said it was?" cried Jack.
+
+"Who asked you, you brute?"
+
+"Well, sir," added Mr. Crinkles, "I have given you all the information I
+can; and I can only repeat what I before had the honour of saying more
+at large, namely, that I am your humble servant to command, and that I
+shall be happy to attend upon you at any time."
+
+"Thank ye--thank ye, Mr.--a--a--"
+
+"Crinkles."
+
+"Ah, Crinkles. You shall hear from me again, sir, shortly. Now that I am
+down here, I will see to the very bottom of this affair, were it deeper
+than fathom ever sounded. Charles Holland was my poor sister's son; he's
+the only relative I have in the wide world, and his happiness is dearer
+to my heart than my own."
+
+Crinkles turned aside, and, by the twinkle of his eyes, one might
+premise that the honest little lawyer was much affected.
+
+"God bless you, sir," he said; "farewell."
+
+"Good day to you."
+
+"Good-bye, lawyer," cried Jack. "Mind how you go. D--n me, if you don't
+seem a decent sort of fellow, and, after all, you may give the devil a
+clear berth, and get into heaven's straits with a flowing sheet,
+provided as you don't, towards the end of the voyage, make any lubberly
+blunders."
+
+The old admiral threw himself into a chair with a deep sigh.
+
+"Jack," said he.
+
+"Aye, aye, sir."
+
+"What's to be done now?"
+
+Jack opened the window to discharge the superfluous moisture from an
+enormous quid he had indulged himself with while the lawyer was telling
+about the vampyre, and then again turning his face towards his master,
+he said,--
+
+"Do! What shall we do? Why, go at once and find out Charles, our _nevy_,
+and ask him all about it, and see the young lady, too, and lay hold o'
+the _wamphigher_ if we can, as well, and go at the whole affair
+broadside to broadside, till we make a prize of all the particulars,
+after which we can turn it over in our minds agin, and see what's to be
+done."
+
+"Jack, you are right. Come along."
+
+"I knows I am. Do you know now which way to steer?"
+
+"Of course not. I never was in this latitude before, and the channel
+looks intricate. We will hail a pilot, Jack, and then we shall be all
+right, and if we strike it will be his fault."
+
+"Which is a mighty great consolation," said Jack. "Come along."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE MEETING OF THE LOVERS IN THE GARDEN.--AN AFFECTING SCENE.--THE
+SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Our readers will recollect that Flora Bannerworth had made an
+appointment with Charles Holland in the garden of the hall. This meeting
+was looked forward to by the young man with a variety of conflicting
+feelings, and he passed the intermediate time in a most painful state of
+doubt as to what would be its result.
+
+The thought that he should be much urged by Flora to give up all
+thoughts of making her his, was a most bitter one to him, who loved her
+with so much truth and constancy, and that she would say all she could
+to induce such a resolution in his mind he felt certain. But to him the
+idea of now abandoning her presented itself in the worst of aspects.
+
+"Shall I," he said, "sink so low in my own estimation, as well as in
+hers, and in that of all honourable-minded persons, as to desert her now
+in the hour of affliction? Dare I be so base as actually or virtually to
+say to her, 'Flora, when your beauty was undimmed by sorrow--when all
+around you seemed life and joy, I loved you selfishly for the increased
+happiness which you might bestow upon me; but now the hand of misfortune
+presses heavily upon you--you are not what you were, and I desert you?
+Never--never--never!"
+
+Charles Holland, it will be seen by some of our more philosophic
+neighbours, felt more acutely than he reasoned; but let his errors of
+argumentation be what they may, can we do other than admire the nobility
+of soul which dictated such a self denying generous course as that he
+was pursuing?
+
+As for Flora, Heaven only knows if at that precise time her intellect
+had completely stood the test of the trying events which had nearly
+overwhelmed it.
+
+The two grand feelings that seemed to possess her mind were fear of the
+renewed visit of the vampyre, and an earnest desire to release Charles
+Holland from his repeated vows of constancy towards her.
+
+Feeling, generosity, and judgment, all revolted holding a young man to
+such a destiny as hers. To link him to her fate, would be to make him to
+a real extent a sharer in it, and the more she heard fall from his lips
+in the way of generous feelings of continued attachment to her, the more
+severely did she feel that he would suffer most acutely if united to
+her.
+
+And she was right. The very generosity of feeling which would have now
+prompted Charles Holland to lead Flora Bannerworth to the altar, even
+with the marks of the vampyre's teeth upon her throat, gave an assurance
+of a depth of feeling which would have made him an ample haven in all
+her miseries, in all her distresses and afflictions.
+
+What was familiarly in the family at the Hall called the garden, was a
+semicircular piece of ground shaded in several directions by trees, and
+which was exclusively devoted to the growth of flowers. The piece of
+ground was nearly hidden from the view of the house, and in its centre
+was a summer-house, which at the usual season of the year was covered
+with all kinds of creeping plants of exquisite perfumes, and rare
+beauty. All around, too, bloomed the fairest and sweetest of flowers,
+which a rich soil and a sheltered situation could produce.
+
+Alas! though, of late many weeds had straggled up among their more
+estimable floral culture, for the decayed fortunes of the family had
+prevented them from keeping the necessary servants, to place the Hall
+and its grounds in a state of neatness, such as it had once been the
+pride of the inhabitants of the place to see them. It was then in this
+flower-garden that Charles and Flora used to meet.
+
+As may be supposed, he was on the spot before the appointed hour,
+anxiously expecting the appearance of her who was so really and truly
+dear to him. What to him were the sweet flowers that there grew in such
+happy luxuriance and heedless beauty? Alas, the flower that to his mind
+was fairer than them all, was blighted, and in the wan cheek of her whom
+he loved, he sighed to see the lily usurping the place of the radiant
+rose.
+
+"Dear, dear Flora," he ejaculated, "you must indeed be taken from this
+place, which is so full of the most painful remembrance; now, I cannot
+think that Mr. Marchdale somehow is a friend to me, but that conviction,
+or rather impression, does not paralyze my judgment sufficiently to
+induce me not to acknowledge that his advice is good. He might have
+couched it in pleasanter words--words that would not, like daggers, each
+have brought a deadly pang home to my heart, but still I do think that
+in his conclusion he was right."
+
+A light sound, as of some fairy footstep among the flowers, came upon
+his ears, and turning instantly to the direction from whence the sound
+proceeded, he saw what his heart had previously assured him of, namely,
+that it was his Flora who was coming.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Yes, it was she; but, ah, how pale, how wan--how languid and full of the
+evidences of much mental suffering was she. Where now was the elasticity
+of that youthful step? Where now was that lustrous beaming beauty of
+mirthfulness, which was wont to dawn in those eyes?
+
+Alas, all was changed. The exquisite beauty of form was there, but the
+light of joy which had lent its most transcendent charms to that
+heavenly face, was gone. Charles was by her side in a moment. He had her
+hand clasped in his, while his disengaged one was wound tenderly around
+her taper waist.
+
+"Flora, dear, dear Flora," he said, "you are better. Tell me that you
+feel the gentle air revives you?"
+
+She could not speak. Her heart was too full of woe.
+
+"Oh; Flora, my own, my beautiful," he added, in those tones which come
+so direct from the heart, and which are so different from any assumption
+of tenderness. "Speak to me, dear, dear Flora--speak to me if it be but
+a word."
+
+"Charles," was all she could say, and then she burst into a flood of
+tears, and leant so heavily upon his arm, that it was evident but for
+that support she must have fallen.
+
+Charles Holland welcomed those, although, they grieved him so much that
+he could have accompanied them with his own, but then he knew that she
+would be soon now more composed, and that they would relieve the heart
+whose sorrows called them into existence.
+
+He forbore to speak to her until he found this sudden gush of feeling
+was subsiding into sobs, and then in low, soft accents, he again
+endeavoured to breathe comfort to her afflicted and terrified spirit.
+
+"My Flora," he said, "remember that there are warm hearts that love you.
+Remember that neither time nor circumstance can change such endearing
+affection as mine. Ah, Flora, what evil is there in the whole world that
+love may not conquer, and in the height of its noble feelings laugh to
+scorn."
+
+"Oh, hush, hush, Charles, hush."
+
+"Wherefore, Flora, would you still the voice of pure affection? I love
+you surely, as few have ever loved. Ah, why would you forbid me to give
+such utterance as I may to those feelings which fill up my whole heart?"
+
+"No--no--no."
+
+"Flora, Flora, wherefore do you say no?"
+
+"Do not, Charles, now speak to me of affection or love. Do not tell me
+you love me now."
+
+"Not tell you I love you! Ah, Flora, if my tongue, with its poor
+eloquence to give utterance to such a sentiment, were to do its office,
+each feature of my face would tell the tale. Each action would show to
+all the world how much I loved you."
+
+"I must not now hear this. Great God of Heaven give me strength to carry
+out the purpose of my soul."
+
+"What purpose is it, Flora, that you have to pray thus fervently for
+strength to execute? Oh, if it savour aught of treason against love's
+majesty, forget it. Love is a gift from Heaven. The greatest and the
+most glorious gift it ever bestowed upon its creatures. Heaven will not
+aid you in repudiating that which is the one grand redeeming feature
+that rescues human nature from a world of reproach."
+
+Flora wrung her hands despairingly as she said,--
+
+"Charles, I know I cannot reason with you. I know I have not power of
+language, aptitude of illustration, nor depth of thought to hold a
+mental contention with you."
+
+"Flora, for what do I contend?"
+
+"You, you speak of love."
+
+"And I have, ere this, spoken to you of love unchecked."
+
+"Yes, yes. Before this."
+
+"And now, wherefore not now? Do not tell me you are changed."
+
+"I am changed, Charles. Fearfully changed. The curse of God has fallen
+upon me, I know not why. I know not that in word or in thought I have
+done evil, except perchance unwittingly, and yet--the vampyre."
+
+"Let not that affright you."
+
+"Affright me! It has killed me."
+
+"Nay, Flora,--you think too much of what I still hope to be susceptible
+of far more rational explanation."
+
+"By your own words, then, Charles, I must convict you. I cannot, I dare
+not be yours, while such a dreadful circumstance is hanging over me,
+Charles; if a more rational explanation than the hideous one which my
+own fancy gives to the form that visits me can be found, find it, and
+rescue me from despair and from madness."
+
+They had now reached the summer-house, and as Flora uttered these words
+she threw herself on to a seat, and covering her beautiful face with her
+hands, she sobbed convulsively.
+
+"You have spoken," said Charles, dejectedly. "I have heard that which
+you wished to say to me."
+
+"No, no. Not all, Charles."
+
+"I will be patient, then, although what more you may have to add should
+tear my very heart-strings."
+
+"I--I have to add, Charles," she said, in a tremulous voice, "that
+justice, religion, mercy--every human attribute which bears the name of
+virtue, calls loudly upon me no longer to hold you to vows made under
+different auspices."
+
+"Go on, Flora."
+
+"I then implore you, Charles, finding me what I am, to leave me to the
+fate which it has pleased Heaven to cast upon me. I do not ask you,
+Charles, not to love me."
+
+"'Tis well. Go on, Flora."
+
+"Because I should like to think that, although I might never see you
+more, you loved me still. But you must think seldom of me, and you must
+endeavour to be happy with some other--"
+
+"You cannot, Flora, pursue the picture you yourself would draw. These
+words come not from your heart."
+
+"Yes--yes--yes."
+
+"Did you ever love me?"
+
+"Charles, Charles, why will you add another pang to those you know must
+already rend my heart?"
+
+"No, Flora, I would tear my own heart from my bosom ere I would add one
+pang to yours. Well I know that gentle maiden modesty would seal your
+lips to the soft confession that you loved me. I could not hope the joy
+of hearing you utter these words. The tender devoted lover is content to
+see the truthful passion in the speaking eyes of beauty. Content is he
+to translate it from a thousand acts, which, to eyes that look not so
+acutely as a lover's, bear no signification; but when you tell me to
+seek happiness with another, well may the anxious question burst from my
+throbbing heart of, 'Did you ever love me, Flora?'"
+
+Her senses hung entranced upon his words. Oh, what a witchery is in the
+tongue of love. Some even of the former colour of her cheek returned as
+forgetting all for the moment but that she was listening to the voice of
+him, the thoughts of whom had made up the day dream of her happiness,
+she gazed upon his face.
+
+His voice ceased. To her it seemed as if some music had suddenly left
+off in its most exquisite passage. She clung to his arm--she looked
+imploringly up to him. Her head sunk upon his breast as she cried,
+
+"Charles, Charles, I did love you. I do love you now."
+
+"Then let sorrow and misfortune shake their grisly locks in vain," he
+cried. "Heart to heart--hand to hand with me, defy them."
+
+He lifted up his arms towards Heaven as he spoke, and at the moment came
+such a rattling peal of thunder, that the very earth seemed to shake
+upon its axis.
+
+A half scream of terror burst from the lips of Flora, as she cried,--
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"Only thunder," said Charles, calmly.
+
+"'Twas an awful sound."
+
+"A natural one."
+
+"But at such a moment, when you were defying Fate to injure us. Oh!
+Charles, is it ominous?"
+
+"Flora, can you really give way to such idle fancies?"
+
+"The sun is obscured."
+
+"Ay, but it will shine all the brighter for its temporary eclipse. The
+thunder-storm will clear the air of many noxious vapours; the forked
+lightning has its uses as well as its powers of mischief. Hark! there
+again!"
+
+Another peal, of almost equal intensity to the other, shook the
+firmament. Flora trembled.
+
+"Charles," she said, "this is the voice of Heaven. We must part--we must
+part for ever. I cannot be yours."
+
+"Flora, this is madness. Think again, dear Flora. Misfortunes for a time
+will hover over the best and most fortunate of us; but, like the clouds
+that now obscure the sweet sunshine, will pass away, and leave no trace
+behind them. The sunshine of joy will shine on you again."
+
+There was a small break in the clouds, like a window looking into
+Heaven. From it streamed one beam of sunlight, so bright, so dazzling,
+and so beautiful, that it was a sight of wonder to look upon. It fell
+upon the face of Flora; it warmed her cheek; it lent lustre to her pale
+lips and tearful eyes; it illumined that little summer-house as if it
+had been the shrine of some saint.
+
+"Behold!" cried Charles, "where is your omen now?"
+
+"God of Heaven!'" cried Flora; and she stretched out her arms.
+
+"The clouds that hover over your spirit now," said Charles, "shall pass
+away. Accept this beam of sunlight as a promise from God."
+
+"I will--I will. It is going."
+
+"It has done its office."
+
+The clouds closed over the small orifice, and all was gloom again as
+before.
+
+"Flora," said Charles, "you will not ask me now to leave you?"
+
+She allowed him to clasp her to his heart. It was beating for her, and
+for her only.
+
+"You will let me, Flora, love you still?"
+
+Her voice, as she answered him, was like the murmur of some distant
+melody the ears can scarcely translate to the heart.
+
+"Charles we will live, love, and die together."
+
+And now there was a wrapt stillness in that summer-house for many
+minutes--a trance of joy. They did not speak, but now and then she would
+look into his face with an old familiar smile, and the joy of his heart
+was near to bursting in tears from his eyes.
+
+A shriek burst from Flora's lips--a shriek so wild and shrill that it
+awakened echoes far and near. Charles staggered back a step, as if shot,
+and then in such agonised accents as he was long indeed in banishing the
+remembrance of, she cried,--
+
+"The vampyre! the vampyre!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+THE EXPLANATION.--THE ARRIVAL OF THE ADMIRAL AT THE HOUSE.--A SCENE OF
+CONFUSION, AND SOME OF ITS RESULTS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+So sudden and so utterly unexpected a cry of alarm from Flora, at such a
+time might well have the effect of astounding the nerves of any one, and
+no wonder that Charles was for a few seconds absolutely petrified and
+almost unable to think.
+
+Mechanically, then, he turned his eyes towards the door of the
+summer-house, and there he saw a tall, thin man, rather elegantly
+dressed, whose countenance certainly, in its wonderful resemblance to
+the portrait on the panel, might well appal any one.
+
+The stranger stood in the irresolute attitude on the threshold of the
+summer-house of one who did not wish to intrude, but who found it as
+awkward, if not more so now, to retreat than to advance.
+
+Before Charles Holland could summon any words to his aid, or think of
+freeing himself from the clinging grasp of Flora, which was wound around
+him, the stranger made a very low and courtly bow, after which he said,
+in winning accents,--
+
+"I very much fear that I am an intruder here. Allow me to offer my
+warmest apologies, and to assure you, sir, and you, madam, that I had no
+idea any one was in the arbour. You perceive the rain is falling
+smartly, and I made towards here, seeing it was likely to shelter me
+from the shower."
+
+These words were spoken in such a plausible and courtly tone of voice,
+that they might well have become any drawing-room in the kingdom.
+
+Flora kept her eyes fixed upon him during the utterance of these words;
+and as she convulsively clutched the arm of Charles, she kept on
+whispering,--
+
+"The vampyre! the vampyre!"
+
+"I much fear," added the stranger, in the same bland tones, "that I have
+been the cause of some alarm to the young lady!"
+
+"Release me," whispered Charles to Flora. "Release me; I will follow him
+at once."
+
+"No, no--do not leave me--do not leave me. The vampyre--the dreadful
+vampyre!"
+
+"But, Flora--"
+
+"Hush--hush--hush! It speaks again."
+
+"Perhaps I ought to account for my appearance in the garden at all,"
+added the insinuating stranger. "The fact is, I came on a visit--"
+
+Flora shuddered.
+
+"To Mr. Henry Bannerworth," continued the stranger; "and finding the
+garden-gate open, I came in without troubling the servants, which I much
+regret, as I can perceive I have alarmed and annoyed the lady. Madam,
+pray accept of my apologies."
+
+"In the name of God, who are you?" said Charles.
+
+"My name is Varney."
+
+"Oh, yes. You are the Sir Francis Varney, residing close by, who bears
+so fearful a resemblance to--"
+
+"Pray go on, sir. I am all attention."
+
+"To a portrait here."
+
+"Indeed! Now I reflect a moment, Mr. Henry Bannerworth did incidentally
+mention something of the sort. It's a most singular coincidence."
+
+The sound of approaching footsteps was now plainly heard, and in a few
+moments Henry and George, along with Mr. Marchdale, reached the spot.
+Their appearance showed that they had made haste, and Henry at once
+exclaimed,--
+
+"We heard, or fancied we heard, a cry of alarm."
+
+"You did hear it," said Charles Holland. "Do you know this gentleman?"
+
+"It is Sir Francis Varney."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+Varney bowed to the new comers, and was altogether as much at his ease
+as everybody else seemed quite the contrary. Even Charles Holland found
+the difficulty of going up to such a well-bred, gentlemanly man, and
+saying, "Sir, we believe you to be a vampyre"--to be almost, if not
+insurmountable.
+
+"I cannot do it," he thought, "but I will watch him."
+
+"Take me away," whispered Flora. "'Tis he--'tis he. Oh, take me away,
+Charles."
+
+"Hush, Flora, hush. You are in some error; the accidental resemblance
+should not make us be rude to this gentleman."
+
+"The vampyre!--it is the vampyre!"
+
+"Are you sure, Flora?"
+
+"Do I know your features--my own--my brother's? Do not ask me to
+doubt--I cannot. I am quite sure. Take me from his hideous presence,
+Charles."
+
+"The young lady, I fear, is very much indisposed," remarked Sir Francis
+Varney, in a sympathetic tone of voice. "If she will accept of my arm, I
+shall esteem it a great honour."
+
+"No--no--no!--God! no," cried Flora.
+
+"Madam, I will not press you."
+
+He bowed, and Charles led Flora from the summer-house towards the hall.
+
+"Flora," he said, "I am bewildered--I know not what to think. That man
+most certainly has been fashioned after the portrait which is on the
+panel in the room you formerly occupied; or it has been painted from
+him."
+
+"He is my midnight visitor!" exclaimed Flora. "He is the vampyre;--this
+Sir Francis Varney is the vampyre."
+
+"Good God! What can be done?"
+
+"I know not. I am nearly distracted."
+
+"Be calm, Flora. If this man be really what you name him, we now know
+from what quarter the mischief comes, which is, at all events, a point
+gained. Be assured we shall place a watch upon him."
+
+"Oh, it is terrible to meet him here."
+
+"And he is so wonderfully anxious, too, to possess the Hall."
+
+"He is--he is."
+
+"It looks strange, the whole affair. But, Flora, be assured of one
+thing, and that is, of your own safety."
+
+"Can I be assured of that?"
+
+"Most certainly. Go to your mother now. Here we are, you see, fairly
+within doors. Go to your mother, dear Flora, and keep yourself quiet. I
+will return to this mysterious man now with a cooler judgment than I
+left him."
+
+"You will watch him, Charles?"
+
+"I will, indeed."
+
+"And you will not let him approach the house here alone?"
+
+"I will not."
+
+"Oh, that the Almighty should allow such beings to haunt the earth!"
+
+"Hush, Flora, hush! we cannot judge of his allwise purpose."
+
+'"Tis hard that the innocent should be inflicted with its presence."
+
+Charles bowed his head in mournful assent.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Is it not very, very dreadful?"
+
+"Hush--hush! Calm yourself, dearest, calm yourself. Recollect that all
+we have to go upon in this matter is a resemblance, which, after all,
+may be accidental. But leave it all to me, and be assured that now I
+have some clue to this affair, I will not lose sight of it, or of Sir
+Francis Varney."
+
+So saying, Charles surrendered Flora to the care of her mother, and then
+was hastening back to the summer-house, when he met the whole party
+coming towards the Hall, for the rain was each moment increasing in
+intensity.
+
+"We are returning," remarked Sir Francis Varney, with a half bow and a
+smile, to Charles.
+
+"Allow me," said Henry, "to introduce you, Mr. Holland, to our
+neighbour, Sir Francis Varney."
+
+Charles felt himself compelled to behave with courtesy, although his
+mind was so full of conflicting feelings as regarded Varney; but there
+was no avoiding, without such brutal rudeness as was inconsistent with
+all his pursuits and habits, replying in something like the same strain
+to the extreme courtly politeness of the supposed vampyre.
+
+"I will watch him closely," thought Charles. "I can do no more than
+watch him closely."
+
+Sir Francis Varney seemed to be a man of the most general and discursive
+information. He talked fluently and pleasantly upon all sorts of topics,
+and notwithstanding he could not but have heard what Flora had said of
+him, he asked no questions whatever upon that subject.
+
+This silence as regarded a matter which would at once have induced some
+sort of inquiry from any other man, Charles felt told much against him,
+and he trembled to believe for a moment that, after all, it really might
+be true.
+
+"Is he a vampyre?" he asked himself. "Are there vampyres, and is this
+man of fashion--this courtly, talented, educated gentleman one?" It was
+a perfectly hideous question.
+
+"You are charmingly situated here," remarked Varney, as, after ascending
+the few steps that led to the hall door, he turned and looked at the
+view from that slight altitude.
+
+"The place has been much esteemed," said Henry, "for its picturesque
+beauties of scenery."
+
+"And well it may be. I trust, Mr. Holland, the young lady is much
+better?"
+
+"She is, sir," said Charles.
+
+"I was not honoured by an introduction."
+
+"It was my fault," said Henry, who spoke to his extraordinary guest with
+an air of forced hilarity. "It was my fault for not introducing you to
+my sister."
+
+"And that was your sister?"
+
+"It was, sir."
+
+"Report has not belied her--she is beautiful. But she looks rather pale,
+I thought. Has she bad health?"
+
+"The best of health."
+
+"Indeed! Perhaps the little disagreeable circumstance, which is made so
+much food for gossip in the neighbourhood, has affected her spirits?"
+
+"It has."
+
+"You allude to the supposed visit here of a vampyre?" said Charles, as
+he fixed his eyes upon Varney's face.
+
+"Yes, I allude to the supposed appearance of a supposed vampyre in this
+family," said Sir Francis Varney, as he returned the earnest gaze of
+Charles, with such unshrinking assurance, that the young man was
+compelled, after about a minute, nearly to withdraw his own eyes.
+
+"He will not be cowed," thought Charles. "Use has made him familiar to
+such cross-questioning."
+
+It appeared now suddenly to occur to Henry that he had said something at
+Varney's own house which should have prevented him from coming to the
+Hall, and he now remarked,--
+
+"We scarcely expected the pleasure of your company here, Sir Francis
+Varney."
+
+"Oh, my dear sir, I am aware of that; but you roused my curiosity. You
+mentioned to me that there was a portrait here amazingly like me."
+
+"Did I?"
+
+"Indeed you did, or how could I know it? I wanted to see if the
+resemblance was so perfect."
+
+"Did you hear, sir," added Henry, "that my sister was alarmed at your
+likeness to that portrait?"
+
+"No, really."
+
+"I pray you walk in, and we will talk more at large upon that matter."
+
+"With great pleasure. One leads a monotonous life in the country, when
+compared with the brilliancy of a court existence. Just now I have no
+particular engagement. As we are near neighbours I see no reason why we
+should not be good friends, and often interchange such civilities as
+make up the amenities of existence, and which, in the country, more
+particularly, are valuable."
+
+Henry could not be hypocrite enough to assent to this; but still, under
+the present aspect of affairs, it was impossible to return any but a
+civil reply; so he said,--
+
+"Oh, yes, of course--certainly. My time is very much occupied, and my
+sister and mother see no company."
+
+"Oh, now, how wrong."
+
+"Wrong, sir?"
+
+"Yes, surely. If anything more than another tends to harmonize
+individuals, it is the society of that fairer half of the creation which
+we love for their very foibles. I am much attached to the softer sex--to
+young persons full of health. I like to see the rosy checks, where the
+warm blood mantles in the superficial veins, and all is loveliness and
+life."
+
+Charles shrank back, and the word "Demon" unconsciously escaped his
+lips.
+
+Sir Francis took no manner of notice of the expression, but went on
+talking, as if he had been on the very happiest terms with every one
+present.
+
+"Will you follow me, at once, to the chamber where the portrait hangs,"
+said Henry, "or will you partake of some refreshment first?"
+
+"No refreshment for me," said Varney. "My dear friend, if you will
+permit me to call you such, this is a time of the day at which I never
+do take any refreshment."
+
+"Nor at any other," thought Henry.
+
+They all went to the chamber where Charles had passed one very
+disagreeable night, and when they arrived, Henry pointed to the portrait
+on the panel, saying--
+
+"There, Sir Francis Varney, is your likeness."
+
+He looked, and, having walked up to it, in an under tone, rather as if
+he were conversing with himself than making a remark for any one else to
+hear, he said--
+
+"It is wonderfully like."
+
+"It is, indeed," said Charles.
+
+"If I stand beside it, thus," said Varney, placing himself in a
+favourable attitude for comparing the two faces, "I dare say you will be
+more struck with the likeness than before."
+
+So accurate was it now, that the same light fell upon his face as that
+under which the painter had executed the portrait, that all started back
+a step or two.
+
+"Some artists," remarked Varney, "have the sense to ask where a portrait
+is to be hung before they paint it, and then they adapt their lights and
+shadows to those which would fall upon the original, were it similarly
+situated."
+
+"I cannot stand this," said Charles to Henry; "I must question him
+farther."
+
+"As you please, but do not insult him."
+
+"I will not."
+
+"He is beneath my roof now, and, after all, it is but a hideous
+suspicion we have of him."
+
+"Rely upon me."
+
+Charles stepped forward, and once again confronting Varney, with an
+earnest gaze, he said--
+
+"Do you know, sir, that Miss Bannerworth declares the vampyre she
+fancies to have visited this chamber to be, in features, the exact
+counterpart of this portrait?"
+
+"Does she indeed?"
+
+"She does, indeed."
+
+"And perhaps, then, that accounts for her thinking that I am the
+vampyre, because I bear a strong resemblance to the portrait."
+
+"I should not be surprised," said Charles.
+
+"How very odd."
+
+"Very."
+
+"And yet entertaining. I am rather amused than otherwise. The idea of
+being a vampyre. Ha! ha! If ever I go to a masquerade again, I shall
+certainly assume the character of a vampyre."
+
+"You would do it well."
+
+"I dare say, now, I should make quite a sensation."
+
+"I am certain you would. Do you not think, gentlemen, that Sir Francis
+Varney would enact the character to the very life? By Heavens, he would
+do it so well that one might, without much difficulty, really imagine
+him a vampyre."
+
+"Bravo--bravo," said Varney, as he gently folded his hands together,
+with that genteel applause that may even be indulged in in a box at the
+opera itself. "Bravo. I like to see young persons enthusiastic; it looks
+as if they had some of the real fire of genius in their composition.
+Bravo--bravo."
+
+This was, Charles thought, the very height and acme of impudence, and
+yet what could he do? What could he say? He was foiled by the downright
+coolness of Varney.
+
+As for Henry, George, and Mr. Marchdale, they had listened to what was
+passing between Sir Francis and Charles in silence. They feared to
+diminish the effect of anything Charles might say, by adding a word of
+their own; and, likewise, they did not wish to lose one observation that
+might come from the lips of Varney.
+
+But now Charles appeared to have said all he had to say, he turned to
+the window and looked out. He seemed like a man who had made up his
+mind, for a time, to give up some contest in which he had been engaged.
+
+And, perhaps, not so much did he give it up from any feeling or
+consciousness of being beaten, as from a conviction that it could be the
+more effectually, at some other and far more eligible opportunity,
+renewed.
+
+Varney now addressed Henry, saying,--
+
+"I presume the subject of our conference, when you did me the honour of
+a call, is no secret to any one here?"
+
+"None whatever," said Henry.
+
+"Then, perhaps, I am too early in asking you if you have made up your
+mind?"
+
+"I have scarcely, certainly, had time to think."
+
+"My dear sir, do not let me hurry you; I much regret, indeed, the
+intrusion."
+
+"You seem anxious to possess the Hall," remarked Mr. Marchdale, to
+Varney.
+
+"I am."
+
+"Is it new to you?"
+
+"Not quite. I have some boyish recollections connected with this
+neighbourhood, among which Bannerworth Hall stands sufficiently
+prominent."
+
+"May I ask how long ago that was?" said Charles Howard, rather abruptly.
+
+"I do not recollect, my enthusiastic young friend," said Varney. "How
+old are you?"
+
+"Just about twenty-one."
+
+"You are, then, for your age, quite a model of discretion."
+
+It would have been difficult for the most accurate observer of human
+nature to have decided whether this was said truthfully or ironically,
+so Charles made no reply to it whatever.
+
+"I trust," said Henry, "we shall induce you, as this is your first
+visit, Sir Francis Varney, to the Hall, to partake of some thing."
+
+"Well, well, a cup of wine--"
+
+"Is at your service."
+
+Henry now led the way to a small parlour, which, although by no means
+one of the showiest rooms of the house, was, from the care and exquisite
+carving with which it abounded, much more to the taste of any who
+possessed an accurate judgment in such works of art.
+
+Then wine was ordered, and Charles took an opportunity of whispering to
+Henry,--
+
+"Notice well if he drinks."
+
+"I will."
+
+"Do you see that beneath his coat there is a raised place, as if his arm
+was bound up?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"There, then, was where the bullet from the pistol fired by Flora, when
+we were at the church, hit him."
+
+"Hush! for God's sake, hush! you are getting into a dreadful state of
+excitement, Charles; hush! hush!"
+
+"And can you blame--"
+
+"No, no; but what can we do?"
+
+"You are right. Nothing can we do at present. We have a clue now, and be
+it our mutual inclination, as well as duty, to follow it. Oh, you shall
+see how calm I will be!"
+
+"For Heaven's sake, be so. I have noted that his eyes flash upon yours
+with no friendly feeling."
+
+"His friendship were a curse."
+
+"Hush! he drinks!"
+
+"Watch him."
+
+"I will."
+
+"Gentlemen all," said Sir Francis Varney, in such soft, dulcet tones,
+that it was quite a fascination to hear him speak; "gentlemen all, being
+as I am, much delighted with your company, do not accuse me of
+presumption, if I drink now, poor drinker as I am, to our future merry
+meetings."
+
+He raised the wine to his lips, and seemed to drink, after which he
+replaced the glass upon the table.
+
+Charles glanced at it, it was still full.
+
+"You have not drank, Sir Francis Varney," he said.
+
+"Pardon me, enthusiastic young sir," said Varney, "perhaps you will have
+the liberality to allow me to take my wine how I please and when I
+please."
+
+"Your glass is full."
+
+"Well, sir?"
+
+"Will you drink it?"
+
+"Not at any man's bidding, most certainly. If the fair Flora Bannerworth
+would grace the board with her sweet presence, methinks I could then
+drink on, on, on."
+
+"Hark you, sir," cried Charles, "I can bear no more of this. We have had
+in this house most horrible and damning evidence that there are such
+things as vampyres."
+
+"Have you really? I suppose you eat raw pork at supper, and so had the
+nightmare?"
+
+"A jest is welcome in its place, but pray hear me out, sir, if it suit
+your lofty courtesy to do so."
+
+"Oh, certainly."
+
+"Then I say we believe, as far as human judgment has a right to go, that
+a vampyre has been here."
+
+"Go on, it's interesting. I always was a lover of the wild and the
+wonderful."
+
+"We have, too," continued Charles, "some reason to believe that you are
+the man."
+
+Varney tapped his forehead as he glanced at Henry, and said,--
+
+"Oh, dear, I did not know. You should have told me he was a little wrong
+about the brain; I might have quarreled with the lad. Dear me, how
+lamentable for his poor mother."
+
+"This will not do, Sir Francis Varney _alias_ Bannerworth."
+
+"Oh--oh! Be calm--be calm."
+
+"I defy you to your teeth, sir! No, God, no! Your teeth!"
+
+"Poor lad! Poor lad!"
+
+"You are a cowardly demon, and here I swear to devote myself to your
+destruction."
+
+Sir Francis Varney drew himself up to his full height, and that was
+immense, as he said to Henry,--
+
+"I pray you, Mr. Bannerworth, since I am thus grievously insulted
+beneath your roof, to tell me if your friend here be mad or sane?"
+
+"He's not mad."
+
+"Then--"
+
+"Hold, sir! The quarrel shall be mine. In the name of my persecuted
+sister--in the name of Heaven. Sir Francis Varney, I defy you."
+
+Sir Francis, in spite of his impenetrable calmness, appeared somewhat
+moved, as he said,--
+
+"I have already endured insult sufficient--I will endure no more. If
+there are weapons at hand--"
+
+"My young friend," interrupted Mr. Marchdale, stepping between the
+excited men, "is carried away by his feelings, and knows not what he
+says. You will look upon it in that light, Sir Francis."
+
+"We need no interference," exclaimed Varney, his hitherto bland voice
+changing to one of fury. "The hot blooded fool wishes to fight, and he
+shall--to the death--to the death."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"And I say he shall not," exclaimed Mr. Marchdale, taking Henry by the
+arm. "George," he added, turning to the young man, "assist me in
+persuading your brother to leave the room. Conceive the agony of your
+sister and mother if anything should happen to him."
+
+Varney smiled with a devilish sneer, as he listened to these words, and
+then he said,--
+
+"As you will--as you will. There will be plenty of time, and perhaps
+better opportunity, gentlemen. I bid you good day."
+
+And with provoking coolness, he then moved towards the door, and quitted
+the room.
+
+"Remain here," said Marchdale; "I will follow him, and see that he quits
+the premises."
+
+He did so, and the young men, from the window, beheld Sir Francis
+walking slowly across the garden, and then saw Mr. Marchdale follow on
+his track.
+
+While they were thus occupied, a tremendous ringing came at the gate,
+but their attention was so rivetted to what was passing in the garden,
+that they paid not the least attention to it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE ADMIRAL'S ADVICE.--THE CHALLENGE TO THE VAMPYRE.--THE NEW SERVANT AT
+THE HALL.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The violent ringing of the bell continued uninterruptedly until at
+length George volunteered to answer it. The fact was, that now there was
+no servant at all in the place for, after the one who had recently
+demanded of Henry her dismissal had left, the other was terrified to
+remain alone, and had precipitately gone from the house, without even
+going through the ceremony of announcing her intention to. To be sure,
+she sent a boy for her money afterwards, which may be considered a great
+act of condescension.
+
+Suspecting, then, this state of things, George himself hastened to the
+gate, and, being not over well pleased at the continuous and unnecessary
+ringing which was kept up at it, he opened it quickly, and cried, with
+more impatience, by a vast amount, than was usual with him.
+
+"Who is so impatient that he cannot wait a seasonable time for the door
+to be opened?"
+
+"And who the d----l are you?" cried one who was immediately outside.
+
+"Who do you want?" cried George.
+
+"Shiver my timbers!" cried Admiral Bell, for it was no other than that
+personage. "What's that to you?"
+
+"Ay, ay," added Jack, "answer that if you can, you shore-going-looking
+swab."
+
+"Two madmen, I suppose," ejaculated George, and he would have closed the
+gate upon them; but Jack introduced between it and the post the end of a
+thick stick, saying,--
+
+"Avast there! None of that; we have had trouble enough to get in. If you
+are the family lawyer, or the chaplain, perhaps you'll tell us where
+Mister Charley is."
+
+"Once more I demand of you who you want?" said George, who was now
+perhaps a little amused at the conduct of the impatient visitors.
+
+"We want the admiral's _nevey_" said Jack.
+
+"But how do I know who is the admiral's _nevey_ as you call him."
+
+"Why, Charles Holland, to be sure. Have you got him aboard or not?"
+
+"Mr. Charles Holland is certainly here; and, if you had said at once,
+and explicitly, that you wished to see him, I could have given you a
+direct answer."
+
+"He is here?" cried the admiral.
+
+"Most certainly."
+
+"Come along, then; yet, stop a bit. I say, young fellow, just before we
+go any further, tell us if he has maimed the vampyre?"
+
+"The what?
+
+"The _wamphigher_," said Jack, by way of being, as he considered, a
+little more explanatory than the admiral.
+
+"I do not know what you mean," said George; "if you wish to see Mr.
+Charles Holland walk in and see him. He is in this house; but, for
+myself, as you are strangers to me, I decline answering any questions,
+let their import be what they may."
+
+"Hilloa! who are they?" suddenly cried Jack, as he pointed to two
+figures some distance off in the meadows, who appeared to be angrily
+conversing.
+
+George glanced in the direction towards which Jack pointed, and there he
+saw Sir Francis Varney and Mr. Marchdale standing within a few paces of
+each other, and apparently engaged in some angry discussion.
+
+His first impulse was to go immediately towards them; but, before he
+could execute even that suggestion of his mind, he saw Varney strike
+Marchdale, and the latter fell to the ground.
+
+"Allow me to pass," cried George, as he endeavoured to get by the rather
+unwieldy form of the admiral. But, before he could accomplish this, for
+the gate was narrow, he saw Varney, with great swiftness, make off, and
+Marchdale, rising to his feet, came towards the Hall.
+
+When Marchdale got near enough to the garden-gate to see George, he
+motioned to him to remain where he was, and then, quickening his pace,
+he soon came up to the spot.
+
+"Marchdale," cried George, "you have had an encounter with Sir Francis
+Varney."
+
+"I have," said Marchdale, in an excited manner. "I threatened to follow
+him, but he struck me to the earth as easily as I could a child. His
+strength is superhuman."
+
+"I saw you fall."
+
+"I believe, but that he was observed, he would have murdered me."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"What, do you mean to say that lankey, horse-marine looking fellow is as
+bad as that!" said the admiral.
+
+Marchdale now turned his attention to the two new comers, upon whom he
+looked with some surprise, and then, turning to George, he said,--
+
+"Is this gentleman a visitor?"
+
+"To Mr. Holland, I believe he is," said George; "but I have not the
+pleasure of knowing his name."
+
+"Oh, you may know my name as soon as you like," cried the admiral. "The
+enemies of old England know it, and I don't care if all the world knows
+it. I'm old Admiral Bell, something of a hulk now, but still able to
+head a quarter-deck if there was any need to do so."
+
+"Ay, ay," cried Jack, and taking from his pocket a boatswain's whistle,
+he blew a blast so long, and loud, and shrill, that George was fain to
+cover his ears with his hands to shut out the brain-piercing, and, to
+him unusual sound.
+
+"And are you, then, a relative," said Marchdale, "of Mr. Holland's, sir,
+may I ask?"
+
+"I'm his uncle, and be d----d to him, if you must know, and some one has
+told me that the young scamp thinks of marrying a mermaid, or a ghost,
+or a vampyre, or some such thing, so, for the sake of the memory of his
+poor mother, I've come to say no to the bargain, and d--n me, who
+cares."
+
+"Come in, sir," said George, "I will conduct you to Mr. Holland. I
+presume this is your servant?"
+
+"Why, not exactly. That's Jack Pringle, he was my boatswain, you see,
+and now he's a kind o' something betwixt and between. Not exactly a
+servant."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack. "Have it all your own way, though we is paid
+off."
+
+"Hold your tongue, you audacious scoundrel, will you."
+
+"Oh, I forgot, you don't like anything said about paying off, cos it
+puts you in mind of--"
+
+"Now, d--n you, I'll have you strung up to the yard-arm, you dog, if you
+don't belay there."
+
+"I'm done. All's right."
+
+By this time the party, including the admiral, Jack, George Bannerworth,
+and Marchdale, had got more than half-way across the garden, and were
+observed by Charles Holland and Henry, who had come to the steps of the
+hall to see what was going on. The moment Charles saw the admiral a
+change of colour came over his face, and he exclaimed,--
+
+"By all that's surprising, there is my uncle!"
+
+"Your uncle!" said Henry.
+
+"Yes, as good a hearted a man as ever drew breath, and yet, withal, as
+full of prejudices, and as ignorant of life, as a child."
+
+Without waiting for any reply from Henry, Charles Holland rushed
+forward, and seizing his uncle by the hand, he cried, in tones of
+genuine affection,--
+
+"Uncle, dear uncle, how came you to find me out?"
+
+"Charley, my boy," cried the old man, "bless you; I mean, confound your
+d----d impudence; you rascal, I'm glad to see you; no, I ain't, you
+young mutineer. What do you mean by it, you ugly, ill-looking, d----d
+fine fellow--my dear boy. Oh, you infernal scoundrel."
+
+All this was accompanied by a shaking of the hand, which was enough to
+dislocate anybody's shoulder, and which Charles was compelled to bear as
+well as he could.
+
+It quite prevented him from speaking, however, for a few moments, for it
+nearly shook the breath out of him. When, then, he could get in a word,
+he said,--
+
+"Uncle, I dare say you are surprised."
+
+"Surprised! D--n me, I am surprised."
+
+"Well, I shall be able to explain all to your satisfaction, I am sure.
+Allow me now to introduce you to my friends."
+
+Turning then to Henry, Charles said,--
+
+"This is Mr. Henry Bannerworth, uncle; and this Mr. George Bannerworth,
+both good friends of mine; and this is Mr. Marchdale, a friend of
+theirs, uncle."
+
+"Oh, indeed!"
+
+"And here you see Admiral Bell, my most worthy, but rather eccentric
+uncle."
+
+"Confound your impudence."
+
+"What brought him here I cannot tell; but he is a brave officer, and a
+gentleman."
+
+"None of your nonsense," said the admiral.
+
+"And here you sees Jack Pringle," said that individual, introducing
+himself, since no one appeared inclined to do that office for him, "a
+tar for all weathers. One as hates the French, and is never so happy as
+when he's alongside o' some o' those lubberly craft blazing away."
+
+"That's uncommonly true," remarked the admiral.
+
+"Will you walk in, sir?" said Henry, courteously. "Any friend of Charles
+Holland's is most welcome here. You will have much to excuse us for,
+because we are deficient in servants at present, in consequence of come
+occurrences in our family, which your nephew has our full permission to
+explain to you in full."
+
+"Oh, very good, I tell you what it is, all of you, what I've seen of
+you, d----e, I like, so here goes. Come along, Jack."
+
+The admiral walked into the house, and as he went, Charles Holland said
+to him,--
+
+"How came you to know I was here, uncle?"
+
+"Some fellow wrote me a despatch."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, saying at you was a going to marry some odd sort of fish as it
+wasn't at all the thing to introduce into the family."
+
+"Was--was a vampyre mentioned?"
+
+"That's the very thing."
+
+"Hush, uncle--hush."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Do not, I implore, hint at such a thing before these kind friends of
+mine. I will take an opportunity within the next hour of explaining all
+to you, and you shall form your own kind and generous judgement upon
+circumstances in which my honour and my happiness are so nearly
+concerned."
+
+"Gammon," said the admiral.
+
+"What, uncle?"
+
+"Oh, I know you want to palaver me into saying it's all right. I suppose
+if my judgment and generosity don't like it, I shall be an old fool, and
+a cursed goose?"
+
+"Now, uncle."
+
+"Now, _nevey_."
+
+"Well, well--no more at present. We will talk over this at leisure. You
+promise me to say nothing about it until you have heard my explanation,
+uncle?"
+
+"Very good. Make it as soon as you can, and as short as you can, that's
+all I ask of you."
+
+"I will, I will."
+
+Charles was to the full as anxious as his uncle could be to enter upon
+the subject, some remote information of which, he felt convinced, had
+brought the old man down to the Hall. Who it could have been that so far
+intermeddled with his affairs as to write to him, he could not possibly
+conceive.
+
+A very few words will suffice to explain the precise position in which
+Charles Holland was. A considerable sum of money had been left to him,
+but it was saddled with the condition that he should not come into
+possession of it until he was one year beyond the age which is usually
+denominated that of discretion, namely, twenty-one. His uncle, the
+admiral, was the trustee of his fortune, and he, with rare discretion,
+had got the active and zealous assistance of a professional gentleman of
+great honour and eminence to conduct the business for him.
+
+This gentleman had advised that for the two years between the ages of
+twenty and twenty-two, Charles Holland should travel, inasmuch as in
+English society he would find himself in an awkward position, being for
+one whole year of age, and yet waiting for his property.
+
+Under such circumstances, reasoned the lawyer, a young man, unless he is
+possessed of very rare discretion indeed, is almost sure to get
+fearfully involved with money-lenders. Being of age, his notes, and
+bills, and bonds would all be good, and he would be in a ten times worse
+situation than a wealthy minor.
+
+All this was duly explained to Charles, who, rather eagerly than
+otherwise, caught at the idea of a two years wander on the continent,
+where he could visit so many places, which to a well read young man like
+himself, and one of a lively imagination, were full of the most
+delightful associations.
+
+But the acquaintance with Flora Bannerworth effected a great revolution
+in his feelings. The dearest, sweetest spot on earth became that which
+she inhabited. When the Bannerworths left him abroad, he knew not what
+to do with himself. Everything, and every pursuit in which he had before
+taken a delight, became most distasteful to him. He was, in fact, in a
+short time, completely "used up," and then he determined upon returning
+to England, and finding out the dear object of his attachment at once.
+This resolution was no sooner taken, than his health and spirits
+returned to him, and with what rapidity he could, he now made his way to
+his native shores.
+
+The two years were so nearly expired, that he made up his mind he would
+not communicate either with his uncle, the admiral, or the professional
+gentleman upon whose judgment he set so high and so just a value. And at
+the Hall he considered he was in perfect security from any interruption,
+and so he would have been, but for that letter which was written to
+Admiral Bell, and signed Josiah Crinkles, but which Josiah Crinkles so
+emphatically denied all knowledge of. Who wrote it, remains at present
+one of those mysteries which time, in the progress of our narrative,
+will clear up.
+
+The opportune, or rather the painful juncture at which Charles Holland
+had arrived at Bannerworth Hall, we are well cognisant of. Where he
+expected to find smiles he found tears, and the family with whom he had
+fondly hoped he should pass a time of uninterrupted happiness, he found
+plunged in the gloom incidental to an occurrence of the most painful
+character.
+
+Our readers will perceive, too, that coming as he did with an utter
+disbelief in the vampyre, Charles had been compelled, in some measure,
+to yield to the overwhelming weight of evidence which had been brought
+to bear upon the subject, and although he could not exactly be said to
+believe in the existence and the appearance of the vampyre at
+Bannerworth Hall, he was upon the subject in a most painful state of
+doubt and indecision.
+
+Charles now took an opportunity to speak to Henry privately, and inform
+him exactly how he stood with his uncle, adding--
+
+"Now, my dear friend, if you forbid me, I will not tell my uncle of this
+sad affair, but I must own I would rather do so fully and freely, and
+trust to his own judgment upon it."
+
+"I implore you to do so," said Henry. "Conceal nothing. Let him know the
+precise situation and circumstances of the family by all means. There is
+nothing so mischievous as secrecy: I have the greatest dislike to it. I
+beg you tell him all."
+
+"I will; and with it, Henry, I will tell him that my heart is
+irrevocably Flora's."
+
+"Your generous clinging to one whom your heart saw and loved, under very
+different auspices," said Henry, "believe me, Charles, sinks deep into
+my heart. She has related to me something of a meeting she had with
+you."
+
+"Oh, Henry, she may tell you what I said; but there are no words which
+can express the depth of my tenderness. 'Tis only time which can prove
+how much I love her."
+
+"Go to your uncle," said Henry, in a voice of emotion. "God bless you,
+Charles. It is true you would have been fully justified in leaving my
+sister; but the nobler and the more generous path you have chosen has
+endeared you to us all."
+
+"Where is Flora now?" said Charles.
+
+"She is in her own room. I have persuaded her, by some occupation, to
+withdraw her mind from a too close and consequently painful
+contemplation of the distressing circumstances in which she feels
+herself placed."
+
+"You are right. What occupation best pleases her?"
+
+"The pages of romance once had a charm for her gentle spirit."
+
+"Then come with me, and, from among the few articles I brought with me
+here, I can find some papers which may help her to pass some merry
+hours."
+
+Charles took Henry to his room, and, unstrapping a small valise, he took
+from it some manuscript papers, one of which he handed to Henry,
+saying--
+
+"Give that to her: it contains an account of a wild adventure, and shows
+that human nature may suffer much more--and that wrongfully too--than
+came ever under our present mysterious affliction."
+
+"I will," said Henry; "and, coming from you, I am sure it will have a
+more than ordinary value in her eyes."
+
+"I will now," said Charles, "seek my uncle. I will tell him how I love
+her; and at the end of my narration, if he should not object, I would
+fain introduce her to him, that he might himself see that, let what
+beauty may have met his gaze, her peer he never yet met with, and may in
+vain hope to do so."
+
+"You are partial, Charles."
+
+"Not so. 'Tis true I look upon her with a lover's eyes, but I look still
+with those of truthful observation."
+
+"Well, I will speak to her about seeing your uncle, and let you know. No
+doubt, he will not be at all averse to an interview with any one who
+stands high in your esteem."
+
+The young men now separated--Henry, to seek his beautiful sister; and
+Charles, to communicate to his uncle the strange particulars connected
+with Varney, the Vampyre.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+FLORA IN HER CHAMBER.--HER FEARS.--THE MANUSCRIPT.--AN ADVENTURE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Henry found Flora in her chamber. She was in deep thought when he tapped
+at the door of the room, and such was the state of nervous excitement in
+which she was that even the demand for admission made by him to the room
+was sufficient to produce from her a sudden cry of alarm.
+
+"Who--who is there?" she then said, in accents full of terror.
+
+"'Tis I, dear Flora," said Henry.
+
+She opened the door in an instant, and, with a feeling of grateful
+relief, exclaimed--
+
+"Oh, Henry, is it only you?"
+
+"Who did you suppose it was, Flora?"
+
+She shuddered.
+
+"I--I--do not know; but I am so foolish now, and so weak-spirited, that
+the slightest noise is enough to alarm me."
+
+"You must, dear Flora, fight up, as I had hoped you were doing, against
+this nervousness."
+
+"I will endeavour. Did not some strangers come a short time since,
+brother?"
+
+"Strangers to us, Flora, but not to Charles Holland. A relative of
+his--an uncle whom he much respects, has found him out here, and has now
+come to see him."
+
+"And to advise him," said Flora, as she sunk into a chair, and wept
+bitterly; "to advise him, of course, to desert, as he would a
+pestilence, a vampyre bride."
+
+"Hush, hush! for the sake of Heaven, never make use of such a phrase,
+Flora. You know not what a pang it brings to my heart to hear you."
+
+"Oh, forgive me, brother."
+
+"Say no more of it, Flora. Heed it not. It may be possible--in fact, it
+may well be supposed as more than probable--that the relative of Charles
+Holland may shrink from sanctioning the alliance, but do you rest
+securely in the possession of the heart which I feel convinced is wholly
+yours, and which, I am sure, would break ere it surrendered you."
+
+A smile of joy came across Flora's pale but beautiful face, as she
+cried,--
+
+"And you, dear brother--you think so much of Charles's faith?"
+
+"As Heaven is my judge, I do."
+
+"Then I will bear up with what strength God may give me against all
+things that seek to depress me; I will not be conquered."
+
+"You are right, Flora; I rejoice to find in you such a disposition. Here
+is some manuscript which Charles thinks will amuse you, and he bade me
+ask you if you would be introduced to his uncle."
+
+"Yes, yes--willingly."
+
+"I will tell him so; I know he wishes it, and I will tell him so. Be
+patient, dear Flora, and all may yet be well."
+
+"But, brother, on your sacred word, tell me do you not think this Sir
+Francis Varney is the vampyre?"
+
+"I know not what to think, and do not press me for a judgment now. He
+shall be watched."
+
+Henry left his sister, and she sat for some moments in silence with the
+papers before her that Charles had sent her.
+
+"Yes," she then said, gently, "he loves me--Charles loves me; I ought to
+be very, very happy. He loves me. In those words are concentrated a
+whole world of joy--Charles loves me--he will not forsake me. Oh, was
+there ever such dear love--such fond devotion?--never, never. Dear
+Charles. He loves me--he loves me!"
+
+The very repetition of these words had a charm for Flora--a charm which
+was sufficient to banish much sorrow; even the much-dreaded vampyre was
+forgotten while the light of love was beaming upon her, and she told
+herself,--
+
+"He is mine!--he is mine! He loves me truly."
+
+After a time, she turned to the manuscript which her brother had brought
+her, and, with a far greater concentration of mind than she had thought
+it possible she could bring to it, considering the many painful subjects
+of contemplation that she might have occupied herself with, she read the
+pages with very great pleasure and interest.
+
+The tale was one which chained her attention both by its incidents and
+the manner of its recital. It commenced as follows, and was entitled,
+"Hugo de Verole; or, the Double Plot."
+
+In a very mountainous part of Hungary lived a nobleman whose paternal
+estates covered many a mile of rock and mountain land, as well as some
+fertile valleys, in which reposed a hardy and contented peasantry. The
+old Count de Hugo de Verole had quitted life early, and had left his
+only son, the then Count Hugo de Verole, a boy of scarcely ten years,
+under the guardianship of his mother, an arbitrary and unscrupulous
+woman.
+
+The count, her husband, had been one of those quiet, even-tempered men,
+who have no desire to step beyond the sphere in which they are placed;
+he had no cares, save those included in the management of his estate,
+the prosperity of his serfs, and the happiness of those, around him.
+
+His death caused much lamentation throughout his domains, it was so
+sudden and unexpected, being in the enjoyment of his health and strength
+until a few hours previous, and then his energies became prostrated by
+pain and disease. There was a splendid funeral ceremony, which,
+according to the usages of his house, took place by torch-light.
+
+So great and rapid were the ravages of disease, that the count's body
+quickly became a mass of corruption. All were amazed at the phenomena,
+and were heartily glad when the body was disposed of in the place
+prepared for its reception in the vaults of his own castle. The guests
+who came to witness the funeral, and attend the count's obsequies, and
+to condole with the widow on the loss she had sustained, were
+entertained sumptuously for many days.
+
+The widow sustained her part well. She was inconsolable for the loss of
+her husband, and mourned his death bitterly. Her grief appeared
+profound, but she, with difficulty, subdued it to within decent bounds,
+that she might not offend any of her numerous guests.
+
+However, they left her with the assurances of their profound regard, and
+then when they were gone, when the last guest had departed, and were no
+longer visible to the eye of the countess, as she gazed from the
+battlements, then her behaviour changed totally.
+
+She descended from the battlements, and then with an imperious gesture
+she gave her orders that all the gates of the castle should be closed,
+and a watch set. All signs of mourning she ordered to be laid on one
+side save her own, which she wore, and then she retired to her own
+apartment, where she remained unseen.
+
+Here the countess remained in profound meditation for nearly two days,
+during which time the attendants believed she was praying for the
+welfare of the soul of their deceased master, and they feared she would
+starve herself to death if she remained any longer.
+
+Just as they had assembled together for the purpose of either recalling
+her from her vigils or breaking open the door, they were amazed to see
+the countess open the room-door, and stand in the midst of them.
+
+"What do you here?" she demanded, in a stern voice.
+
+The servants were amazed and terrified at her contracted brow, and
+forgot to answer the question she put to them.
+
+"What do you do here?"
+
+"We came, my lady, to see--see--if--if you were well."
+
+"And why?"
+
+"Because we hadn't seen your ladyship these two days, and we thought
+that your grief was so excessive that we feared some harm might befall
+you."
+
+The countess's brows contracted for a few seconds, and she was about to
+make a hasty reply, but she conquered the desire to do so, and merely
+said,--
+
+"I am not well, I am faint; but, had I been dying, I should not have
+thanked you for interfering to prevent me; however, you acted for the
+best, but do so no more. Now prepare me some food."
+
+The servants, thus dismissed, repaired to their stations, but with such
+a degree of alacrity, that they sufficiently showed how much they feared
+their mistress.
+
+The young count, who was only in his sixth year, knew little about the
+loss he had sustained; but after a day or two's grief, there was an end
+of his sorrow for the time.
+
+That night there came to the castle-gate a man dressed in a black cloak,
+attended by a servant. They were both mounted on good horses, and they
+demanded to be admitted to the presence of the Countess de Hugo de
+Verole.
+
+The message was carried to the countess, who started, but said,--
+
+"Admit the stranger."
+
+Accordingly the stranger was admitted, and shown into the apartment
+where the countess was sitting.
+
+At a signal the servants retired, leaving the countess and the stranger
+alone. It was some moments ere they spoke, and then the countess said in
+a low tone,--
+
+"You are come?"
+
+"I am come."
+
+"You cannot now, you see, perform your threat. My husband, the count,
+caught a putrid disease, and he is no more."
+
+"I cannot indeed do what I intended, inform your husband of your amours;
+but I can do something as good, and which will give you as much
+annoyance."
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Aye, more, it will cause you to be hated. I can spread reports."
+
+"You can."
+
+"And these may ruin you."
+
+"They may."
+
+"What do you intend to do? Do you intend that I shall be an enemy or a
+friend? I can be either, according to my will."
+
+"What, do you desire to be either?" inquired the countess, with a
+careless tone.
+
+"If you refuse my terms, you can make me an implacable enemy, and if you
+grant them, you can make me a useful friend and auxiliary," said the
+stranger.
+
+"What would you do if you were my enemy?" inquired the countess.
+
+"It is hardly my place," said the stranger, "to furnish you with a
+knowledge of my intentions, but I will say this much, that the bankrupt
+Count of Morven is your lover."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"And in the second place, that you were the cause of the death of your
+husband."
+
+"How dare you, sir--"
+
+"I dare say so much, and I dare say, also, that the Count of Morven
+bought the drug of me, and that he gave it to you, and that you gave it
+to the count your husband."
+
+"And what could you do if you were my friend?" inquired the countess, in
+the same tone, and without emotion.
+
+"I should abstain from doing all this; should be able to put any one
+else out of your way for you, when you get rid of this Count of Morven,
+as you assuredly will; for I know him too well not to be sure of that."
+
+"Get rid of him!"
+
+"Exactly, in the same manner you got rid of the old count."
+
+"Then I accept your terms."
+
+"It is agreed, then?"
+
+"Yes, quite."
+
+"Well, then, you must order me some rooms in a tower, where I can pursue
+my studies in quiet."
+
+"You will be seen--and noticed--all will be discovered."
+
+"No, indeed, I will take care of that, I can so far disguise myself that
+he will not recognise me, and you can give out I am a philosopher or
+necromancer, or what you will; no one will come to me--they will be
+terrified."
+
+"Very well."
+
+"And the gold?"
+
+"Shall be forthcoming as soon as I can get it. The count has placed all
+his gold in safe keeping, and all I can seize are the rents as they
+become due."
+
+"Very well; but let me have them. In the meantime you must provide for
+me, as I have come here with the full intention of staying here, or in
+some neighbouring town."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; and my servant must be discharged, as I want none here."
+
+The countess called to an attendant and gave the necessary orders, and
+afterwards remained some time with the stranger, who had thus so
+unceremoniously thrust himself upon her, and insisted upon staying under
+such strange and awful circumstances.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Count of Morven came a few weeks after, and remained some days with
+the countess. They were ceremonious and polite until they had a moment
+to retire from before people, when the countess changed her cold disdain
+to a cordial and familiar address.
+
+"And now, my dear Morven," she exclaimed, as soon as they were
+unobserved--"and now, my dear Morven, that we are not seen, tell me,
+what have you been doing with yourself?"
+
+"Why, I have been in some trouble. I never had gold that would stay by
+me. You know my hand was always open."
+
+"The old complaint again."
+
+"No; but having come to the end of my store, I began to grow serious."
+
+"Ah, Morven!' said the countess, reproachfully.
+
+"Well, never mind; when my purse is low my spirits sink, as the mercury
+does with the cold. You used to say my spirits were mercurial--I think
+they were."
+
+"Well, what did you do?"
+
+"Oh, nothing."
+
+"Was that what you were about to tell me?" inquired the countess.
+
+"Oh, dear, no. You recollect the Italian quack of whom I bought the drug
+you gave to the count, and which put an end to his days--he wanted more
+money. Well, as I had no more to spare, I could spare no more to him,
+and he turned vicious, and threatened. I threatened, too, and he knew I
+was fully able and willing to perform any promise I might make to him on
+that score. I endeavoured to catch him, as he had already began to set
+people off on the suspicious and marvellous concerning me, and if I
+could have come across him, I would have laid him very low indeed."
+
+"And you could not find him?"
+
+"No, I could not."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Well, then, I will tell you where he is at this present moment."
+
+"You?"
+
+"Yes, I."
+
+"I can scarcely credit my senses at what you say," said Count Morven.
+"My worthy doctor, you are little better than a candidate for divine
+honours. But where is he?"
+
+"Will you promise to be guided by me?" said the countess.
+
+"If you make it a condition upon which you grant the information, I
+must."
+
+"Well, then, I take that as a promise."
+
+"You may. Where--oh, where is he?"
+
+"Remember your promise. Your doctor is at this moment in this castle."
+
+"This castle?"
+
+"Yes, this castle."
+
+"Surely there must be some mistake; it is too much fortune at once."
+
+"He came here for the same purpose he went to you."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, to get more money by extortion, and a promise to poison anybody I
+liked."
+
+"D--n! it is the offer he made to me, and he named you."
+
+"He named you to me, and said I should be soon tired of you."
+
+"You have caged him?"
+
+"Oh, dear, no; he has a suite of apartments in the eastern tower, where
+he passes for a philosopher, or a wizard, as people like best."
+
+"How?"
+
+"I have given him leave there."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; and what is more amazing is, that he is to aid me in poisoning you
+when I have become tired of you."
+
+"This is a riddle I cannot unravel; tell me the solution."
+
+"Well, dear, listen,--he came to me and told me of something I already
+knew, and demanded money and a residence for his convenience, and I have
+granted him the asylum."
+
+"You have?"
+
+"I have."
+
+"I see; I will give him an inch or two of my Andrea Ferrara."
+
+"No--no."
+
+"Do you countenance him?"
+
+"For a time. Listen--we want men in the mines; my late husband sent very
+few to them of late years, and therefore they are getting short of men
+there."
+
+"Aye, aye."
+
+"The thing will be for you to feign ignorance of the man, and then you
+will be able to get him seized, and placed in the mines, for such men as
+he are dangerous, and carry poisoned weapons."
+
+"Would he not be better out of the world at once; there would be no
+escape, and no future contingencies?"
+
+"No--no. I will have no more lives taken; and he will be made useful;
+and, moreover, he will have time to reflect upon the mistake he had made
+in threatening me."
+
+"He was paid for the job, and he had no future claim. But what about the
+child?"
+
+"Oh, he may remain for some time longer here with us."
+
+"It will be dangerous to do so," said the count; "he is now ten years
+old, and there is no knowing what may be done for him by his relatives."
+
+"They dare not enter the gates of this castle Morven."
+
+"Well, well; but you know he might have travelled the same road as his
+father, and all would be settled."
+
+"No more lives, as I told you; but we can easily secure him some other
+way, and we shall be equally as free from him and them."
+
+"That is enough--there are dungeons, I know, in this castle, and he can
+be kept there safe enough."
+
+"He can; but that is not what I propose. We can put him into the mines
+and confine him as a lunatic."
+
+"Excellent!"
+
+"You see, we must make those mines more productive somehow or other;
+they would be so, but the count would not hear of it; he said it was so
+inhuman, they were so destructive of life."
+
+"Paha! what were the mines intended for if not for use?"
+
+"Exactly--I often said so, but he always put a negative to it."
+
+"We'll make use of an affirmative, my dear countess, and see what will
+be the result in a change of policy. By the way, when will our marriage
+be celebrated?"
+
+"Not for some months."
+
+"How, so long? I am impatient."
+
+"You must restrain your impatience--but we must have the boy settled
+first, and the count will have been dead a longer time then, and we
+shall not give so much scandal to the weak-minded fools that were his
+friends, for it will be dangerous to have so many events happen about
+the same period."
+
+"You shall act as you think proper--but the first thing to be done will
+be, to get this cunning doctor quietly out of the way."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I must contrive to have him seized, and carried to the mines."
+
+"Beneath the tower in which he lives is a trap-door and a vault, from
+which, by means of another trap and vault, is a long subterranean
+passage that leads to a door that opens into one end of the mines; near
+this end live several men whom you must give some reward to, and they
+will, by concert, seize him, and set him to work."
+
+"And if he will not work?"
+
+"Why, they will scourge him in such a manner, that he would be afraid
+even of a threat of a repetition of the same treatment."
+
+"That will do. But I think the worthy doctor will split himself with
+rage and malice, he will be like a caged tiger."
+
+"But he will be denuded of his teeth and claws," replied the countess,
+smiling "therefore he will have leisure to repent of having threatened
+his employers."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Some weeks passed over, and the Count of Morven contrived to become
+acquainted with the doctor. They appeared to be utter strangers to each
+other, though each knew the other; the doctor having disguised himself,
+he believed the disguise impenetrable and therefore sat at ease.
+
+"Worthy doctor," said the count to him, one day; "you have, no doubt, in
+your studies, become acquainted with many of the secrets of science."
+
+"I have, my lord count; I may say there are few that are not known to
+Father Aldrovani. I have spent many years in research."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; the midnight lamp has burned till the glorious sun has reached the
+horizon, and brings back the day, and yet have I been found beside my
+books."
+
+"'Tis well; men like you should well know the value of the purest and
+most valuable metals the earth produces?"
+
+"I know of but one--that is gold!"
+
+"'Tis what I mean."
+
+"But 'tis hard to procure from the bowels of the earth--from the heart
+of these mountains by which we are surrounded."
+
+"Yes, that is true. But know you not the owners of this castle and
+territory possess these mines and work them?"
+
+"I believe they do; but I thought they had discontinued working them
+some years."
+
+"Oh, no! that was given out to deceive the government, who claimed so
+much out of its products."
+
+"Oh! ah! aye, I see now."
+
+"And ever since they have been working it privately, and storing bars of
+gold up in the vaults of this--"
+
+"Here, in this castle?"
+
+"Yes; beneath this very tower--it being the least frequented--the
+strongest, and perfectly inaccessible from all sides, save the
+castle--it was placed there for the safest deposit."
+
+"I see; and there is much gold deposited in the vaults?"
+
+"I believe there is an immense quantity in the vaults."
+
+"And what is your motive for telling me of this hoard of the precious
+metal?"
+
+"Why, doctor, I thought that you or I could use a few bars; and that, if
+we acted in concert, we might be able to take away, at various times,
+and secrete, in some place or other, enough to make us rich men for all
+our lives."
+
+"I should like to see this gold before I said anything about it,"
+replied the doctor, thoughtfully.
+
+"As you please; do you find a lamp that will not go out by the sudden
+draughts of air, or have the means of relighting it, and I will
+accompany you."
+
+"When?"
+
+"This very night, good doctor, when you shall see such a golden harvest
+you never yet hoped for, or even believed in."
+
+"To-night be it, then," replied the doctor. "I will have a lamp that
+will answer our purpose, and some other matters."
+
+"Do, good doctor," and the count left the philosopher's cell.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The plan takes," said the count to the countess, "give me the keys, and
+the worthy man will be in safety before daylight."
+
+"Is he not suspicious?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night, about an hour before midnight,--the Count Morven stole
+towards the philosopher's room. He tapped at the door.
+
+"Enter," said the philosopher.
+
+The count entered, and saw the philosopher seated, and by him a lamp of
+peculiar construction, and incased in gauze wire, and a cloak.
+
+"Are you ready?" inquired the count.
+
+"Quite," he replied.
+
+"Is that your lamp?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"Follow me, then, and hold the lamp tolerably high, as the way is
+strange, and the steps steep."
+
+"Lead on."
+
+"You have made up your mind, I dare say, as to what share of the
+undertaking you will accept of with me."
+
+"And what if I will not?" said the philosopher, coolly.
+
+"It falls to the ground, and I return the keys to their place."
+
+"I dare say I shall not refuse, if you have not deceived me as to the
+quantity and purity of the metal they have stored up."
+
+"I am no judge of these metals, doctor. I am no assayest; but I believe
+you will find what I have to show you will far exceed your expectations
+on that head."
+
+"'Tis well: proceed."
+
+They had now got to the first vault, in which stood the first door, and,
+with some difficulty, they opened the vault door.
+
+"It has not been opened for some time," said the philosopher.
+
+"I dare say not, they seldom used to go here, from what I can learn,
+though it is kept a great secret."
+
+"And we can keep it so, likewise."
+
+"True."
+
+They now entered the vault, and came to the second door, which opened
+into a kind of flight of steps, cut out of the solid rock, and then
+along a passage cut out of the mountain, of some kind of stone, but not
+so hard as the rock itself.
+
+"You see," said the count, "what care has been taken to isolate the
+place, and detach it from the castle, so that it should not be dependent
+upon the possessor of the castle. This is the last door but one, and now
+prepare yourself for a surprise, doctor, this will be an extraordinary
+one."
+
+So saying, the count opened the door, and stepped on one side, when the
+doctor approached the place, and was immediately thrust forward by the
+count and he rolled down some steps into the mine, and was immediately
+seized by some of the miners, who had been stationed there for that
+purpose, and carried to a distant part of the mine, there to work for
+the remainder of his life.
+
+The count, seeing all secure, refastened the doors, and returned to the
+castle. A few weeks after this the body of a youth, mangled and
+disfigured, was brought to the castle, which the countess said was her
+son's body.
+
+The count had immediately secured the real heir, and thrust him into the
+mines, there to pass a life of labour and hopeless misery.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was a high feast held. The castle gates were thrown open, and
+everybody who came were entertained without question.
+
+This was on the occasion of the count's and countess's marriage. It
+seemed many months after the death of her son, whom she affected to
+mourn for a long time.
+
+However, the marriage took place, and in all magnificence and splendour.
+The countess again appeared arrayed in splendour and beauty: she was
+proud and haughty, and the count was imperious.
+
+In the mean time, the young Count de Hugo de Verole was confined in the
+mines, and the doctor with him.
+
+By a strange coincidence, the doctor and the young count became
+companions, and the former, meditating projects of revenge, educated the
+young count as well as he was able for several years in the mines, and
+cherished in the young man a spirit of revenge. They finally escaped
+together, and proceeded to Leyden, where the doctor had friends, and
+where he placed his pupil at the university, and thus made him a most
+efficient means of revenge, because the education of the count gave him
+a means of appreciating the splendour and rank he had been deprived of.
+He, therefore, determined to remain at Leyden until he was of age, and
+then apply to his father's friends, and then to his sovereign, to
+dispossess and punish them both for their double crime.
+
+The count and countess lived on in a state of regal splendour. The
+immense revenue of his territory, and the treasure the late count had
+amassed, as well as the revenue that the mines brought in, would have
+supported a much larger expenditure than even their tastes disposed them
+to enjoy.
+
+They had heard nothing of the escape of the doctor and the young count.
+Indeed, those who knew of it held their peace and said nothing about it,
+for they feared the consequences of their negligence. The first
+intimation they received was at the hands of a state messenger,
+summoning them to deliver up the castle revenues and treasure of the
+late count.
+
+This was astounding to them, and they refused to do so, but were soon
+after seized upon by a regiment of cuirassiers sent to take them, and
+they were accused of the crime of murder at the instance of the doctor.
+
+They were arraigned and found guilty, and, as they were of the patrician
+order, their execution was delayed, and they were committed to exile.
+This was done out of favour to the young count, who did not wish to have
+his family name tainted by a public execution, or their being confined
+like convicts.
+
+The count and countess quitted Hungary, and settled in Italy, where they
+lived upon the remains of the Count of Morven's property, shorn of all
+their splendour but enough to keep them from being compelled to do any
+menial office.
+
+The young count took possession of his patrimony and his treasure at
+last, such as was left by his mother and her paramour.
+
+The doctor continued to hide his crime from the young count, and the
+perpetrators denying all knowledge of it, he escaped; but he returned to
+his native place, Leyden, with a reward for his services from the young
+count.
+
+Flora rose from her perusal of the manuscript, which here ended, and
+even as she did so, she heard a footstep approaching her chamber door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE DREADFUL MISTAKE.--THE TERRIFIC INTERVIEW IN THE CHAMBER.--THE
+ATTACK OF THE VAMPYRE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The footstep which Flora, upon the close of the tale she had been
+reading, heard approaching her apartment, came rapidly along the
+corridor.
+
+"It is Henry, returned to conduct me to an interview with Charles's
+uncle," she said. "I wonder, now, what manner of man he is. He should in
+some respects resemble Charles; and if he do so, I shall bestow upon him
+some affection for that alone."
+
+Tap--tap came upon the chamber door. Flora was not at all alarmed now,
+as she had been when Henry brought her the manuscript. From some strange
+action of the nervous system, she felt quite confident, and resolved to
+brave everything. But then she felt quite sure that it was Henry, and
+before the knocking had taken her by surprise.
+
+"Come in," she said, in a cheerful voice. "Come in."
+
+The door opened with wonderful swiftness--a figure stepped into the
+room, and then closed it as rapidly, and stood against it. Flora tried
+to scream, but her tongue refused its office; a confused whirl of
+sensations passed through her brain--she trembled, and an icy coldness
+came over her. It was Sir Francis Varney, the vampyre!
+
+He had drawn up his tall, gaunt frame to its full height, and crossed
+his arms upon his breast; there was a hideous smile upon his sallow
+countenance, and his voice was deep and sepulchral, as he said,--
+
+"Flora Bannerworth, hear that which I have to say, and hear it calmly.
+You need have nothing to fear. Make an alarm--scream, or shout for help,
+and, by the hell beneath us, you are lost!"
+
+There was a death-like, cold, passionless manner about the utterance of
+these words, as if they were spoken mechanically, and came from no human
+lips.
+
+Flora heard them, and yet scarcely comprehended them; she stepped slowly
+back till she reached a chair, and there she held for support. The only
+part of the address of Varney that thoroughly reached her ears, was that
+if she gave any alarm some dreadful consequences were to ensue. But it
+was not on account of these words that she really gave no alarm; it was
+because she was utterly unable to do so.
+
+"Answer me," said Varney. "Promise that you will hear that which I have
+to say. In so promising you commit yourself to no evil, and you shall
+hear that which shall give you much peace."
+
+It was in vain she tried to speak; her lips moved, but she uttered no
+sound.
+
+"You are terrified," said Varney, "and yet I know not why. I do not come
+to do you harm, although harm have you done me. Girl, I come to rescue
+you from a thraldom of the soul under which you now labour."
+
+There was a pause of some moments' duration, and then, faintly, Flora
+managed to say,--
+
+"Help! help! Oh, help me, Heaven!"
+
+Varney made a gesture of impatience, as he said,--
+
+"Heaven works no special matters now. Flora Bannerworth, if you have as
+much intellect as your nobility and beauty would warrant the world in
+supposing, you will listen to me."
+
+"I--I hear," said Flora, as she still, dragging the chair with her,
+increased the distance between them.
+
+"'Tis well. You are now more composed."
+
+She fixed her eyes upon the face of Varney with a shudder. There could
+be no mistake. It was the same which, with the strange, glassy looking
+eyes, had glared upon her on that awful night of the storm when she was
+visited by the vampyre. And Varney returned that gaze unflinchingly
+There was a hideous and strange contortion of his face now as he said,--
+
+"You are beautiful. The most cunning statuary might well model some rare
+work of art from those rounded limbs, that were surely made to bewitch
+the gazer. Your skin rivals the driven snow--what a face of loveliness,
+and what a form of enchantment."
+
+She did not speak, but a thought came across her mind, which at once
+crimsoned her cheek--she knew she had fainted on the first visit of the
+vampyre, and now he, with a hideous reverence, praised beauties which he
+might have cast his demoniac eyes over at such a time.
+
+"You understand me," he said. "Well, let that pass. I am something
+allied to humanity yet."
+
+"Speak your errand," gasped Flora, "or come what may, I scream for help
+to those who will not be slow to render it."
+
+"I know it."
+
+"You know I will scream?"
+
+"No; you will hear me. I know they would not be slow to tender help to
+you, but you will not call for it; I will present to you no necessity."
+
+"Say on--say on."
+
+"You perceive I do not attempt to approach you; my errand is one of
+peace."
+
+"Peace from you! Horrible being, if you be really what even now my
+appalled imagination shrinks from naming you, would not even to you
+absolute annihilation be a blessing?"
+
+"Peace, peace. I came not here to talk on such a subject. I must be
+brief, Flora Bannerworth, for time presses. I do not hate you. Wherefore
+should I? You are young, and you are beautiful, and you bear a name
+which should command, and does command, some portion of my best regard."
+
+"There is a portrait," said Flora, "in this house."
+
+"No more--no more. I know what you would say."
+
+"It is yours."
+
+"The house, and all within, I covet," he said, uneasily. "Let that
+suffice. I have quarrelled with your brother--I have quarrelled with one
+who just now fancies he loves you."
+
+"Charles Holland loves me truly."
+
+"It does not suit me now to dispute that point with you. I have the
+means of knowing more of the secrets of the human heart than common men.
+I tell you, Flora Bannerworth, that he who talks to you of love, loves
+you not but with the fleeting fancy of a boy; and there is one who hides
+deep in his heart a world of passion, one who has never spoken to you of
+love, and yet who loves you with a love as far surpassing the evanescent
+fancy of this boy Holland, as does the mighty ocean the most placid lake
+that ever basked in idleness beneath a summer's sun."
+
+There was a wonderful fascination in the manner now of Varney. His voice
+sounded like music itself. His words flowed from his tongue, each gently
+and properly accented, with all the charm of eloquence.
+
+Despite her trembling horror of that man--despite her fearful opinion,
+which might be said to amount to a conviction of what he really was,
+Flora felt an irresistible wish to hear him speak on. Ay, despite too,
+the ungrateful theme to her heart which he had now chosen as the subject
+of his discourse, she felt her fear of him gradually dissipating, and
+now when he made a pause, she said,--
+
+"You are much mistaken. On the constancy and truth of Charles Holland, I
+would stake my life."
+
+"No doubt, no doubt."
+
+"Have you spoken now that which you had to say?"
+
+"No, no. I tell you I covet this place, I would purchase it, but having
+with your bad-tempered brothers quarrelled, they will hold no further
+converse with me."
+
+"And well they may refuse."
+
+"Be, that as it may, sweet lady, I come to you to be my mediator. In the
+shadow of the future I can see many events which are to come."
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"It is so. Borrowing some wisdom from the past, and some from resources
+I would not detail to you, I know that if I have inflicted much misery
+upon you, I can spare you much more. Your brother or your lover will
+challenge me."
+
+"Oh, no, no."
+
+"I say such will happen, and I can kill either. My skill as well as my
+strength is superhuman."
+
+"Mercy! mercy!" gasped Flora. "I will spare either or both on a
+condition."
+
+"What fearful condition?"
+
+"It is not a fearful one. Your terrors go far before the fact. All I
+wish, maiden, of you is to induce these imperious brothers of yours to
+sell or let the Hall to me."
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"It is. I ask no more, and, in return, I promise you not only that I
+will not fight with them, but that you shall never see me again. Rest
+securely, maiden, you will be undisturbed by me."
+
+"Oh, God! that were indeed an assurance worth the striving for," said
+Flora.
+
+"It is one you may have. But--"
+
+"Oh, I knew--my heart told me there was yet some fearful condition to
+come."
+
+"You are wrong again. I only ask of you that you keep this meeting a
+secret."
+
+"No, no, no--I cannot."
+
+"Nay, what so easy?"
+
+"I will not; I have no secrets from those I love."
+
+"Indeed, you will find soon the expediency of a few at least; but if you
+will not, I cannot urge it longer. Do as your wayward woman's nature
+prompts you."
+
+There was a slight, but a very slight, tone of aggravation in these
+words, and the manner in which they were uttered.
+
+As he spoke, he moved from the door towards the window, which opened
+into a kitchen garden. Flora shrunk as far from him as possible, and for
+a few moments they regarded each other in silence.
+
+"Young blood," said Varney, "mantles in your veins."
+
+She shuddered with terror.
+
+"Be mindful of the condition I have proposed to you. I covet Bannerworth
+Hall."
+
+"I--I hear."
+
+"And I must have it. I will have it, although my path to it be through a
+sea of blood. You understand me, maiden? Repeat what has passed between
+us or not, as you please. I say, beware of me, if you keep not the
+condition I have proposed."
+
+"Heaven knows that this place is becoming daily more hateful to us all,"
+said Flora.
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"You well might know so much. It is no sacrifice to urge it now. I will
+urge my brother."
+
+"Thanks--a thousand thanks. You may not live to regret even having made
+a friend of Varney--"
+
+"The vampyre!" said Flora.
+
+He advanced towards her a step, and she involuntarily uttered a scream
+of terror.
+
+In an instant his hand clasped her waist with the power of an iron vice;
+she felt hit hot breath flushing on her cheek. Her senses reeled, and
+she found herself sinking. She gathered all her breath and all her
+energies into one piercing shriek, and then she fell to the floor. There
+was a sudden crash of broken glass, and then all was still.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE CONFERENCE BETWEEN THE UNCLE AND NEPHEW, AND THE ALARM.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Meanwhile Charles Holland had taken his uncle by the arm, and led him
+into a private room.
+
+"Dear uncle," he said, "be seated, and I will explain everything without
+reserve."
+
+"Seated!--nonsense! I'll walk about," said the admiral. "D--n me! I've
+no patience to be seated, and very seldom had or have. Go on now, you
+young scamp."
+
+"Well--well; you abuse me, but I am quite sure, had you been in my
+situation, you would have acted precisely as I have done."
+
+"No, I shouldn't."
+
+"Well, but, uncle--"
+
+"Don't think to come over me by calling me uncle. Hark you,
+Charles--from this moment I won't be your uncle any more."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+"It ain't very well. And how dare you, you buccaneer, call me sir, eh? I
+say, how dare you?"
+
+"I will call you anything you like."
+
+"But I won't be called anything I like. You might as well call me at
+once Morgan, the Pirate, for he was called anything he liked. Hilloa,
+sir! how dare you laugh, eh? I'll teach you to laugh at me. I wish I had
+you on board ship--that's all, you young rascal. I'd soon teach you to
+laugh at your superior officer, I would."
+
+"Oh, uncle, I did not laugh at you."
+
+"What did you laugh at, then?"
+
+"At the joke."
+
+"Joke. D--n me, there was no joke at all!"
+
+"Oh, very good."
+
+"And it ain't very good."
+
+Charles knew very well that, this sort of humour, in which was the old
+admiral, would soon pass away, and then that he would listen to him
+comfortably enough; so he would not allow the least exhibition of
+petulance or mere impatience to escape himself, but contented himself by
+waiting until the ebullition of feeling fairly worked itself out.
+
+"Well, well," at length said the old man, "you have dragged me here,
+into a very small and a very dull room, under pretence of having
+something to tell me, and I have heard nothing yet."
+
+"Then I will now tell you," said Charles. "I fell in love--"
+
+"Bah!"
+
+"With Flora Bannerworth, abroad; she is not only the most beautiful of
+created beings--"
+
+"Bah!"
+
+"But her mind is of the highest order of intelligence, honour, candour,
+and all amiable feelings--"
+
+"Bah!"
+
+"Really, uncle, if you say 'Bah!' to everything, I cannot go on."
+
+"And what the deuce difference, sir, does it make to you, whether I say
+'Bah!' or not?"
+
+"Well, I love her. She came to England, and, as I could not exist, but
+was getting ill, and should, no doubt, have died if I had not done so, I
+came to England."
+
+"But d----e, I want to know about the mermaid."
+
+"The vampyre, you mean, sir?"
+
+"Well, well, the vampyre."
+
+"Then, uncle, all I can tell you is, that it is supposed a vampyre came
+one night and inflicted a wound upon Flora's neck with his teeth, and
+that he is still endeavouring to renew his horrible existence from the
+young, pure blood that flows through her veins."
+
+"The devil he is!"
+
+"Yes. I am bewildered, I must confess, by the mass of circumstances that
+have combined to give the affair a horrible truthfulness. Poor Flora is
+much injured in health and spirits; and when I came home, she, at once,
+implored me to give her up, and think of her no more, for she could not
+think of allowing me to unite my fate with hers, under such
+circumstances."
+
+"She did?"
+
+"Such were her words, uncle. She implored me--she used that word,
+'implore'--to fly from her, to leave her to her fate, to endeavour to
+find happiness with some one else."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"But I saw her heart was breaking."
+
+"What o' that?"
+
+"Much of that, uncle. I told her that when I deserted her in the hour of
+misfortune that I hoped Heaven would desert me. I told her that if her
+happiness was wrecked, to cling yet to me, and that with what power and
+what strength God had given me, I would stand between her and all ill."
+
+"And what then?"
+
+"She--she fell upon my breast and wept and blessed me. Could I desert
+her--could I say to her, 'My dear girl, when you were full of health and
+beauty, I loved you, but now that sadness is at your heart I leave you?'
+Could I tell her that, uncle, and yet call myself a man?"
+
+"No!" roared the old admiral, in a voice that made the room echo again;
+"and I tell you what, if you had done so, d--n you, you puppy, I'd have
+braced you, and--and married the girl myself. I would, d----e, but I
+would."
+
+"Dear uncle!"
+
+"Don't dear me, sir. Talk of deserting a girl when the signal of
+distress, in the shape of a tear, is in her eye!"
+
+"But I--"
+
+"You are a wretch--a confounded lubberly boy--a swab--a d----d bad
+grampus."
+
+"You mistake, uncle."
+
+"No, I don't. God bless you, Charles, you shall have her--if a whole
+ship's crew of vampyres said no, you shall have her. Let me see
+her--just let me see her."
+
+The admiral gave his lips a vigorous wipe with his sleeve, and Charles
+said hastily,--
+
+"My dear uncle, you will recollect that Miss Bannerworth is quite a
+young lady."
+
+"I suppose she is."
+
+"Well, then, for God's sake, don't attempt to kiss her."
+
+"Not kiss her! d----e, they like it. Not kiss her, because she's a young
+lady! D----e, do you think I'd kiss a corporal of marines?"
+
+"No, uncle; but you know young ladies are very delicate."
+
+"And ain't I delicate--shiver my timbers, ain't I delicate? Where is
+she? that's what I want to know."
+
+"Then you approve of what I have done?"
+
+"You are a young scamp, but you have got some of the old admiral's
+family blood in you, so don't take any credit for acting like an honest
+man--you couldn't help it."
+
+"But if I had not so acted," said Charles, with a smile, "what would
+have become of the family blood, then?"
+
+"What's that to you? I would have disowned you, because that very thing
+would have convinced me you were an impostor, and did not belong to the
+family at all."
+
+"Well, that would have been one way of getting over the difficulty."
+
+"No difficulty at all. The man who deserts the good ship that carries
+him through the waves, or the girl that trusts her heart to him, ought
+to be chopped up into meat for wild monkeys."
+
+"Well, I think so to."
+
+"Of course you do."
+
+"Why, of course?"
+
+"Because it's so d----d reasonable that, being a nephew of mine, you
+can't possibly help it."
+
+"Bravo, uncle! I had no idea you were so argumentative."
+
+"Hadn't you, spooney; you'd be an ornament to the gun-room, you would;
+but where's the 'young lady' who is so infernal delicate--where is she,
+I say?"
+
+"I will fetch her, uncle."
+
+"Ah, do; I'll be bound, now, she's one of the right build--a good
+figure-head, and don't make too much stern-way."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Well, well, whatever you do, now don't pay her any compliments, for
+your efforts in that line are of such a very doubtful order, that I
+shall dread to hear you."
+
+"You be off, and mind your own business; I haven't been at sea forty
+years without picking up some out-and-out delicate compliments to say to
+a young lady."
+
+"But do you really imagine, now, that the deck of a man-of-war is a nice
+place to pick up courtly compliments in?"
+
+"Of course I do. There you hear the best of language, d----e! You don't
+know what you are talking about, you fellows that have stuck on shore
+all your lives; it's we seamen who learn life."
+
+"Well, well--hark!"
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"A cry--did you not hear a cry?"
+
+"A signal of distress, by G--d!"
+
+In their efforts to leave the room, the uncle and nephew for about a
+minute actually blocked up the door-way, but the superior bulk of the
+admiral prevailed, and after nearly squeezing poor Charles flat, he got
+out first.
+
+But this did not avail him, for he knew not where to go. Now, the second
+scream which Flora had uttered when the vampyre had clasped her waist
+came upon their ears, and, as they were outside the room, it acted well
+as a guide in which direction to come.
+
+Charles fancied correctly enough at once that it proceeded from the room
+which was called "Flora's own room," and thitherward accordingly he
+dashed at tremendous speed.
+
+Henry, however, happened to be nearer at hand, and, moreover, he did not
+hesitate a moment, because he knew that Flora was in her own room; so he
+reached it first, and Charles saw him rush in a few moments before he
+could reach the room.
+
+The difference of time, however, was very slight, and Henry had only
+just raised Flora from the floor as Charles appeared.
+
+"God of Heaven!" cried the latter, "what has happened?"
+
+"I know not," said Henry; "as God is my judge, I know not. Flora, Flora,
+speak to us! Flora! Flora!"
+
+"She has fainted!" cried Charles. "Some water may restore her. Oh,
+Henry, Henry, is not this horrible?"
+
+"Courage! courage!" said Henry although his voice betrayed what a
+terrible state of anxiety he was himself in; "you will find water in
+that decanter, Charles. Here is my mother, too! Another visit! God help
+us!"
+
+Mrs. Bannerworth sat down on the edge of the sofa which was in the room,
+and could only wring her hands and weep.
+
+"Avast!" cried the admiral, making his appearance. "Where's the enemy,
+lads?"
+
+"Uncle," said Charles, "uncle, uncle, the vampyre has been here
+again--the dreadful vampyre!"
+
+"D--n me, and he's gone, too, and carried half the window with him. Look
+there!"
+
+It was literally true; the window, which was a long latticed one, was
+smashed through.
+
+"Help! oh, help!" said Flora, as the water that was dashed in her face
+began to recover her.
+
+"You are safe!" cried Henry, "you are safe!"
+
+"Flora," said Charles; "you know my voice, dear Flora? Look up, and you
+will see there are none here but those who love you."
+
+Flora opened her eyes timidly as the said,--
+
+"Has it gone?"
+
+"Yes, yes, dear," said Charles. "Look around you; here are none but true
+friends."
+
+"And tried friends, my dear," said Admiral Bell, "excepting me; and
+whenever you like to try me, afloat or ashore, d--n me, shew me Old Nick
+himself, and I won't shrink--yard arm and yard arm--grapnel to
+grapnel--pitch pots and grenades!"
+
+"This is my uncle, Flora," said Charles.
+
+"I thank you, sir," said Flora, faintly.
+
+"All right!" whispered the admiral to Charles; "what a figure-head, to
+be sure! Poll at Swansea would have made just about four of her, but she
+wasn't so delicate, d--n me!"
+
+"I should think not."
+
+"You are right for once in a way, Charley."
+
+"What was it that alarmed you?" said Charles, tenderly, as he now took
+one of Flora's hands in his.
+
+"Varney--Varney, the vampyre."
+
+"Varney!" exclaimed Henry; "Varney here!"
+
+"Yes, he came in at that door: and when I screamed, I suppose--for I
+hardly was conscious--he darted out through the window."
+
+"This," said Henry, "is beyond all human patience. By Heaven! I cannot
+and will not endure it."
+
+"It shall be my quarrel," said Charles; "I shall go at once and defy
+him. He shall meet me."
+
+"Oh, no, no, no," said Flora, as she clung convulsively to Charles. "No,
+no; there is a better way."
+
+"What way?"
+
+"The place has become full of terrors. Let us leave it. Let him, as he
+wishes, have it."
+
+"Let _him_ have it?"
+
+"Yes, yes. God knows, if it purchase an immunity from these visits, we
+may well be overjoyed. Remember that we have ample reason to believe him
+more than human. Why should you allow yourselves to risk a personal
+encounter with such a man, who might be glad to kill you that he might
+have an opportunity of replenishing his own hideous existence from your
+best heart's blood?"
+
+The young men looked aghast.
+
+"Besides," added Flora, "you cannot tell what dreadful powers of
+mischief he may have, against which human courage might be of no avail."
+
+"There is truth and reason," said Mr. Marchdale, stepping forward, "in
+what Flora says."
+
+"Only let me come across him, that's all," said Admiral Bell, "and I'll
+soon find out what he is. I suppose he's some long slab of a lubber
+after all, ain't he, with no strength."
+
+"His strength is immense," said Marchdale. "I tried to seize him, and I
+fell beneath his arm as if I had been struck by the hammer of a
+Cyclops."
+
+"A what?" cried the admiral.
+
+"A Cyclops."
+
+"D--n me, I served aboard the Cyclops eleven years, and never saw a very
+big hammer aboard of her."
+
+"What on earth is to be done?" said Henry.
+
+"Oh," chimed in the admiral, "there's always a bother about what's to be
+done on earth. Now, at sea, I could soon tell you what was to be done."
+
+"We must hold a solemn consultation over this matter," said Henry. "You
+are safe now, Flora."
+
+"Oh, be ruled by me. Give up the Hall."
+
+"You tremble."
+
+"I do tremble, brother, for what may yet ensue. I implore you to give up
+the Hall. It is but a terror to us now--give it up. Have no more to do
+with it. Let us make terms with Sir Francis Varney. Remember, we dare
+not kill him."
+
+"He ought to be smothered," said the admiral.
+
+"It is true," remarked Henry, "we dare not, even holding all the
+terrible suspicions we do, take his life."
+
+"By foul means certainly not," said Charles, "were he ten times a
+vampyre. I cannot, however, believe that he is so invulnerable as he is
+represented."
+
+"No one represents him here," said Marchdale. "I speak, sir, because I
+saw you glance at me. I only know that, having made two unsuccessful
+attempts to seize him, he eluded me, once by leaving in my grasp a piece
+of his coat, and the next time he struck me down, and I feel yet the
+effects of the terrific blow."
+
+"You hear?" said Flora.
+
+"Yes, I hear," said Charles.
+
+"For some reason," added Marchdale, in a tone of emotion, "what I say
+seems to fall always badly upon Mr. Holland's ear. I know not why; but
+if it will give him any satisfaction, I will leave Bannerworth Hall
+to-night."
+
+"No, no, no," said Henry; "for the love of Heaven, do not let us
+quarrel."
+
+"Hear, hear," cried the admiral. "We can never fight the enemy well if
+the ship's crew are on bad terms. Come now, you Charles, this appears to
+be an honest, gentlemanly fellow--give him your hand."
+
+"If Mr. Charles Holland," said Marchdale, "knows aught to my prejudice
+in any way, however slight, I here beg of him to declare it at once, and
+openly."
+
+"I cannot assert that I do," said Charles.
+
+"Then what the deuce do you make yourself so disagreeable for, eh?"
+cried the admiral.
+
+"One cannot help one's impression and feelings," said Charles; "but I am
+willing to take Mr. Marchdale's hand."
+
+"And I yours, young sir," said Marchdale, "in all sincerity of spirit,
+and with good will towards you."
+
+They shook hands; but it required no conjuror to perceive that it was
+not done willingly or cordially. It was a handshaking of that character
+which seemed to imply on each side, "I don't like you, but I don't know
+positively any harm of you."
+
+"There now," said the admiral, "that's better."
+
+"Now, let us hold counsel about this Varney," said Henry. "Come to the
+parlour all of you, and we will endeavour to come to some decided
+arrangement."
+
+"Do not weep, mother," said Flora. "All may yet be well. We will leave
+this place."
+
+"We will consider that question, Flora," said Henry; "and believe me
+your wishes will go a long way with all of us, as you may well suppose
+they always would."
+
+They left Mrs. Bannerworth with Flora, and proceeded to the small oaken
+parlour, in which were the elaborate and beautiful carvings which have
+been before mentioned.
+
+Henry's countenance, perhaps, wore the most determined expression of
+all. He appeared now as if he had thoroughly made up his mind to do
+something which should have a decided tendency to put a stop to the
+terrible scenes which were now day by day taking place beneath that
+roof.
+
+Charles Holland looked serious and thoughtful, as if he were revolving
+some course of action in his mind concerning which he was not quite
+clear.
+
+Mr. Marchdale was more sad and depressed, to all appearance, than any of
+them.
+
+As for the admiral, he was evidently in a state of amazement, and knew
+not what to think. He was anxious to do something, and yet what that was
+to be he had not the most remote idea, any more than as if he was not at
+all cognisant of any of those circumstances, every one of which was so
+completely out of the line of his former life and experience.
+
+George had gone to call on Mr. Chillingworth, so he was not present at
+the first part of this serious council of war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE CONSULTATION.--THE DETERMINATION TO LEAVE THE HALL.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+This was certainly the most seriously reasonable meeting which had been
+held at Bannerworth Hall on the subject of the much dreaded vampyre. The
+absolute necessity for doing something of a decisive character was
+abundantly apparent, and when Henry promised Flora that her earnest wish
+to leave the house should not be forgotten as an element in the
+discussion which was about to ensue, it was with a rapidly growing
+feeling on his own part, to the effect that that house, associated even
+as it was with many endearing recollections, was no home for him.
+
+Hence he was the more inclined to propose a departure from the Hall if
+it could possibly be arranged satisfactorily in a pecuniary point of
+view. The pecuniary point of view, however, in which Henry was compelled
+to look at the subject, was an important and a troublesome one.
+
+We have already hinted at the very peculiar state of the finances of the
+family; and, in fact, although the income derivable from various sources
+ought to have been amply sufficient to provide Henry, and those who were
+dependent upon him, with a respectable livelihood, yet it was nearly all
+swallowed up by the payment of regular instalments upon family debts
+incurred by his father. And the creditors took great credit to
+themselves that they allowed of such an arrangement, instead of sweeping
+off all before them, and leaving the family to starve.
+
+The question, therefore, or, at all events, one of the questions, now
+was, how far would a departure from the Hall of him, Henry, and the
+other branches of the family, act upon that arrangement?
+
+During a very few minutes' consideration, Henry, with the frank and
+candid disposition which was so strong a characteristic of his
+character, made up his mind to explain all this fully to Charles Holland
+and his uncle.
+
+When once he formed such a determination he was not likely to be slow in
+carrying it into effect, and no sooner, then, were the whole of them
+seated in the small oaken parlour than he made an explicit statement of
+his circumstances.
+
+"But," said Mr. Marchdale, when he had done, "I cannot see what right
+your creditors have to complain of where you live, so long as you
+perform your contract to them."
+
+"True; but they always expected me, I knew, to remain at the Hall, and
+if they chose, why, of course, at any time, they could sell off the
+whole property for what it would fetch, and pay themselves as far as the
+proceeds would go. At all events, I am quite certain there could be
+nothing at all left for me."
+
+"I cannot imagine," added Mr. Marchdale, "that any men could be so
+unreasonable."
+
+"It is scarcely to be borne," remarked Charles Holland, with more
+impatience than he usually displayed, "that a whole family are to be put
+to the necessity of leaving their home for no other reason than the
+being pestered by such a neighbour as Sir Francis Varney. It makes one
+impatient and angry to reflect upon such a state of things."
+
+"And yet they are lamentably true," said Henry. "What can we do?"
+
+"Surely there must be some sort of remedy."
+
+"There is but one that I can imagine, and that is one we all alike
+revolt from. We might kill him."
+
+"That is out of the question."
+
+"Of course my impression is that he bears the same name really as
+myself, and that he is my ancestor, from whom was painted the portrait
+on the panel."
+
+"Have circumstances really so far pressed upon you," said Charles
+Holland, "as at length to convince you that this man is really the
+horrible creature we surmise he may be?"
+
+"Dare we longer doubt it?" cried Henry, in a tone of excitement. "He is
+the vampyre."
+
+"I'll be hanged if I believe it," said Admiral Bell! "Stuff and
+nonsense! Vampyre, indeed! Bother the vampyre."
+
+"Sir," said Henry, "you have not had brought before you, painfully, as
+we have, all the circumstances upon which we, in a manner, feel
+compelled to found this horrible belief. At first incredulity was a
+natural thing. We had no idea that ever we could be brought to believe
+in such a thing."
+
+"That is the case," added Marchdale. "But, step by step, we have been
+driven from utter disbelief in this phenomenon to a trembling conviction
+that it must be true."
+
+"Unless we admit that, simultaneously, the senses of a number of persons
+have been deceived."
+
+"That is scarcely possible."
+
+"Then do you mean really to say there are such fish?" said the admiral.
+
+"We think so."
+
+"Well, I'm d----d! I have heard all sorts of yarns about what fellows
+have seen in one ocean and another; but this does beat them all to
+nothing."
+
+"It is monstrous," exclaimed Charles.
+
+There was a pause of some few moments' duration, and then Mr. Marchdale
+said, in a low voice,--
+
+"Perhaps I ought not to propose any course of action until you, Henry,
+have yourself done so; but even at the risk of being presumptuous, I
+will say that I am firmly of opinion you ought to leave the Hall."
+
+"I am inclined to think so, too," said Henry.
+
+"But the creditors?" interposed Charles.
+
+"I think they might be consulted on the matter beforehand," added
+Marchdale, "when no doubt they would acquiesce in an arrangement which
+could do them no harm."
+
+"Certainly, no harm," said Henry, "for I cannot take the estate with me,
+as they well know."
+
+"Precisely. If you do not like to sell it, you can let it."
+
+"To whom?"
+
+"Why, under the existing circumstances, it is not likely you would get
+any tenant for it than the one who has offered himself."
+
+"Sir Francis Varney?"
+
+"Yes. It seems to be a great object with him to live here, and it
+appears to me, that notwithstanding all that has occurred, it is most
+decidedly the best policy to let him."
+
+Nobody could really deny the reasonableness of this advice, although it
+seemed strange, and was repugnant to the feelings of them all, as they
+heard it. There was a pause of some seconds' duration, and then Henry
+said,--
+
+"It does, indeed, seem singular, to surrender one's house to such a
+being."
+
+"Especially," said Charles, "after what has occurred."
+
+"True."
+
+"Well," said Mr. Marchdale, "if any better plan of proceeding, taking
+the whole case into consideration, can be devised, I shall be most
+happy."
+
+"Will you consent to put off all proceedings for three days?" said
+Charles Holland, suddenly.
+
+"Have you any plan, my dear sir?" said Mr. Marchdale.
+
+"I have, but it is one which I would rather say nothing about for the
+present."
+
+"I have no objection," said Henry, "I do not know that three days can
+make any difference in the state of affairs. Let it be so, if you wish,
+Charles."
+
+"Then I am satisfied," said Charles. "I cannot but feel that, situated
+as I am regarding Flora, this is almost more my affair than even yours,
+Henry."
+
+"I cannot see that," said Henry. "Why should you take upon yourself more
+of the responsibility of these affairs than I, Charles? You induce in my
+mind a suspicion that you have some desperate project in your
+imagination, which by such a proposition you would seek to reconcile me
+to."
+
+Charles was silent, and Henry then added,--
+
+"Now, Charles, I am quite convinced that what I have hinted at is the
+fact. You have conceived some scheme which you fancy would be much
+opposed by us?"
+
+"I will not deny that I have," said Charles. "It is one, however, which
+you must allow me for the present to keep locked in my own breast."
+
+"Why will you not trust us?"
+
+"For two reasons."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"The one is, that I have not yet thoroughly determined upon the course I
+project; and the other is, that it is one in which I am not justified in
+involving any one else."
+
+"Charles, Charles," said Henry, despondingly; "only consider for a
+moment into what new misery you may plunge poor Flora, who is, Heaven
+knows, already sufficiently afflicted, by attempting an enterprise which
+even we, who are your friends, may unwittingly cross you in the
+performance of."
+
+"This is one in which I fear no such result. It cannot so happen. Do not
+urge me."
+
+"Can't you say at once what you think of doing?" said the old admiral.
+"What do you mean by turning your sails in all sorts of directions so
+oddly? You sneak, why don't you be what do you call it--explicit?"
+
+"I cannot, uncle."
+
+"What, are you tongue-tied?"
+
+"All here know well," said Charles, "that if I do not unfold my mind
+fully, it is not that I fear to trust any one present, but from some
+other most special reason."
+
+"Charles, I forbear to urge you further," said Henry, "and only implore
+you to be careful."
+
+At this moment the room door opened, and George Bannerworth, accompanied
+by Mr. Chillingworth, came in.
+
+"Do not let me intrude," said the surgeon; "I fear, as I see you seated,
+gentlemen, that my presence must be a rudeness and a disturbance to some
+family consultation among yourselves?"
+
+"Not at all, Mr. Chillingworth," said Henry. "Pray be seated; we are
+very glad indeed to see you. Admiral Bell, this is a friend on whom we
+can rely--Mr. Chillingworth."
+
+"And one of the right sort, I can see," said the admiral, as he shook
+Mr. Chillingworth by the hand.
+
+"Sir, you do me much honour," said the doctor.
+
+"None at all, none at all; I suppose you know all about this infernal
+odd vampyre business?"
+
+"I believe I do, sir."
+
+"And what do you think of it?"
+
+"I think time will develop the circumstances sufficiently to convince us
+all that such things cannot be."
+
+"D--n me, you are the most sensible fellow, then, that I have yet met
+with since I have been in this neighbourhood; for everybody else is so
+convinced about the vampyre, that they are ready to swear by him."
+
+"It would take much more to convince me. I was coming over here when I
+met Mr. George Bannerworth coming to my house."
+
+"Yes," said George, "and Mr. Chillingworth has something to tell us of a
+nature confirmatory of our own suspicions."
+
+"It is strange," said Henry; "but any piece of news, come it from what
+quarter it may, seems to be confirmatory, in some degree or another, of
+that dreadful belief in vampyres."
+
+"Why," said the doctor, "when Mr. George says that my news is of such a
+character, I think he goes a little too far. What I have to tell you, I
+do not conceive has anything whatever to do with the fact, or one fact
+of there being vampyres."
+
+"Let us hear it," said Henry.
+
+"It is simply this, that I was sent for by Sir Francis Varney myself."
+
+"You sent for?"
+
+"Yes; he sent for me by a special messenger to come to him, and when I
+went, which, under the circumstances, you may well guess, I did with all
+the celerity possible, I found it was to consult me about a flesh wound
+in his arm, which was showing some angry symptoms."
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Yes, it was so. When I was introduced to him I found him lying on a
+couch, and looking pale and unwell. In the most respectful manner, he
+asked me to be seated, and when I had taken a chair, he added,--
+
+"'Mr. Chillingworth, I have sent for you in consequence of a slight
+accident which has happened to my arm. I was incautiously loading some
+fire-arms, and discharged a pistol so close to me that the bullet
+inflicted a wound on my arm.'
+
+"'If you will allow me," said I, 'to see the wound, I will give you my
+opinion.'
+
+"He then showed me a jagged wound, which had evidently been caused by
+the passage of a bullet, which, had it gone a little deeper, must have
+inflicted serious injury. As it was, the wound was but trifling.
+
+"He had evidently been attempting to dress it himself, but finding some
+considerable inflammation, he very likely got a little alarmed."
+
+"You dressed the wound?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And what do you think of Sir Francis Varney, now that you have had so
+capital an opportunity," said Henry, "of a close examination of him?"
+
+"Why, there is certainly something odd about him which I cannot well
+define, but, take him altogether, he can be a very gentlemanly man
+indeed."
+
+"So he can."
+
+"His manners are easy and polished; he has evidently mixed in good
+society, and I never, in all my life, heard such a sweet, soft, winning
+voice."
+
+"That is strictly him. You noticed, I presume, his great likeness to the
+portrait on the panel?"
+
+"I did. At some moments, and viewing his face in some particular lights,
+it showed much more strongly than at others. My impression was that he
+could, when he liked, look much more like the portrait on the panel than
+when he allowed his face to assume its ordinary appearance."
+
+"Probably such an impression would be produced upon your mind," said
+Charles, "by some accidental expression of the countenance which even he
+was not aware of, and which often occurs in families."
+
+"It may be so."
+
+"Of course you did not hint, sir, at what has passed here with regard to
+him?" said Henry.
+
+"I did not. Being, you see, called in professionally, I had no right to
+take advantage of that circumstance to make any remarks to him about his
+private affairs."
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"It was all one to me whether he was a vampyre or not, professionally,
+and however deeply I might feel, personally, interested in the matter, I
+said nothing to him about it, because, you see, if I had, he would have
+had a fair opportunity of saying at once, 'Pray, sir, what is that to
+you?' and I should have been at a loss what to reply."
+
+"Can we doubt," said Henry, "but that this very wound has been inflicted
+upon Sir Francis Varney, by the pistol-bullet which was discharged at
+him by Flora?"
+
+"Everything leads to such an assumption certainly," said Charles
+Holland.
+
+"And yet you cannot even deduce from that the absolute fact of Sir
+Francis Varney being a vampyre?"
+
+"I do not think, Mr. Chillingworth," said Marchdale, "anything would
+convince you but a visit from him, and an actual attempt to fasten upon
+some of your own veins."
+
+"That would not convince me," said Chillingworth.
+
+"Then you will not be convinced?"
+
+"I certainly will not. I mean to hold out to the last. I said at the
+first, and I say so still, that I never will give way to this most
+outrageous superstition."
+
+"I wish I could think with you," said Marchdale, with a shudder; "but
+there may be something in the very atmosphere of this house which has
+been rendered hideous by the awful visits that have been made to it,
+which forbids me to disbelieve in those things which others more happily
+situated can hold at arm's length, and utterly repudiate."
+
+"There may be," said Henry; "but as to that, I think, after the very
+strongly expressed wish of Flora, I will decide upon leaving the house."
+
+"Will you sell it or let it?"
+
+"The latter I should much prefer," was the reply.
+
+"But who will take it now, except Sir Francis Varney? Why not at once
+let him have it? I am well aware that this does sound odd advice, but
+remember, we are all the creatures of circumstances, and that, in some
+cases where we least like it, we must swim with the stream."
+
+"That you will not decide upon, however, at present," said Charles
+Holland, as he rose.
+
+"Certainly not; a few days can make no difference."
+
+"None for the worse, certainly, and possibly much for the better."
+
+"Be it so; we will wait."
+
+"Uncle," said Charles, "will you spare me half an hour of your company?"
+
+"An hour, my boy, if you want it," said the admiral, rising from his
+chair.
+
+"Then this consultation is over," said Henry, "and we quite understand
+that to leave the Hall is a matter determined on, and that in a few days
+a decision shall be come to as to whether Varney the Vampyre shall be
+its tenant or not."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE ADMIRAL'S ADVICE TO CHARLES HOLLAND.--THE CHALLENGE TO THE VAMPYRE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When Charles Holland got his uncle into a room by themselves, he said,--
+
+"Uncle, you are a seaman, and accustomed to decide upon matters of
+honour. I look upon myself as having been most grievously insulted by
+this Sir Francis Varney. All accounts agree in representing him as a
+gentleman. He goes openly by a title, which, if it were not his, could
+easily be contradicted; therefore, on the score of position in life,
+there is no fault to find with him. What would you do if you were
+insulted by a gentleman?"
+
+The old admiral's eyes sparkled, and he looked comically in the face of
+Charles, as he said,--
+
+"I know now where you are steering."
+
+"What would you do, uncle?"
+
+"Fight him!"
+
+"I knew you would say so, and that's just what I want to do as regards
+Sir Francis Varney."
+
+"Well, my boy, I don't know that you can do better. He must be a
+thundering rascal, whether he is a vampyre or not; so if you feel that
+he has insulted you, fight him by all means, Charles."
+
+"I am much pleased, uncle, to find that you take my view of the
+subject," said Charles. "I knew that if I mentioned such a thing to the
+Bannerworths, they would endeavour all in their power to pursuade me
+against it."
+
+"Yes, no doubt; because they are all impressed with a strange fear of
+this fellow's vampyre powers. Besides, if a man is going to fight, the
+fewer people he mentions it to most decidedly the better, Charles."
+
+"I believe that is the fact, uncle. Should I overcome Varney, there will
+most likely be at once an end to the numerous and uncomfortable
+perplexities of the Bannerworths as regards him; and if he overcome me,
+why, then, at all events, I shall have made an effort to rescue Flora
+from the dread of this man."
+
+"And then he shall fight me," added the admiral, "so he shall have two
+chances, at all events, Charles."
+
+"Nay, uncle, that would, you know, scarcely be fair. Besides, if I
+should fall, I solemnly bequeath Flora Bannerworth to your good offices.
+I much fear that the pecuniary affairs of poor Henry,--from no fault of
+his, Heaven knows,--are in a very bad state, and that Flora may yet live
+to want some kind and able friend."
+
+"Never fear, Charles. The young creature shall never want while the old
+admiral has got a shot in the locker."
+
+"Thank you, uncle, thank you. I have ample cause to know, and to be able
+to rely upon your kind and generous nature. And now about the
+challenge?"
+
+"You write it, boy, and I'll take it."
+
+"Will you second me, uncle?"
+
+"To be sure I will. I wouldn't trust anybody else to do so on any
+account. You leave all the arrangements with me, and I'll second you as
+you ought to be seconded."
+
+"Then I will write it at once, for I have received injuries at the hands
+of that man, or devil, be he what he may, that I cannot put up with. His
+visit to the chamber of her whom I love would alone constitute ample
+ground of action."
+
+"I should say it rather would, my boy."
+
+"And after this corroborative story of the wound, I cannot for a moment
+doubt that Sir Francis Varney is the vampyre, or the personifier of the
+vampyre."
+
+"That's clear enough, Charles. Come, just you write your challenge, my
+boy, at once, and let me have it."
+
+"I will, uncle."
+
+Charles was a little astonished, although pleased, at his uncle's ready
+acquiescence in his fighting a vampyre, but that circumstance he
+ascribed to the old man's habits of life, which made him so familiar
+with strife and personal contentions of all sorts, that he did not
+ascribe to it that amount of importance which more peaceable people did.
+Had he, while he was writing the note to Sir Francis Varney, seen the
+old admiral's face, and the exceedingly cunning look it wore, he might
+have suspected that the acquiescence in the duel was but a seeming
+acquiescence. This, however, escaped him, and in a few moments he read
+to his uncle the following note:--
+
+     "To SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.
+
+     "Sir,--The expressions made use of towards me by you, as well as
+     general circumstances, which I need not further allude to here,
+     induce me to demand of you that satisfaction due from one
+     gentleman to another. My uncle, Admiral Bell, is the bearer of
+     this note, and will arrange preliminaries with any friend you may
+     choose to appoint to act in your behalf. I am, sir, yours, &c.
+
+     "CHARLES HOLLAND."
+
+"Will that do?" said Charles.
+
+"Capital!" said the admiral.
+
+"I am glad you like it."
+
+"Oh, I could not help liking it. The least said and the most to the
+purpose, always pleases me best; and this explains nothing, and demands
+all you want--which is a fight; so it's all right, you see, and nothing
+can be possibly better."
+
+Charles did glance in his uncle's face, for he suspected, from the
+manner in which these words were uttered, that the old man was amusing
+himself a little at his expense. The admiral, however, looked so
+supernaturally serious that Charles was foiled.
+
+"I repeat, it's a capital letter," he said.
+
+"Yes, you said so."
+
+"Well, what are you staring at?"
+
+"Oh, nothing."
+
+"Do you doubt my word?"
+
+"Not at all, uncle; only I thought there was a degree of irony in the
+manner in which you spoke."
+
+"None at all, my boy. I never was more serious in all my life."
+
+"Very good. Then you will remember that I leave my honour in this affair
+completely in your hands."
+
+"Depend upon me, my boy."
+
+"I will, and do."
+
+"I'll be off and see the fellow at once."
+
+The admiral bustled out of the room, and in a few moments Charles heard
+him calling loudly,--
+
+"Jack--Jack Pringle, you lubber, where are you?--Jack Pringle, I say."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack, emerging from the kitchen, where he had been
+making himself generally useful in assisting Mrs. Bannerworth, there
+being no servant in the house, to cook some dinner for the family.
+
+"Come on, you rascal, we are going for a walk."
+
+"The rations will be served out soon," growled Jack.
+
+"We shall be back in time, you cormorant, never fear. You are always
+thinking of eating and drinking, you are, Jack; and I'll be hanged if I
+think you ever think of anything else. Come on, will you; I'm going on
+rather a particular cruise just now, so mind what you are about."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir," said the tar, and these two originals, who so perfectly
+understood each other, walked away, conversing as they went, and their
+different voices coming upon the ear of Charles, until distance
+obliterated all impression of the sound.
+
+Charles paced to and fro in the room where he had held this brief and
+conclusive conversation with his uncle. He was thoughtful, as any one
+might well be who knew not but that the next four-and-twenty hours would
+be the limit of his sojourn in this world.
+
+"Oh, Flora--Flora!" he at length said, "how happy we might to have been
+together--how happy we might have been! but all is past now, and there
+seems nothing left us but to endure. There it but one chance, and that
+is in my killing this fearful man who is invested with so dreadful an
+existence. And if I do kill him in fair and in open fight, I will take
+care that his mortal frame has no power again to revisit the glimpses of
+the moon."
+
+It was strange to imagine that such was the force of many concurrent
+circumstances, that a young man like Charles Holland, of first-rate
+abilities and education, should find it necessary to give in so far to a
+belief which was repugnant to all his best feelings and habits of
+thought, as to be reasoning with himself upon the best means of
+preventing the resuscitation of the corpse of a vampyre. But so it was.
+His imagination had yielded to a succession of events which very few
+persons indeed could have held out against.
+
+"I have heard and read," he said, as he continued his agitated and
+uneasy walk, "of how these dreadful beings are to be in their graves. I
+have heard of stakes being driven through the body so as to pin it to
+the earth until the gradual progress of decay has rendered its
+revivification a thing of utter and total impossibility. Then, again,"
+he added, after a slight pause, "I have heard of their being burned, and
+the ashes gathered to the winds of Heaven to prevent them from ever
+again uniting or assuming human form."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+These were disagreeable and strange fancies, and he shuddered while he
+indulged in them. He felt a kind of trembling horror come over him even
+at the thought of engaging in conflict with a being, who perhaps, had
+lived more than a hundred years.
+
+"That portrait," he thought, "on the panel, is the portrait of a man in
+the prime of life. If it be the portrait of Sir Francis Varney, by the
+date which the family ascribe to it he must be nearly one hundred and
+fifty years of age now."
+
+This was a supposition which carried the imagination to a vast amount of
+strange conjectures.
+
+"What changes he must have witnessed about him in that time," thought
+Charles. "How he must have seen kingdoms totter and fall, and how many
+changes of habits, of manners, and of customs must he have become a
+spectator of. Renewing too, ever and anon, his fearful existence by such
+fearful means."
+
+This was a wide field of conjecture for a fertile imagination, and now
+that he was on the eve of engaging with such a being in mortal combat,
+on behalf of her he loved, the thoughts it gave rise to came more
+strongly and thickly upon him than ever they had done before.
+
+"But I will fight him," he suddenly said, "for Flora's sake, were he a
+hundred times more hideous a being than so many evidences tend to prove
+him. I will fight with him, and it may be my fate to rid the world of
+such a monster in human form."
+
+Charles worked himself up to a kind of enthusiasm by which he almost
+succeeded in convincing himself that, in attempting the destruction of
+Sir Francis Varney, he was the champion of human nature.
+
+It would be aside from the object of these pages, which is to record
+facts as they occurred, to enter into the metaphysical course of
+reasoning which came across Charles's mind; suffice it to say that he
+felt nothing shaken as regarded his resolve to meet Varney the Vampyre,
+and that he made up his mind the conflict should be one of life or
+death.
+
+"It must be so," he said. "It must be so. Either he or I must fall in
+the fight which shall surely be."
+
+He now sought Flora, for how soon might he now be torn from her for ever
+by the irresistible hand of death. He felt that, during the few brief
+hours which now would only elapse previous to his meeting with Sir
+Francis Varney, he could not enjoy too much of the society of her who
+reigned supreme in his heart, and held in her own keeping his best
+affections.
+
+But while Charles is thus employed, let us follow his uncle and Jack
+Pringle to the residence of Varney, which, as the reader is aware, was
+so near at hand that it required not many minutes' sharp walking to
+reach it.
+
+The admiral knew well he could trust Jack with any secret, for long
+habits of discipline and deference to the orders of superiors takes off
+the propensity to blabbing which, among civilians who are not accustomed
+to discipline, is so very prevalent. The old man therefore explained to
+Jack what he meant to do, and it received Jack's full approval; but as
+in the enforced detail of other matters it must come out, we will not
+here prematurely enter into the admiral's plans.
+
+When they reached the residence of Sir Francis Varney, they were
+received courteously enough, and the admiral desired Jack to wait for
+him in the handsome hall of the house, while he was shewn up stairs to
+the private room of the vampyre.
+
+"Confound the fellow!" muttered the old admiral, "he is well lodged at
+all events. I should say he was not one of those sort of vampyres who
+have nowhere to go to but their own coffins when the evening comes."
+
+The room into which the admiral was shewn had green blinds to it, and
+they were all drawn down. It is true that the sun was shining brightly
+outside, although transiently, but still a strange green tinge was
+thrown over everything in the room, and more particularly did it appear
+to fall upon the face of Varney, converting his usually sallow
+countenance into a still more hideous and strange colour. He was sitting
+upon a couch, and, when the admiral came in, he rose, and said, in a
+deep-toned voice, extremely different to that he usually spoke in,--
+
+"My humble home is much honoured, sir, by your presence in it."
+
+"Good morning," said the admiral. "I have come to speak to you, sir,
+rather seriously."
+
+"However abrupt this announcement may sound to me," said Varney, "I am
+quite sure I shall always hear, with the most profound respect, whatever
+Admiral Bell may have to say."
+
+"There is no respect required," said the admiral, "but only a little
+attention."
+
+Sir Francis bowed in a stately manner, saying,--
+
+"I shall be quite unhappy if you will not be seated, Admiral Bell."
+
+"Oh, never mind that, Sir Francis Varney, if you be Sir Francis Varney;
+for you may be the devil himself, for all I know. My nephew, Charles
+Holland, considers that, one way and another, he has a very tolerable
+quarrel with you."
+
+"I much grieve to hear it."
+
+"Do you?"
+
+"Believe me, I do. I am most scrupulous in what I say; and an assertion
+that I am grieved, you may thoroughly and entirely depend upon."
+
+"Well, well, never mind that; Charles Holland is a young man just
+entering into life. He loves a girl who is, I think, every way worthy of
+him."
+
+"Oh, what a felicitous prospect!"
+
+"Just hear me out, if you please."
+
+"With pleasure, sir--with pleasure."
+
+"Well, then, when a young, hot-headed fellow thinks he has a good ground
+of quarrel with anybody, you will not be surprised at his wanting to
+fight it out."
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"Well, then, to come to the point, my nephew, Charles Holland, has a
+fancy for fighting with you."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"You take it d----d easy."
+
+"My dear sir, why should I be uneasy? He is not my nephew, you know. I
+shall have no particular cause, beyond those feelings of common
+compassion which I hope inhabit my breast as well as every one else's."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, he is a young man just, as you say, entering into life, and I
+cannot help thinking it would be a pity to cut him off like a flower in
+the bud, so very soon."
+
+"Oh, you make quite sure, then, of settling him, do you?"
+
+"My dear sir, only consider; he might be very troublesome, indeed; you
+know young men are hot-headed and troublesome. Even if I were only to
+maim him, he might be a continual and never-ceasing annoyance to me. I
+think I should be absolutely, in a manner of speaking, compelled to cut
+him off."
+
+"The devil you do!"
+
+"As you say, sir."
+
+"D--n your assurance, Mr. Vampyre, or whatever odd fish you may be."
+
+"Admiral Bell, I never called upon you and received a courteous
+reception, and then insulted you."
+
+"Then why do you talk of cutting off a better man than yourself? D--n
+it, what would you say to him cutting you off?"
+
+"Oh, as for me, my good sir, that's quite another thing. Cutting me off
+is very doubtful."
+
+Sir Francis Varney gave a strange smile as he spoke, and shook his head,
+as if some most extraordinary and extravagant proposition had been
+mooted, which it was scarcely worth the while of anybody possessed of
+common sense to set about expecting.
+
+Admiral Bell felt strongly inclined to get into a rage, but he repressed
+the idea as much as he could, although, but for the curious faint green
+light that came through the blinds, his heightened colour would have
+sufficiently proclaimed what state of mind he was in.
+
+"Mr. Varney," he said, "all this is quite beside the question; but, at
+all events, if it have any weight at all, it ought to have a
+considerable influence in deciding you to accept of what terms I
+propose."
+
+"What are they, sir?"
+
+"Why, that you permit me to espouse my nephew Charles's quarrel, and
+meet you instead of him."
+
+"You meet me?"
+
+"Yes; I've met a better man more than once before. It can make no
+difference to you."
+
+"I don't know that, Admiral Bell. One generally likes, in a duel, to
+face him with whom one has had the misunderstanding, be it on what
+grounds it may."
+
+"There's some reason, I know, in what you say; but, surely, if I am
+willing, you need not object."
+
+"And is your nephew willing thus to shift the danger and the job of
+resenting his own quarrels on to your shoulders?"
+
+"No; he knows nothing about it. He has written you a challenge, of which
+I am the bearer, but I voluntarily, and of my own accord, wish to meet
+you instead."
+
+"This is a strange mode of proceeding."
+
+"If you will not accede to it, and fight him first, and any harm comes
+to him, you shall fight me afterwards."
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Yes, indeed you shall, however surprised you may look."
+
+"As this appears to be quite a family affair, then," said Sir Francis
+Varney, "it certainly does appear immaterial which of you I fight with
+first."
+
+"Quite so; now you take a sensible view of the question. Will you meet
+me?"
+
+"I have no particular objection. Have you settled all your affairs, and
+made your will?"
+
+"What's that to you?"
+
+"Oh, I only asked, because there is generally so much food for
+litigation if a man dies intestate, and is worth any money."
+
+"You make devilish sure," said the admiral, "of being the victor. Have
+you made your will?"
+
+"Oh, my will," smiled Sir Francis; "that, my good sir, is quite an
+indifferent affair."
+
+"Well, make it or not, as you like. I am old, I know, but I can pull a
+trigger as well as any one."
+
+"Do what?"
+
+"Pull a trigger."
+
+"Why, you don't suppose I resort to any such barbarous modes of
+fighting?"
+
+"Barbarous! Why, how do you fight then?"
+
+"As a gentleman, with my sword."
+
+"Swords! Oh, nonsense! nobody fights with swords now-a-days. That's all
+exploded."
+
+"I cling to the customs and the fashions of my youth," said Varney. "I
+have been, years ago, accustomed always to wear a sword, and to be
+without one now vexes me."
+
+"Pray, how many years ago?"
+
+"I am older than I look, but that is not the question. I am willing to
+meet you with swords if you like. You are no doubt aware that, as the
+challenged party, I am entitled to the choice of weapons."
+
+"I am."
+
+"Then you cannot object to my availing myself of the one in the use of
+which I am perfectly unequalled."
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Yes, I am, I think, the first swordsman in Europe; I have had immense
+practice."
+
+"Well, sir, you have certainly made a most unexpected choice of weapons.
+I can use a sword still, but am by no means a master of fencing.
+However, it shall not be said that I went back from my word, and let the
+chances be as desperate as they may, I will meet you."
+
+"Very good."
+
+"With swords?"
+
+"Ay, with swords; but I must have everything properly arranged, so that
+no blame can rest on me, you know. As you will be killed, you are safe
+from all consequences, but I shall be in a very different position; so,
+if you please, I must have this meeting got up in such a manner as shall
+enable me to prove, to whoever may question me on the subject, that you
+had fair play."
+
+"Oh, never fear that."
+
+"But I do fear it. The world, my good sir, is censorious, and you cannot
+stop people from saying extremely ill-natured things."
+
+"What do you require, then?"
+
+"I require you to send me a friend with a formal challenge."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Then I shall refer him to a friend of mine, and they two must settle
+everything between them."
+
+"Is that all?"
+
+"Not quite. I will have a surgeon on the ground, in case, when I pink
+you, there should be a chance of saving your life. It always looks
+humane."
+
+"When you pink me?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Upon my word, you take these affairs easy. I suppose you have had a few
+of them?"
+
+"Oh, a good number. People like yourself worry me into them, I don't
+like the trouble, I assure you; it is no amusement to me. I would
+rather, by a great deal, make some concession than fight, because I will
+fight with swords, and the result is then so certain that there is no
+danger in the matter to me."
+
+"Hark you, Sir Francis Varney. You are either a very clever actor, or a
+man, as you say, of such skill with your sword, that you can make sure
+of the result of a duel. You know, therefore, that it is not fair play
+on your part to fight a duel with that weapon."
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon there. I never challenge anybody, and when
+foolish people will call me out, contrary to my inclination, I think I
+am bound to take what care of myself I can."
+
+"D--n me, there's some reason in that, too," said the admiral; "but why
+do you insult people?"
+
+"People insult me first."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!"
+
+"How should you like to be called a vampyre, and stared at as if you
+were some hideous natural phenomenon?"
+
+"Well, but--"
+
+"I say, Admiral Bell, how should you like it? I am a harmless country
+gentleman, and because, in the heated imaginations of some member of a
+crack-brained family, some housebreaker has been converted into a
+vampyre, I am to be pitched upon as the man, and insulted and persecuted
+accordingly."
+
+"But you forget the proofs."
+
+"What proofs?"
+
+"The portrait, for one."
+
+"What! Because there is an accidental likeness between me and an old
+picture, am I to be set down as a vampyre? Why, when I was in Austria
+last, I saw an old portrait of a celebrated court fool, and you so
+strongly resemble it, that I was quite struck when I first saw you with
+the likeness; but I was not so unpolite as to tell you that I considered
+you were the court fool turned vampyre."
+
+"D--n your assurance!"
+
+"And d--n yours, if you come to that."
+
+The admiral was fairly beaten. Sir Francis Varney was by far too
+long-headed and witty for him. After now in vain endeavouring to find
+something to say, the old man buttoned up his coat in a great passion,
+and looking fiercely at Varney, he said,--"I don't pretend to a gift of
+the gab. D--n me, it ain't one of my peculiarities; but though you may
+talk me down, you sha'n't keep me down."
+
+"Very good, sir."
+
+"It is not very good. You shall hear from me."
+
+"I am willing."
+
+"I don't care whether you are willing or not. You shall find that when
+once I begin to tackle an enemy, I don't so easily leave him. One or
+both of us, sir, is sure to sink."
+
+"Agreed."
+
+"So say I. You shall find that I'm a tar for all weathers, and if you
+were a hundred and fifty vampires all rolled into one, I'd tackle you
+somehow."
+
+The admiral walked to the door in high dudgeon; when he was near to it,
+Varney said, in some of his most winning and gentle accents,--
+
+"Will you not take some refreshment, sir before you go from my humble
+house?"
+
+"No!" roared the admiral.
+
+"Something cooling?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Very good, sir. A hospitable host can do no more than offer to
+entertain his guests."
+
+Admiral Bell turned at the door, and said, with some degree of intense
+bitterness,
+
+"You look rather poorly. I suppose, to-night, you will go and suck
+somebody's blood, you shark--you confounded vampyre! You ought to be
+made to swallow a red-hot brick, and then let dance about till it
+digests."
+
+Varney smiled as he rang the bell, and said to a servant,--
+
+"Show my very excellent friend Admiral Bell out. He will not take any
+refreshments."
+
+The servant bowed, and preceded the admiral down the staircase; but, to
+his great surprise, instead of a compliment in the shape of a shilling
+or half-a-crown for his pains, he received a tremendous kick behind,
+with a request to go and take it to his master, with his compliments.
+
+The fume that the old admiral was in beggars all description. He walked
+to Bannerworth Hall at such a rapid pace, that Jack Pringle had the
+greatest difficulty in the world to keep up with him, so as to be at all
+within speaking distance.
+
+"Hilloa, Jack," cried the old man, when they were close to the Hall.
+"Did you see me kick that fellow?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"Well, that's some consolation, at any rate, if somebody saw it. It
+ought to have been his master, that's all I can say to it, and I wish it
+had."
+
+"How have you settled it, sir?"
+
+"Settled what?"
+
+"The fight, sir."
+
+"D--n me, Jack, I haven't settled it at all."
+
+"That's bad, sir."
+
+"I know it is; but it shall be settled for all that, I can tell him, let
+him vapour as much as he may about pinking me, and one thing and
+another."
+
+"Pinking you, sir?"
+
+"Yes. He wants to fight with cutlasses, or toasting-forks, d--n me, I
+don't know exactly which, and then he must have a surgeon on the ground,
+for fear when he pinks me I shouldn't slip my cable in a regular way,
+and he should be blamed."
+
+Jack gave a long whistle, as he replied,--
+
+"Going to do it, sir?"
+
+"I don't know now what I'm going to do. Mind, Jack, mum is the word."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"I'll turn the matter over in my mind, and then decide upon what had
+best be done. If he pinks me, I'll take d----d good care he don't pink
+Charles."
+
+"No, sir, don't let him do that. A _wamphigher_, sir, ain't no good
+opponent to anybody. I never seed one afore, but it strikes me as the
+best way to settle him, would be to shut him up in some little bit of a
+cabin, and then smoke him with brimstone, sir."
+
+"Well, well, I'll consider, Jack, I'll consider. Something must be done,
+and that quickly too. Zounds, here's Charles--what the deuce shall I say
+to him, by way of an excuse, I wonder, for not arranging his affair with
+Varney? Hang me, if I ain't taken aback now, and don't know where to
+place a hand."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE LETTER TO CHARLES.--THE QUARREL.--THE ADMIRAL'S NARRATIVE.--THE
+MIDNIGHT MEETING.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It was Charles Holland who now advanced hurriedly to meet the admiral.
+The young man's manner was anxious. He was evidently most intent upon
+knowing what answer could be sent by Sir Francis Varney to his
+challenge.
+
+"Uncle," he said, "tell me at once, will he meet me? You can talk of
+particulars afterwards, but now tell me at once if he will meet me?"
+
+"Why, as to that," said the admiral, with a great deal of fidgetty
+hesitation, "you see, I can't exactly say."
+
+"Not say!"
+
+"No. He's a very odd fish. Don't you think he's a very odd fish, Jack
+Pringle'?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"There, you hear, Charles, that Jack is of my opinion that your opponent
+is an odd fish."
+
+"But, uncle, why trifle with my impatience thus? Have you seen Sir
+Francis Varney?"
+
+"Seen him. Oh, yes."
+
+"And what did he say?"
+
+"Why, to tell the truth, my lad, I advise you not to fight with him at
+all."
+
+"Uncle, is this like you? This advice from you, to compromise my honour,
+after sending a man a challenge?"
+
+"D--n it all, Jack, I don't know how to get out of it," said the
+admiral. "I tell you what it is, Charles, he wants to fight with swords;
+and what on earth is the use of your engaging with a fellow who has been
+practising at his weapon for more than a hundred years?"
+
+"Well, uncle, if any one had told me that you would be terrified by this
+Sir Francis Varney into advising me not to fight, I should have had no
+hesitation whatever in saying such a thing was impossible."
+
+"I terrified?"
+
+"Why, you advise me not to meet this man, even after I have challenged
+him."
+
+"Jack," said the admiral, "I can't carry it on, you see. I never could
+go on with anything that was not as plain as an anchor, and quite
+straightforward. I must just tell all that has occurred."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir. The best way."
+
+"You think so, Jack?"
+
+"I know it is, sir, always axing pardon for having a opinion at all,
+excepting when it happens to be the same as yourn, sir."
+
+"Hold your tongue, you libellous villain! Now, listen to me, Charles. I
+got up a scheme of my own."
+
+Charles gave a groan, for he had a very tolerable appreciation of his
+uncle's amount of skill in getting up a scheme of any kind or
+description.
+
+"Now here am I," continued the admiral, "an old hulk, and not fit for
+use anymore. What's the use of me, I should like to know? Well, that's
+settled. But you are young and hearty, and have a long life before you.
+Why should you throw away your life upon a lubberly vampyre?"
+
+"I begin to perceive now, uncle," said Charles, reproachfully, "why you,
+with such apparent readiness, agreed to this duel taking place."
+
+"Well, I intended to fight the fellow myself, that's the long and short
+of it, boy."
+
+"How could you treat me so?"
+
+"No nonsense, Charles. I tell you it was all in the family. I intended
+to fight him myself. What was the odds whether I slipped my cable with
+his assistance, or in the regular course a little after this? That's the
+way to argufy the subject; so, as I tell you, I made up my mind to fight
+him myself."
+
+Charles looked despairingly, but said,--
+
+"What was the result?"
+
+"Oh, the result! D--n me, I suppose that's to come. The vagabond won't
+fight like a Christian. He says he's quite willing to fight anybody that
+calls him out, provided it's all regular."
+
+"Well--well."
+
+"And he, being the party challenged--for he says he never himself
+challenges anybody, as he is quite tired of it--must have his choice of
+weapons."
+
+"He is entitled to that; but it is generally understood now-a-days that
+pistols are the weapons in use among gentlemen for such purposes."
+
+"Ah, but he won't understand any such thing, I tell you. He will fight
+with swords."
+
+"I suppose he is, then, an adept at the use of the sword?"
+
+"He says he is."
+
+"No doubt--no doubt. I cannot blame a man for choosing, when he has the
+liberty of choice, that weapon in the use of which he most particularly,
+from practice, excels."
+
+"Yes; but if he be one half the swordsman he has had time enough,
+according to all accounts, to be, what sort of chance have you with
+him?"
+
+"Do I hear you reasoning thus?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure you do. I have turned wonderfully prudent, you see: so
+I mean to fight him myself, and mind, now, you have nothing whatever to
+do with it."
+
+"An effort of prudence that, certainly."
+
+"Well, didn't I say so?"
+
+"Come--come, uncle, this won't do. I have challenged Sir Francis Varney,
+and I must meet him with any weapon he may, as the challenged party,
+choose to select. Besides, you are not, I dare say, aware that I am a
+very good fencer, and probably stand as fair a chance as Varney in a
+contest with swords."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, uncle. I could not be so long on the continent as I have been
+without picking up a good knowledge of the sword, which is so popular
+all over Germany."
+
+"Humph! but only consider, this d----d fellow is no less than a hundred
+and fifty years old."
+
+"I care not."
+
+"Yes, but I do."
+
+"Uncle, uncle, I tell you I will fight with him; and if you do not
+arrange matters for me so that I can have the meeting with this man,
+which I have myself sought, and cannot, even if I wished, now recede
+from with honour, I must seek some other less scrupulous friend to do
+so."
+
+"Give me an hour or two to think of it, Charles," said the admiral.
+"Don't speak to any one else, but give me a little time. You shall have
+no cause of complaint. Your honour cannot suffer in my hands."
+
+"I will wait your leisure, uncle; but remember that such affairs as
+these, when once broached, had always better be concluded with all
+convenient dispatch."
+
+"I know that, boy--I know that."
+
+The admiral walked away, and Charles, who really felt much fretted at
+the delay which had taken place, returned to the house.
+
+He had not been there long, when a lad, who had been temporarily hired
+during the morning by Henry to answer the gate, brought him a note,
+saying,--
+
+"A servant, sir, left this for you just now."
+
+"For me?" said Charles, as he glanced at the direction. "This is
+strange, for I have no acquaintance about here. Does any one wait?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+The note was properly directed to him, therefore Charles Holland at once
+opened it. A glance at the bottom of the page told him that it came from
+his enemy, Sir Francis Varney, and then he read it with much eagerness.
+It ran thus:--
+
+     "SIR,--Your uncle, as he stated himself to be, Admiral Bell, was
+     the bearer to me, as I understood him this day, of a challenge
+     from you. Owing to some unaccountable hallucination of intellect,
+     he seemed to imagine that I intended to set myself up as a sort
+     of animated target, for any one to shoot at who might have a
+     fancy so to do.
+
+     "According to this eccentric view of the case, the admiral had
+     the kindness to offer to fight me first, when, should he not have
+     the good fortune to put me out of the world, you were to try your
+     skill, doubtless.
+
+     "I need scarcely say that I object to these family arrangements.
+     You have challenged me, and, fancying the offence sufficient, you
+     defy me to mortal combat. If, therefore, I fight with any one at
+     all, it must be with you.
+
+     "You will clearly understand me, sir, that I do not accuse you of
+     being at all party to this freak of intellect of your uncle's.
+     He, no doubt, alone conceived it, with a laudable desire on his
+     part of serving you. If, however, to meet me, do so to-night, in
+     the middle of the park surrounding your own friends estate.
+
+     "There is a pollard oak growing close to a small pool; you, no
+     doubt, have noticed the spot often. Meet me there, if you please,
+     and any satisfaction you like I will give you, at twelve o'clock
+     this night.
+
+     "Come alone, or you will not see me. It shall be at your own
+     option entirely, to convert the meeting into a hostile one or
+     not. You need send me no answer to this. If you are at the place
+     I mention at the time I have named, well and good. If you an not,
+     I can only, if I please, imagine that you shrink from a meeting
+     with
+
+     "FRANCIS VARNEY."
+
+Charles Holland read this letter twice over carefully, and then folding
+it up, and placing it in his pocket, he said,--
+
+"Yes, I will meet him; he may be assured that I will meet him. He shall
+find that I do not shrink from Francis Varney In the name of honour,
+love, virtue, and Heaven, I will meet this man, and it shall go hard
+with me but I will this night wring from him the secret of what he
+really is. For the sake of her who is so dear to me--for her sake, I
+will meet this man, or monster, be he what he may."
+
+It would have been far more prudent had Charles informed Henry
+Bannerworth or George of his determination to meet the vampyre that
+evening, but he did not do so. Somehow he fancied it would be some
+reproach against his courage if he did not go, and go alone, too, for he
+could not help suspecting that, from the conduct of his uncle, Sir
+Francis Varney might have got up an opinion inimical to his courage.
+
+With all the eager excitement of youth, there was nothing that arrayed
+itself to his mind in such melancholy and uncomfortable colours as an
+imputation upon his courage.
+
+"I will show this vampyre, if he be such," he said, "that I am not
+afraid to meet him, and alone, too, at his own hour--at midnight, even
+when, if his preternatural powers be of more avail to him than at any
+other time, he can attempt, if he dare, to use them."
+
+Charles resolved upon going armed, and with the greatest care he loaded
+his pistols, and placed them aside ready for action, when the time
+should come to set out to meet the vampyre at the spot in the park which
+had been particularly alluded to in his letter.
+
+This spot was perfectly well known to Charles; indeed, no one could be a
+single day at Bannerworth Hall without noticing it, so prominent an
+object was that pollard oak, standing, as it did, alone, with the
+beautiful green sward all around it. Near to it was the pool which hid
+been mentioned, which was, in reality, a fish-pond, and some little
+distance off commenced the thick plantation, among the intricacies of
+which Sir Francis Varney, or the vampyre, had been supposed to
+disappear, after the revivification of his body at the full of the moon.
+
+This spot was in view of several of the windows of the house, so that if
+the night should happen to be a very light one, and any of the
+inhabitants of the Hall should happen to have the curiosity to look from
+those particular windows, no doubt the meeting between Charles Holland
+and the vampyre would be seen.
+
+This, however, was a contingency which was nothing to Charles, whatever
+it might be to Sir Francis Varney, and he scarcely at all considered it
+as worth consideration. He felt more happy and comfortable now that
+everything seemed to be definitively arranged by which he could come to
+some sort of explanation with that mysterious being who had so
+effectually, as yet, succeeded in destroying his peace of mind and his
+prospects of happiness.
+
+"I will this night force him to declare himself," thought Charles. "He
+shall tell me who and what he really is, and by some means I will
+endeavour to put an end to those frightful persecutions which Flora has
+suffered."
+
+This was a thought which considerably raised Charles's spirits, and when
+he sought Flora again, which he now did, she was surprised to see him so
+much more easy and composed in his mind, which was sufficiently shown by
+his manner, than he had been but so short a time before.
+
+"Charles," she said, "what has happened to give such an impetus to your
+spirits?"
+
+"Nothing, dear Flora, nothing; but I have been endeavouring to throw
+from my mind all gloomy thoughts, and to convince myself that in the
+future you and I, dearest, may yet be very happy."
+
+"Oh, Charles, if I could but think so."
+
+"Endeavour, Flora, to think so. Remember how much our happiness is
+always in our own power, Flora, and that, let fate do her worst, so long
+as we are true to each other, we have a recompense for every ill."
+
+"Oh, indeed, Charles, that is a dear recompense."
+
+"And it is well that no force of circumstances short of death itself can
+divide us."
+
+"True, Charles, true, and I am more than ever now bound to look upon you
+with a loving heart; for have you not clung to me generously under
+circumstances which, if any at all could have justified you in rending
+asunder every tie which bound us together, surely would have done so
+most fully."
+
+"It is misfortune and distress that tries love," said Charles. "It is
+thus that the touchstone is applied to see if it be current gold indeed,
+or some base metal, which by a superficial glitter imitates it."
+
+"And your love is indeed true gold."
+
+"I am unworthy of one glance from those dear eyes if it were not."
+
+"Oh, if we could but go from here I think then we might be happy. A
+strong impression is upon my mind, and has been so for some time, that
+these persecutions to which I have been subjected are peculiar to this
+house."
+
+"Think you so?"
+
+"I do, indeed!"
+
+"It may be so, Flora. You are aware that your brother has made up his
+mind that he will leave the Hall."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"And that only in deference to an expressed wish of mine he put off the
+carrying such a resolve into effect for a few days."
+
+"He said so much."
+
+"Do not, however, imagine, dearest Flora, that those few days will be
+idly spent."
+
+"Nay, Charles, I could not imagine so."
+
+"Believe me, I have some hopes that in that short space of time I shall
+be able to accomplish yet something which shall have a material effect
+upon the present posture of affairs."
+
+"Do not run into danger, Charles."
+
+"I will not. Believe me, Flora, I have too much appreciation of the
+value of an existence which is blessed by your love, to encounter any
+needless risks."
+
+"You say needless. Why do you not confide in me, and tell me if the
+object you have in view to accomplish in the few days delay is a
+dangerous one at all."
+
+"Will you forgive me, Flora, if for once I keep a secret from you?"
+
+"Then, Charles, along with the forgiveness I must conjure up a host of
+apprehensions."
+
+"Nay, why so?"
+
+"You would tell me if there were no circumstances that you feared would
+fill me with alarm."
+
+"Now, Flora, your fears and not your judgment condemn me. Surely you
+cannot think me so utterly heedless as to court danger for danger's
+sake."
+
+"No, not so--"
+
+"You pause."
+
+"And yet you have a sense of what you call honour, which, I fear, would
+lead you into much risk."
+
+"I have a sense of honour; but not that foolish one which hangs far more
+upon the opinions of others than my own. If I thought a course of honour
+lay before me, and all the world, in a mistaken judgment, were to
+condemn it as wrong, I would follow it."
+
+"You are right, Charles; you are right. Let me pray of you to be
+careful, and, at all events, to interpose no more delay to our leaving
+this house than you shall feel convinced is absolutely necessary for
+some object of real and permanent importance."
+
+Charles promised Flora Bannerworth that for her sake, as well as his
+own, he would be most specially careful of his safety; and then in such
+endearing conversation as may be well supposed to be dictated by such
+hearts as theirs another happy hour was passed away.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+They pictured to themselves the scene where first they met, and with a
+world of interest hanging on every word they uttered, they told each
+other of the first delightful dawnings of that affection which had
+sprung up between them, and which they fondly believed neither time nor
+circumstance would have the power to change or subvert.
+
+In the meantime the old admiral was surprised that Charles was so
+patient, and had not been to him to demand the result of his
+deliberation.
+
+But he knew not on what rapid pinions time flies, when in the presence
+of those whom we love. What was an actual hour, was but a fleeting
+minute to Charles Holland, as he sat with Flora's hand clasped in his,
+and looking at her sweet face.
+
+At length a clock striking reminded him of his engagement with his
+uncle, and he reluctantly rose.
+
+"Dear Flora," he said, "I am going to sit up to watch to-night, so be
+under no sort of apprehension."
+
+"I will feel doubly safe," she said.
+
+"I have now something to talk to my uncle about, and must leave you."
+
+Flora smiled, and held out her hand to him. He pressed it to his heart.
+He knew not what impulse came over him then, but for the first time he
+kissed the cheek of the beautiful girl.
+
+With a heightened colour she gently repulsed him. He took a long
+lingering look at her as he passed out of the room, and when the door
+was closed between them, the sensation he experienced was as if some
+sudden cloud had swept across the face of the sun, dimming to a vast
+extent its precious lustre.
+
+A strange heaviness came across his spirits, which before had been so
+unaccountably raised. He felt as if the shadow of some coming evil was
+resting on his soul--as if some momentous calamity was preparing for
+him, which would almost be enough to drive him to madness, and
+irredeemable despair.
+
+"What can this be," he exclaimed, "that thus oppresses me? What feeling
+is this that seems to tell me, I shall never again see Flora
+Bannerworth?"
+
+Unconsciously he uttered these words, which betrayed the nature of his
+worst forebodings.
+
+"Oh, this is weakness," he then added. "I must fight out against this;
+it is mere nervousness. I must not endure it, I will not suffer myself
+thus to become the sport of imagination. Courage, courage, Charles
+Holland. There are real evils enough, without your adding to them by
+those of a disordered fancy. Courage, courage, courage."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE ADMIRAL'S OPINION.--THE REQUEST OF CHARLES.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Charles then sought the admiral, whom he found with his hands behind
+him, pacing to and fro in one of the long walks of the garden, evidently
+in a very unsettled state of mind. When Charles appeared, he quickened
+his pace, and looked in such a state of unusual perplexity that it was
+quite ridiculous to observe him.
+
+"I suppose, uncle, you have made up your mind thoroughly by this time?"
+
+"Well, I don't know that."
+
+"Why, you have had long enough surely to think over it. I have not
+troubled you soon."
+
+"Well, I cannot exactly say you have, but, somehow or another, I don't
+think very fast, and I have an unfortunate propensity after a time of
+coming exactly round to where I began."
+
+"Then, to tell the truth, uncle, you can come to no sort of conclusion."
+
+"Only one."
+
+"And what may that be?"
+
+"Why, that you are right in one thing, Charles, which is, that having
+sent a challenge to this fellow of a vampyre, you must fight him."
+
+"I suspect that that is a conclusion you had from the first, uncle?"
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Because it is an obvious and a natural one. All your doubts, and
+trouble, and perplexities, have been to try and find some excuse for not
+entertaining that opinion, and now that you really find it in vain to
+make it, I trust that you will accede as you first promised to do, and
+not seek by any means to thwart me."
+
+"I will not thwart you, my boy, although in my opinion you ought not to
+fight with a vampyre."
+
+"Never mind that. We cannot urge that as a valid excuse, so long as he
+chooses to deny being one. And after all, if he be really wrongfully
+suspected, you must admit that he is a very injured man."
+
+"Injured!--nonsense. If he is not a vampyre, he's some other
+out-of-the-way sort of fish, you may depend. He's the oddest-looking
+fellow ever I came across in all my born days, ashore or afloat."
+
+"Is he?"
+
+"Yes, he is: and yet, when I come to look at the thing again in my mind,
+some droll sights that I have seen come across my memory. The sea is the
+place for wonders and for mysteries. Why, we see more in a day and a
+night there, than you landsmen could contrive to make a whole
+twelvemonth's wonder of."
+
+"But you never saw a vampyre, uncle?"
+
+"Well, I don't know that. I didn't know anything about vampyres till I
+came here; but that was my ignorance, you know. There might have been
+lots of vampyres where I've been, for all I know."
+
+"Oh, certainly; but as regards this duel, will you wait now until
+to-morrow morning, before you take any further steps in the matter?"
+
+"Till to-morrow morning?"
+
+"Yes, uncle."
+
+"Why, only a little while ago, you were all eagerness to have something
+done off-hand."
+
+"Just so; but now I have a particular reason for waiting until to-morrow
+morning."
+
+"Have you? Well, as you please, boy--as you please. Have everything your
+own way."
+
+"You are very kind, uncle; and now I have another favour to ask of you."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Why, you know that Henry Bannerworth receives but a very small sum out
+of the whole proceeds of the estate here, which ought, but for his
+father's extravagance, to be wholly at his disposal."
+
+"So I have heard."
+
+"I am certain he is at present distressed for money, and I have not
+much. Will you lend me fifty pounds, uncle, until my own affairs are
+sufficiently arranged to enable you to pay yourself again?"
+
+"Will I! of course I will."
+
+"I wish to offer that sum as an accommodation to Henry. From me, I dare
+say he will receive it freely, because he must be convinced how freely
+it is offered; and, besides, they look upon me now almost as a member of
+the family in consequence of my engagement with Flora."
+
+"Certainly, and quite correct too: there's a fifty-pound note, my boy;
+take it, and do what you like with it, and when you want any more, come
+to me for it."
+
+"I knew I could trespass thus far on your kindness, uncle."
+
+"Trespass! It's no trespass at all."
+
+"Well, we will not fall out about the terms in which I cannot help
+expressing my gratitude to you for many favours. To-morrow, you will
+arrange the duel for me."
+
+"As you please. I don't altogether like going to that fellow's house
+again."
+
+"Well, then, we can manage, I dare say, by note."
+
+"Very good. Do so. He puts me in mind altogether of a circumstance that
+happened a good while ago, when I was at sea, and not so old a man as I
+am now."
+
+"Puts you in mind of a circumstance, uncle?"
+
+"Yes; he's something like a fellow that figured in an affair that I know
+a good deal about; only I do think as my chap was more mysterious by a
+d----d sight than this one."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Oh, dear, yes. When anything happens in an odd way at sea, it is as odd
+again as anything that occurs on land, my boy, you may depend."
+
+"Oh, you only fancy that, uncle, because you have spent so long a time
+at sea."
+
+"No, I don't imagine it, you rascal. What can you have on shore equal to
+what we have at sea? Why, the sights that come before us would make you
+landsmen's hairs stand up on end, and never come down again."
+
+"In the ocean, do you mean, that you see those sights, uncle?"
+
+"To be sure. I was once in the southern ocean, in a small frigate,
+looking out for a seventy-four we were to join company with, when a man
+at the mast-head sung out that he saw her on the larboard bow. Well, we
+thought it was all right enough, and made away that quarter, when what
+do you think it turned out to be?"
+
+"I really cannot say."
+
+"The head of a fish."
+
+"A fish!"
+
+"Yes! a d----d deal bigger than the hull of a vessel. He was swimming
+along with his head just what I dare say he considered a shaving or so
+out of the water."
+
+"But where were the sails, uncle?"
+
+"The sails?"
+
+"Yes; your man at the mast-head must have been a poor seaman not to have
+missed the sails."
+
+"All, that's one of your shore-going ideas, now. You know nothing
+whatever about it. I'll tell you where the sails were, master Charley."
+
+"Well, I should like to know."
+
+"The spray, then, that he dashed up with a pair of fins that were close
+to his head, was in such a quantity, and so white, that they looked just
+like sails."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Ah! you may say 'oh!' but we all saw him--the whole ship's crew; and we
+sailed alongside of him for some time, till he got tired of us, and
+suddenly dived down, making such a vortex in the water, that the ship
+shook again, and seemed for about a minute as if she was inclined to
+follow him to the bottom of the sea."
+
+"And what do you suppose it was, uncle?"
+
+"How should I know?"
+
+"Did you ever see it again?"
+
+"Never; though others have caught a glimpse of him now and then in the
+same ocean, but never came so near him as we did, that ever I heard of,
+at all events. They may have done so."
+
+"It is singular!"
+
+"Singular or not, it's a fool to what I can tell you. Why, I've seen
+things that, if I were to set about describing them to you, you would
+say I was making up a romance."
+
+"Oh, no; it's quite impossible, uncle, any one could ever suspect you of
+such a thing."
+
+"You'd believe me, would you?"
+
+"Of course I would."
+
+"Then here goes. I'll just tell you now of a circumstance that I haven't
+liked to mention to anybody yet."
+
+"Indeed! why so?"
+
+"Because I didn't want to be continually fighting people for not
+believing it; but here you have it:--"
+
+We were outward bound; a good ship, a good captain, and good messmates,
+you know, go far towards making a prosperous voyage a pleasant and happy
+one, and on this occasion we had every reasonable prospect of all.
+
+Our hands were all tried men--they had been sailors from infancy; none
+of your French craft, that serve an apprenticeship and then become land
+lubbers again. Oh, no, they were stanch and true, and loved the ocean as
+the sluggard loves his bed, or the lover his mistress.
+
+Ay, and for the matter of that, the love was a more enduring and a more
+healthy love, for it increased with years, and made men love one
+another, and they would stand by each other while they had a limb to
+lift--while they were able to chew a quid or wink an eye, leave alone
+wag a pigtail.
+
+We were outward bound for Ceylon, with cargo, and were to bring spices
+and other matters home from the Indian market. The ship was new and
+good--a pretty craft; she sat like a duck upon the water, and a stiff
+breeze carried her along the surface of the waves without your rocking,
+and pitching, and tossing, like an old wash-tub at a mill-tail, as I
+have had the misfortune to sail in more than once afore.
+
+No, no, we were well laden, and well pleased, and weighed anchor with
+light hearts and a hearty cheer.
+
+Away we went down the river, and soon rounded the North Foreland, and
+stood out in the Channel. The breeze was a steady and stiff one, and
+carried us through the water as though it had been made for us.
+
+"Jack," said I to a messmate of mine, as he stood looking at the skies,
+then at the sails, and finally at the water, with a graver air than I
+thought was at all consistent with the occasion or circumstances.
+
+"Well," he replied.
+
+"What ails you? You seem as melancholy as if we were about to cast lots
+who should be eaten first. Are you well enough?"
+
+"I am hearty enough, thank Heaven," he said, "but I don't like this
+breeze."
+
+"Don't like the breeze!" said I; "why, mate, it is as good and kind a
+breeze as ever filled a sail. What would you have, a gale?"
+
+"No, no; I fear that."
+
+"With such a ship, and such a set of hearty able seamen, I think we
+could manage to weather out the stiffest gale that ever whistled through
+a yard."
+
+"That may be; I hope it is, and I really believe and think so."
+
+"Then what makes you so infernally mopish and melancholy?"
+
+"I don't know, but can't help it. It seems to me as though there was
+something hanging over us, and I can't tell what."
+
+"Yes, there are the colours, Jack, at the masthead; they are flying over
+us with a hearty breeze."
+
+"Ah! ah!" said Jack, looking up at the colours, and then went away
+without saying anything more, for he had some piece of duty to perform.
+
+I thought my messmate had something on his mind that caused him to feel
+sad and uncomfortable, and I took no more notice of it; indeed, in the
+course of a day or two he was as merry as any of the rest, and had no
+more melancholy that I could perceive, but was as comfortable as
+anybody.
+
+We had a gale off the coast of Biscay, and rode it out without the loss
+of a spar or a yard; indeed, without the slightest accident or rent of
+any kind.
+
+"Now, Jack, what do you think of our vessel?" said I.
+
+"She's like a duck upon water, rises and falls with the waves, and
+doesn't tumble up and down like a hoop over stones."
+
+"No, no; she goes smoothly and sweetly; she is a gallant craft, and this
+is her first voyage, and I predict a prosperous one."
+
+"I hope so," he said.
+
+Well, we went on prosperously enough for about three weeks; the ocean
+was as calm and as smooth as a meadow, the breeze light but good, and we
+stemmed along majestically over the deep blue waters, and passed coast
+after coast, though all around was nothing but the apparently pathless
+main in sight.
+
+"A better sailer I never stepped into," said the captain one day; "it
+would be a pleasure to live and die in such a vessel."
+
+Well, as I said, we had been three weeks or thereabouts, when one
+morning, after the sun was up and the decks washed, we saw a strange man
+sitting on one of the water-casks that were on deck, for, being full, we
+were compelled to stow some of them on deck.
+
+You may guess those on deck did a little more than stare at this strange
+and unexpected apparition. By jingo, I never saw men open their eyes
+wider in all my life, nor was I any exception to the rule. I stared, as
+well I might; but we said nothing for some minutes, and the stranger
+looked calmly on us, and then cocked his eye with a nautical air up at
+the sky, as if he expected to receive a twopenny-post letter from St.
+Michael, or a _billet doux_ from the Virgin Mary.
+
+"Where has he come from?" said one of the men in a low tone to his
+companion, who was standing by him at that moment.
+
+"How can I tell?" replied his companion. "He may have dropped from the
+clouds; he seems to be examining the road; perhaps he is going back."
+
+The stranger sat all this time with the most extreme and provoking
+coolness and unconcern; he deigned us but a passing notice, but it was
+very slight.
+
+He was a tall, spare man--what is termed long and lathy--but he was
+evidently a powerful man. He had a broad chest, and long, sinewy arms, a
+hooked nose, and a black, eagle eye. His hair was curly, but frosted by
+age; it seemed as though it had been tinged with white at the
+extremities, but he was hale and active otherwise, to judge from
+appearances.
+
+Notwithstanding all this, there was a singular repulsiveness about him
+that I could not imagine the cause, or describe; at the same time there
+was an air of determination in his wild and singular-looking eyes, and
+over their whole there was decidedly an air and an appearance so
+sinister as to be positively disagreeable.
+
+"Well," said I, after we had stood some minutes, "where did you come
+from, shipmate?"
+
+He looked at me and then up at the sky, in a knowing manner.
+
+"Come, come, that won't do; you have none of Peter Wilkins's wings, and
+couldn't come on the aerial dodge; it won't do; how did you get here?"
+
+He gave me an awful wink, and made a sort of involuntary movement, which
+jumped him up a few inches, and he bumped down again on the water-cask.
+
+"That's as much as to say," thought I, "that he's sat himself on it."
+
+"I'll go and inform the captain," said I, "of this affair; he'll hardly
+believe me when I tell him, I am sure."
+
+So saying, I left the deck and went to the cabin, where the captain was
+at breakfast, and related to him what I had seen respecting the
+stranger. The captain looked at me with an air of disbelief, and said,--
+
+"What?--do you mean to say there's a man on board we haven't seen
+before?"
+
+"Yes, I do, captain. I never saw him afore, and he's sitting beating his
+heels on the water-cask on deck."
+
+"The devil!"
+
+"He is, I assure you, sir; and he won't answer any questions."
+
+"I'll see to that. I'll see if I can't make the lubber say something,
+providing his tongue's not cut out. But how came he on board? Confound
+it, he can't be the devil, and dropped from the moon."
+
+"Don't know, captain," said I. "He is evil-looking enough, to my mind,
+to be the father of evil, but it's ill bespeaking attentions from that
+quarter at any time."
+
+"Go on, lad; I'll come up after you."
+
+I left the cabin, and I heard the captain coming after me. When I got on
+deck, I saw he had not moved from the place where I left him. There was
+a general commotion among the crew when they heard of the occurrence,
+and all crowded round him, save the man at the wheel, who had to remain
+at his post.
+
+The captain now came forward, and the men fell a little back as he
+approached. For a moment the captain stood silent, attentively examining
+the stranger, who was excessively cool, and stood the scrutiny with the
+same unconcern that he would had the captain been looking at his watch.
+
+"Well, my man," said the captain, "how did you come here?"
+
+"I'm part of the cargo," he said, with an indescribable leer.
+
+"Part of the cargo be d----d!" said the captain, in sudden rage, for he
+thought the stranger was coming his jokes too strong. "I know you are
+not in the bills of lading."
+
+"I'm contraband," replied the stranger; "and my uncle's the great chain
+of Tartary."
+
+The captain stared, as well he might, and did not speak for some
+minutes; all the while the stranger kept kicking his heels against the
+water-casks and squinting up at the skies; it made us feel very queer.
+
+"Well, I must confess you are not in the regular way of trading."
+
+"Oh, no," said the stranger; "I am contraband--entirely contraband."
+
+"And how did you come on board?"
+
+At this question the stranger again looked curiously up at the skies,
+and continued to do so for more than a minute; he then turned his gaze
+upon the captain.
+
+"No, no," said the captain; "eloquent dumb show won't do with me; you
+didn't come, like Mother Shipton, upon a birch broom. How did you come
+on board my vessel?"
+
+"I walked on board," said the stranger.
+
+"You walked on board; and where did you conceal yourself?"
+
+"Below."
+
+"Very good; and why didn't you stay below altogether?"
+
+"Because I wanted fresh air. I'm in a delicate state of health, you see;
+it doesn't do to stay in a confined place too long."
+
+"Confound the binnacle!" said the captain; it was his usual oath when
+anything bothered him, and he could not make it out. "Confound the
+binnacle!--what a delicate-looking animal you are. I wish you had stayed
+where you were; your delicacy would have been all the same to me.
+Delicate, indeed!"
+
+"Yes, very," said the stranger, coolly.
+
+There was something so comic in the assertion of his delicateness of
+health, that we should all have laughed; but we were somewhat scared,
+and had not the inclination.
+
+"How have you lived since you came on board?" inquired the captain.
+
+"Very indifferently."
+
+"But how? What have you eaten? and what have you drank?"
+
+"Nothing, I assure you. All I did while was below was--"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Why, I sucked my thumbs like a polar bear in its winter quarters."
+
+And as he spoke the stranger put his two thumbs into his mouth, and
+extraordinary thumbs they were, too, for each would have filled an
+ordinary man's mouth.
+
+"These," said the stranger, pulling them out, and gazing at them
+wistfully, and with a deep sigh he continued,--
+
+"These were thumbs at one time; but they are nothing now to what they
+were."
+
+"Confound the binnacle!" muttered the captain to himself, and then he
+added, aloud,--
+
+"It's cheap living, however; but where are you going to, and why did you
+come aboard?"
+
+"I wanted a cheap cruise, and I am going there and back."
+
+"Why, that's where we are going," said the captain.
+
+"Then we are brothers," exclaimed the stranger, hopping off the
+water-cask like a kangaroo, and bounding towards the captain, holding
+out his hand as though he would have shaken hands with him.
+
+"No, no," said the captain; "I can't do it."
+
+"Can't do it!" exclaimed the stranger, angrily. "What do you mean?"
+
+"That I can't have anything to do with contraband articles; I am a fair
+trader, and do all above board. I haven't a chaplain on board, or he
+should offer up prayers for your preservation, and the recovery of your
+health, which seems so delicate."
+
+"That be--"
+
+The stranger didn't finish the sentence; he merely screwed his mouth up
+into an incomprehensible shape, and puffed out a lot of breath, with
+some force, and which sounded very much like a whistle: but, oh, what
+thick breath he had, it was as much like smoke as anything I ever saw,
+and so my shipmate said.
+
+"I say, captain," said the stranger, as he saw him pacing the deck.
+
+"Well."
+
+"Just send me up some beef and biscuit, and some coffee royal--be sure
+it's royal, do you hear, because I'm partial to brandy, it's the only
+good thing there is on earth."
+
+I shall not easily forget the captain's look as he turned towards the
+stranger, and gave his huge shoulders a shrug, as much as to say,--
+
+"Well, I can't help it now; he's here, and I can't throw him overboard."
+
+The coffee, beef, and biscuit were sent him, and the stranger seemed to
+eat them with great _gout_, and drank the coffee with much relish, and
+returned the things, saying,
+
+"Your captain is an excellent cook; give him my compliments."
+
+I thought the captain would think that was but a left-handed compliment,
+and look more angry than pleased, but no notice was taken of it.
+
+It was strange, but this man had impressed upon all in the vessel some
+singular notion of his being more than he should be--more than a mere
+mortal, and not one endeavoured to interfere with him; the captain was a
+stout and dare-devil a fellow as you would well met with, yet he seemed
+tacitly to acknowledge more than he would say, for he never after took
+any further notice of the stranger nor he of him.
+
+They had barely any conversation, simply a civil word when they first
+met, and so forth; but there was little or no conversation of any kind
+between them.
+
+The stranger slept upon deck, and lived upon deck entirely; he never
+once went below after we saw him, and his own account of being below so
+long.
+
+This was very well, but the night-watch did not enjoy his society, and
+would have willingly dispensed with it at that hour so particularly
+lonely and dejected upon the broad ocean, and perhaps a thousand miles
+away from the nearest point of land.
+
+At this dread and lonely hour, when no sound reaches the ear and
+disturbs the wrapt stillness of the night, save the whistling of the
+wind through the cordage, or an occasional dash of water against the
+vessel's side, the thoughts of the sailor are fixed on far distant
+objects--his own native land and the friends and loved ones he has left
+behind him.
+
+He then thinks of the wilderness before, behind, and around him; of the
+immense body of water, almost in places bottomless; gazing upon such a
+scene, and with thoughts as strange and indefinite as the very
+boundless expanse before him, it is no wonder if he should become
+superstitious; the time and place would, indeed unbidden, conjure up
+thoughts and feelings of a fearful character and intensity.
+
+The stranger at such times would occupy his favourite seat on the water
+cask, and looking up at the sky and then on the ocean, and between
+whiles he would whistle a strange, wild, unknown melody.
+
+The flesh of the sailors used to creep up in knots and bumps when they
+heard it; the wind used to whistle as an accompaniment and pronounce
+fearful sounds to their ears.
+
+The wind had been highly favourable from the first, and since the
+stranger had been discovered it had blown fresh, and we went along at a
+rapid rate, stemming the water, and dashing the spray off from the bows,
+and cutting the water like a shark.
+
+This was very singular to us, we couldn't understand it, neither could
+the captain, and we looked very suspiciously at the stranger, and wished
+him at the bottom, for the freshness of the wind now became a gale, and
+yet the ship came through the water steadily, and away we went before
+the wind, as if the devil drove us; and mind I don't mean to say he
+didn't.
+
+The gale increased to a hurricane, and though we had not a stitch of
+canvass out, yet we drove before the gale as if we had been shot out of
+the mouth of a gun.
+
+The stranger still sat on the water casks, and all night long he kept up
+his infernal whistle. Now, sailors don't like to hear any one whistle
+when there's such a gale blowing over their heads--it's like asking for
+more; but he would persist, and the louder and stronger the wind blew,
+the louder he whistled.
+
+At length there came a storm of rain, lightning, and wind. We were
+tossed mountains high, and the foam rose over the vessel, and often
+entirely over our heads, and the men were lashed to their posts to
+prevent being washed away.
+
+But the stranger still lay on the water casks, kicking his heels and
+whistling his infernal tune, always the same. He wasn't washed away nor
+moved by the action of the water; indeed, we heartily hoped and expected
+to see both him and the water cask floated overboard at every minute;
+but, as the captain said,--
+
+"Confound the binnacle! the old water tub seems as if it were screwed on
+to the deck, and won't move off and he on the top of it."
+
+There was a strong inclination to throw him overboard, and the men
+conversed in low whispers, and came round the captain, saying,--
+
+"We have come, captain, to ask you what you think of this strange man
+who has come so mysteriously on board?"
+
+"I can't tell what to think, lads; he's past thinking about--he's
+something above my comprehension altogether, I promise you."
+
+"Well, then, we are thinking much of the same thing, captain."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"That he ain't exactly one of our sort."
+
+"No, he's no sailor, certainly; and yet, for a land lubber, he's about
+as rum a customer as ever I met with."
+
+"So he is, sir."
+
+"He stands salt water well; and I must say that I couldn't lay a top of
+those water casks in that style very well."
+
+"Nor nobody amongst us, sir."
+
+"Well, then, he's in nobody's way, it he?--nobody wants to take his
+berth, I suppose?"
+
+The men looked at each other somewhat blank; they didn't understand the
+meaning at all--far from it; and the idea of any one's wanting to take
+the stranger's place on the water casks was so outrageously ludicrous,
+that at any other time they would have considered it a devilish good
+joke and have never ceased laughing at it.
+
+He paused some minutes, and then one of them said,--
+
+"It isn't that we envy him his berth, captain, 'cause nobody else could
+live there for a moment. Any one amongst us that had been there would
+have been washed overboard a thousand times over."
+
+"So they would," said the captain.
+
+"Well, sir, he's more than us."
+
+"Very likely; but how can I help that?"
+
+"We think he's the main cause of all this racket in the heavens--the
+storm and hurricane; and that, in short, if he remains much longer we
+shall all sink."
+
+"I am sorry for it. I don't think we are in any danger, and had the
+strange being any power to prevent it, he would assuredly do so, lest he
+got drowned."
+
+"But we think if he were thrown overboard all would be well."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, captain, you may depend upon it he's the cause of all the
+mischief. Throw him overboard and that's all we want."
+
+"I shall not throw him overboard, even if I could do such a thing; and I
+am by no means sure of anything of the kind."
+
+"We do not ask it, sir."
+
+"What do you desire?"
+
+"Leave to throw him overboard--it is to save our own lives."
+
+"I can't let you do any such thing; he's in nobody's way."
+
+"But he's always a whistling. Only hark now, and in such a hurricane as
+this, it is dreadful to think of it. What else can we do, sir?--he's not
+human."
+
+At this moment, the stranger's whistling came clear upon their ears;
+there was the same wild, unearthly notes as before, but the cadences
+were stronger, and there was a supernatural clearness in all the tones.
+
+"There now," said another, "he's kicking the water cask with his heels."
+
+"Confound the binnacle!" said the captain; "it sounds like short peals
+of thunder. Go and talk to him, lads."
+
+"And if that won't do, sir, may we--"
+
+"Don't ask me any questions. I don't think a score of the best men that
+were ever born could move him."
+
+"I don't mind trying," said one.
+
+Upon this the whole of the men moved to the spot where the water casks
+were standing and the stranger lay.
+
+There was he, whistling like fury, and, at the same time, beating his
+heels to the tune against the empty casks. We came up to him, and he
+took no notice of us at all, but kept on in the same way.
+
+"Hilloa!" shouted one.
+
+"Hilloa!" shouted another.
+
+No notice, however, was taken of us, and one of our number, a big,
+herculean fellow, an Irishman, seized him by the leg, either to make him
+get up, or, as we thought, to give him a lift over our heads into the
+sea.
+
+However, he had scarcely got his fingers round the calf of the leg, when
+the stranger pinched his leg so tight against the water cask, that he
+could not move, and was as effectually pinned as if he had been nailed
+there. The stranger, after he had finished a bar of the music, rose
+gradually to a sitting posture, and without the aid of his hands, and
+looking the unlucky fellow in the face, he said,--
+
+"Well, what do you want?"
+
+"My hand," said the fellow.
+
+"Take it then," he said.
+
+He did take it, and we saw that there was blood on it.
+
+The stranger stretched out his left hand, and taking him by the breech,
+he lifted him, without any effort, upon the water-cask beside him.
+
+We all stared at this, and couldn't help it; and we were quite convinced
+we could not throw him overboard, but he would probably have no
+difficulty in throwing us overboard.
+
+"Well, what do you want?" he again exclaimed to us all.
+
+We looked at one another, and had scarce courage to speak; at length I
+said,--
+
+"We wish you to leave off whistling."
+
+"Leave off whistling!" he said. "And why should I do anything of the
+kind?"
+
+"Because it brings the wind."
+
+"Ha! ha! why, that's the very reason I am whistling, to bring the wind."
+
+"But we don't want so much."
+
+"Pho! pho! you don't know what's good for you--it's a beautiful breeze,
+and not a bit too stiff."
+
+"It's a hurricane."
+
+"Nonsense."
+
+"But it is."
+
+"Now you see how I'll prove you are wrong in a minute. You see my hair,
+don't you?" he said, after he took off his cap. "Very well, look now."
+
+He got up on the water-cask, and stood bolt upright; and running his
+fingers through his hair, made it all stand straight on end.
+
+"Confound the binnacle!" said the captain, "if ever I saw the like."
+
+"There," said the stranger, triumphantly, "don't tell me there's any
+wind to signify; don't you see, it doesn't even move one of my grey
+hairs; and if it blew as hard as you say, I am certain it would move a
+hair."
+
+"Confound the binnacle!" muttered the captain as he walked away. "D--n
+the cabouse, if he ain't older than I am--he's too many for me and
+everybody else."
+
+"Are you satisfied?"
+
+What could we say?--we turned away and left the place, and stood at our
+quarters--there was no help for it--we were impelled to grin and abide
+by it.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+As soon as we had left the place he put his cap on again and sat down on
+the water-casks, and then took leave of his prisoner, whom he set free,
+and there lay at full length on his back, with his legs hanging down.
+Once more he began to whistle most furiously, and beat time with his
+feet.
+
+For full three weeks did he continue at this game night and day, without
+any interruption, save such as he required to consume enough coffee
+royal, junk, and biscuit, as would have served three hearty men.
+
+Well, about that time, one night the whistling ceased and he began to
+sing--oh! it was singing--such a voice! Gog and Magog in Guildhall,
+London, when they spoke were nothing to him--it was awful; but the wind
+calmed down to a fresh and stiff breeze. He continued at this game for
+three whole days and nights, and on the fourth it ceased, and when we
+went to take his coffee royal to him he was gone.
+
+We hunted about everywhere, but he was entirely gone, and in three weeks
+after we safely cast anchor, having performed our voyage in a good month
+under the usual time; and had it been an old vessel she would have
+leaked and stinted like a tub from the straining; however, we were glad
+enough to get in, and were curiously inquisitive as to what was put in
+our vessel to come back with, for as the captain said,--
+
+"Confound the binnacle! I'll have no more contraband articles if I can
+help it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE MEETING BY MOONLIGHT IN THE PARK.--THE TURRET WINDOW IN THE
+HALL.--THE LETTERS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The old admiral showed such a strong disposition to take offence at
+Charles if he should presume, for a moment, to doubt the truth of the
+narrative that was thus communicated to him, that the latter would not
+anger him by so doing, but confined his observations upon it to saying
+that he considered it was very wonderful, and very extraordinary, and so
+on, which very well satisfied the old man.
+
+The day was now, however, getting far advanced, and Charles Holland
+began to think of his engagement with the vampyre. He read and read the
+letter over and over again, but he could not come to a correct
+conclusion as to whether it intended to imply that he, Sir Francis
+Varney, would wish to fight him at the hour and place mentioned, or
+merely give him a meeting as a preliminary step.
+
+He was rather, on the whole, inclined to think that some explanation
+would be offered by Varney, but at all events he persevered in his
+determination of going well armed, lest anything in the shape of
+treachery should be intended.
+
+As nothing of any importance occurred now in the interval of time till
+nearly midnight, we will at once step to that time, and our readers will
+suppose it to be a quarter to twelve o'clock at night, and young Charles
+Holland on the point of leaving the house, to keep his appointment by
+the pollard oak, with the mysterious Sir Francis Varney.
+
+He placed his loaded pistols conveniently in his pocket, so that at a
+moment's notice he could lay hands on them, and then wrapping himself up
+in a travelling cloak he had brought with him to Bannerworth Hall, he
+prepared to leave his chamber.
+
+The moon still shone, although now somewhat on the wane, and although
+there were certainly many clouds in the sky they were but of a light
+fleecy character, and very little interrupted the rays of light that
+came from the nearly full disc of the moon.
+
+From his window he could not perceive the spot in the park where he was
+to meet Varney, because the room in which he was occupied not a
+sufficiently high place in the house to enable him to look over a belt
+of trees that stopped the view. From almost any of the upper windows the
+pollard oak could be seen.
+
+It so happened now that the admiral had been placed in a room
+immediately above the one occupied by his nephew, and, as his mind was
+full of how he should manage with regard to arranging the preliminaries
+of the duel between Charles and Varney on the morrow, he found it
+difficult to sleep; and after remaining in bed about twenty minutes, and
+finding that each moment he was only getting more and more restless, he
+adopted a course which he always did under such circumstances.
+
+He rose and dressed himself again, intending to sit up for an hour and
+then turn into bed and try a second time to get to sleep. But he had no
+means of getting a light, so he drew the heavy curtain from before the
+window, and let in as much of the moonlight as he could.
+
+This window commanded a most beautiful and extensive view, for from it
+the eye could carry completely over the tops of the tallest trees, so
+that there was no interruption whatever to the prospect, which was as
+extensive as it was delightful.
+
+Even the admiral, who never would confess to seeing much beauty in
+scenery where water formed not a large portion of it, could not resist
+opening his window and looking out, with a considerable degree of
+admiration, upon wood and dale, as they were illuminated by the moon's
+rays, softened, and rendered, if anything, more beautiful by the light
+vapours, through which they had to struggle to make their way.
+
+Charles Holland, in order to avoid the likelihood of meeting with any
+one who would question him as to where he was going, determined upon
+leaving his room by the balcony, which, as we are aware, presented ample
+facilities for his so doing.
+
+He cast a glance at the portrait in the panel before he left the
+apartment, and then saying,--
+
+"For you, dear Flora, for you I essay this meeting with the fearful
+original of that portrait," he immediately opened his window, and
+stepped out on to the balcony.
+
+Young and active as was Charles Holland, to descend from that balcony
+presented to him no difficulty whatever, and he was, in a very few
+moments, safe in the garden of Bannerworth Hall.
+
+He never thought, for a moment, to look up, or he would, in an instant,
+have seen the white head of his old uncle, as it was projected over the
+sill of the window of his chamber.
+
+The drop of Charles from the balcony of his window, just made sufficient
+noise to attract the admiral's attention, and, then, before he could
+think of making any alarm, he saw Charles walking hastily across a grass
+plot, which was sufficiently in the light of the moon to enable the
+admiral at once to recognise him, and leave no sort of doubt as to his
+positive identity.
+
+Of course, upon discovering that it was Charles, the necessity for
+making an alarm no longer existed, and, indeed, not knowing what it was
+that had induced him to leave his chamber, a moment's reflection
+suggested to him the propriety of not even calling to Charles, lest he
+should defeat some discovery which he might be about to make.
+
+"He has heard something, or seen something," thought the admiral, "and
+is gone to find out what it is. I only wish I was with him; but up here
+I can do nothing at all, that's quite clear."
+
+Charles, he saw, walked very rapidly, and like a man who has some fixed
+destination which he wishes to reach as quickly as possible.
+
+When he dived among the trees which skirted one side of the flower
+gardens, the admiral was more puzzled than ever, and he said--
+
+"Now where on earth is he off to? He is fully dressed, and has his cloak
+about him."
+
+After a few moments' reflection he decided that, having seen something
+suspicious, Charles must have got up, and dressed himself, to fathom it.
+
+The moment this idea became fairly impressed upon his mind, he left his
+bedroom, and descended to where one of the brothers he knew was sitting
+up, keeping watch during the night. It was Henry who was so on guard;
+and when the admiral came into the room, he uttered an expression of
+surprise to find him up, for it was now some time past twelve o'clock.
+
+"I have come to tell you that Charles has left the house," said the
+admiral.
+
+"Left the house?"
+
+"Yes; I saw him just now go across the garden."
+
+"And you are sure it was he?"
+
+"Quite sure. I saw him by the moonlight cross the green plot."
+
+"Then you may depend he has seen or heard something, and gone alone to
+find out what it is rather than give any alarm."
+
+"That is just what I think."
+
+"It must be so. I will follow him, if you can show me exactly which way
+he went."
+
+"That I can easily. And in case I should have made any mistake, which it
+is not at all likely, we can go to his room first and see if it is
+empty."
+
+"A good thought, certainly; that will at once put an end to all doubt
+upon the question."
+
+They both immediately proceeded to Charles's room, and then the
+admiral's accuracy of identification of his nephew was immediately
+proved by finding that Charles was not there, and that the window was
+wide open.
+
+"You see I am right," said the admiral.
+
+"You are," cried Henry; "but what have we here?"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Here on the dressing-table. Here are no less than three letters, all
+laid as it on purpose to catch the eye of the first one who might enter
+the room."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"You perceive them?"
+
+Henry held them to the light, and after a moment's inspection of them,
+he said, in a voice of much surprise,--
+
+"Good God! what is the meaning of this?"
+
+"The meaning of what?"
+
+"The letters are addressed to parties in the house here. Do you not
+see?"
+
+"To whom?"
+
+"One to Admiral Bell--"
+
+"The deuce!"
+
+"Another to me, and the third to my sister Flora. There is some new
+mystery here."
+
+The admiral looked at the superscription of one of the letters which was
+handed to him in silent amazement. Then he cried,--
+
+"Set down the light, and let us read them."
+
+Henry did so, and then they simultaneously opened the epistles which
+were severally addressed to them. There was a silence, as of the very
+grave, for some moments, and then the old admiral staggered to a seat,
+as he exclaimed,--
+
+"Am I dreaming--am I dreaming?"
+
+"Is this possible?" said Henry, in a voice of deep emotion, as he
+allowed the note addressed to him to drop on to the floor.
+
+"D--n it, what does yours say?" cried the old admiral, in a louder tone.
+
+"Read it--what says yours?"
+
+"Read it--I'm amazed."
+
+The letters were exchanged, and read by each with the same breathless
+attention they had bestowed upon their own; after which, they both
+looked at each other in silence, pictures of amazement, and the most
+absolute state of bewilderment.
+
+Not to keep our readers in suspense, we at once transcribe each of these
+letters.
+
+The one to the admiral contained these words,--
+
+     "MY DEAR UNCLE,
+
+     "Of course you will perceive the prudence of keeping this letter
+     to yourself, but the fact is, I have now made up my mind to leave
+     Bannerworth Hall.
+
+     "Flora Bannerworth is not now the person she was when first I
+     knew her and loved her. Such being the case, and she having
+     altered, not I, she cannot accuse me of fickleness.
+
+     "I still love the Flora Bannerworth I first knew, but I cannot
+     make my wife one who is subject to the visitations of a vampyre.
+
+     "I have remained here long enough now to satisfy myself that this
+     vampyre business is no delusion. I am quite convinced that it is
+     a positive fact, and that, after death, Flora will herself become
+     one of the horrible existences known by that name.
+
+     "I will communicate to you from the first large city on the
+     continent whither I am going, at which I make any stay, and in
+     the meantime, make what excuses you like at Bannerworth Hall,
+     which I advise you to leave as quickly as you can, and believe me
+     to be, my dear uncle, yours truly,
+
+     "CHARLES HOLLAND."
+
+Henry's letter was this:--
+
+     "MY DEAR SIR,
+
+     "If you calmly and dispassionately consider the painful and
+     distressing circumstances in which your family are placed, I am
+     sure that, far from blaming me for the step which this note will
+     announce to you I have taken, you will be the first to give me
+     credit for acting with an amount of prudence and foresight which
+     was highly necessary under the circumstances.
+
+     "If the supposed visits of a vampyre to your sister Flora had
+     turned out, as first I hoped they would, a delusion and been
+     in any satisfactory manner explained away I should certainly have
+     felt pride and pleasure in fulfilling my engagement to that young
+     lady.
+
+     "You must, however, yourself feel that the amount of evidence in
+     favour of a belief that an actual vampyre has visited Flora,
+     enforces a conviction of its truth.
+
+     "I cannot, therefore, make her my wife under such very singular
+     circumstances.
+
+     "Perhaps you may blame me for not taking at once advantage of the
+     permission given me to forego my engagement when first I came to
+     your house; but the fact is, I did not then in the least believe
+     in the existence of the vampyre, but since a positive conviction
+     of that most painful fact has now forced itself upon me, I beg to
+     decline the honour of an alliance which I had at one time looked
+     forward to with the most considerable satisfaction.
+
+     "I shall be on the continent as fast as conveyances can take me,
+     therefore, should you entertain any romantic notions of calling
+     me to an account for a course of proceeding I think perfectly and
+     fully justifiable, you will not find me.
+
+     "Accept the assurances of my respect for yourself and pity for
+     your sister, and believe me to be, my dear sir, your sincere
+     friend,
+
+     "CHARLES HOLLAND."
+
+These two letters might well make the admiral stare at Henry
+Bannerworth, and Henry stare at him.
+
+An occurrence so utterly and entirely unexpected by both of them, was
+enough to make them doubt the evidence of their own senses. But there
+were the letters, as a damning evidence of the outrageous fact, and
+Charles Holland was gone.
+
+It was the admiral who first recovered from the stunning effect of the
+epistles, and he, with a gesture of perfect fury, exclaimed,--
+
+"The scoundrel--the cold-blooded villain! I renounce him for ever! he is
+no nephew of mine; he is some d----d imposter! Nobody with a dash of my
+family blood in his veins would have acted so to save himself from a
+thousand deaths."
+
+"Who shall we trust now," said Henry, "when those whom we take to our
+inmost hearts deceive us thus? This is the greatest shock I have yet
+received. If there be a pang greater than another, surely it is to be
+found in the faithlessness and heartlessness of one we loved and
+trusted."
+
+"He is a scoundrel!" roared the admiral. "D--n him, he'll die on a
+dunghill, and that's too good a place for him. I cast him off--I'll find
+him out, and old as I am, I'll fight him--I'll wring his neck, the
+rascal; and, as for poor dear Miss Flora, God bless her! I'll--I'll
+marry her myself, and make her an admiral.--I'll marry her myself. Oh,
+that I should be uncle to such a rascal!"
+
+"Calm yourself," said Henry, "no one can blame you."
+
+"Yes, you can; I had no right to be his uncle, and I was an old fool to
+love him."
+
+The old man sat down, and his voice became broken with emotion as he
+said,--
+
+"Sir, I tell you I would have died willingly rather than this should
+have happened. This will kill me now,--I shall die now of shame and
+grief."
+
+Tears gushed from the admiral's eyes and the sight of the noble old
+man's emotion did much to calm the anger of Henry which, although he
+said but little, was boiling at his heart like a volcano.
+
+"Admiral Bell," he said, "you have nothing to do with this business; we
+can not blame you for the heartlessness of another. I have but one
+favour to ask of you."
+
+"What--what can I do?"
+
+"Say no more about him at all."
+
+"I can't help saying something about him. You ought to turn me out of
+the house."
+
+"Heaven forbid! What for?"
+
+"Because I'm his uncle--his d----d old fool of an uncle, that always
+thought so much of him."
+
+"Nay, my good sir, that was a fault on the right side, and cannot
+discredit you. I thought him the most perfect of human beings."
+
+"Oh, if I could but have guessed this."
+
+"It was impossible. Such duplicity never was equalled in this world--it
+was impossible to foresee it."
+
+"Hold--hold! did he give you fifty pounds?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Did he give you fifty pounds?"
+
+"Give me fifty pounds! Most decidedly not; what made you think of such a
+thing?"
+
+"Because to-day he borrowed fifty pounds of me, he said, to lend to
+you."
+
+"I never heard of the transaction until this moment."
+
+"The villain!"
+
+"No, doubt, sir, he wanted that amount to expedite his progress abroad."
+
+"Well, now, damme, if an angel had come to me and said 'Hilloa! Admiral
+Bell, your nephew, Charles Holland, is a thundering rogue,' I should
+have said 'You're a liar!'"
+
+"This is fighting against facts, my dear sir. He is gone--mention him no
+more; forget him, as I shall endeavour myself to do, and persuade my
+poor sister to do."
+
+"Poor girl! what can we say to her?"
+
+"Nothing, but give her all the letters, and let her be at once satisfied
+of the worthlessness of him she loved."
+
+"The best way. Her woman's pride will then come to her help."
+
+"I hope it will. She is of an honourable race, and I am sure she will
+not condescend to shed a tear for such a man as Charles Holland has
+proved himself to be."
+
+"D--n him, I'll find him out, and make him fight you. He shall give you
+satisfaction."
+
+"No, no."
+
+"No? But he shall."
+
+"I cannot fight with him."
+
+"You cannot?"
+
+"Certainly not. He is too far beneath me now. I cannot fight on
+honourable terms with one whom I despise as too dishonourable to contend
+with. I have nothing now but silence and contempt."
+
+"I have though, for I'll break his neck when I see him, or he shall
+break mine. The villain! I'm ashamed to stay here, my young friend."
+
+"How mistaken a view you take of this matter, my dear sir. As Admiral
+Bell, a gentleman, a brave officer, and a man of the purest and most
+unblemished honour, you confer a distinction upon us by your presence
+here."
+
+The admiral wrung Henry by the hand, as he said,--
+
+"To-morrow--wait till to-morrow; we will talk over this matter to
+morrow--I cannot to-night, I have not patience; but to-morrow, my dear
+boy, we will have it all out. God bless you. Good night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+THE NOBLE CONFIDENCE OF FLORA BANNERWORTH IN HER LOVER.--HER OPINION OF
+THE THREE LETTERS.--THE ADMIRAL'S ADMIRATION.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+To describe the feelings of Henry Bannerworth on the occasion of this
+apparent defalcation from the path of rectitude and honour by his
+friend, as he had fondly imagined Charles Holland to be, would be next
+to impossible.
+
+If, as we have taken occasion to say, it be a positive fact, that a
+noble and a generous mind feels more acutely any heartlessness of this
+description from one on whom it has placed implicit confidence, than the
+most deliberate and wicked of injuries from absolute strangers, we can
+easily conceive that Henry Bannerworth was precisely the person to feel
+most acutely the conduct which all circumstances appeared to fix upon
+Charles Holland, upon whose faith, truth, and honour, he would have
+staked his very existence but a few short hours before.
+
+With such a bewildered sensation that he scarcely knew where he walked
+or whither to betake himself, did he repair to his own chamber, and
+there he strove, with what energy he was able to bring to the task, to
+find out some excuses, if he could, for Charles's conduct. But he could
+find none. View it in what light he would, it presented but a picture of
+the most heartless selfishness it had ever been his lot to encounter.
+
+The tone of the letters, too, which Charles had written, materially
+aggravated the moral delinquency of which he had been guilty; belief,
+far better, had he not attempted an excuse at all than have attempted
+such excuses as were there put down in those epistles.
+
+A more cold blooded, dishonourable proceeding could not possibly be
+conceived.
+
+It would appear, that while he entertained a doubt with regard to the
+reality of the visitation of the vampyre to Flora Bannerworth, he had
+been willing to take to himself abundance of credit for the most
+honourable feelings, and to induce a belief in the minds of all that an
+exalted feeling of honour, as well as a true affection that would know
+no change, kept him at the feet of her whom he loved.
+
+Like some braggart, who, when there is no danger, is a very hero, but
+who, the moment he feels convinced he will be actually and truly called
+upon for an exhibition of his much-vaunted prowess, had Charles Holland
+deserted the beautiful girl who, if anything, had now certainly, in her
+misfortunes, a far higher claim upon his kindly feeling than before.
+
+Henry could not sleep, although, at the request of George, who offered
+to keep watch for him the remainder of the night he attempted to do so.
+
+He in vain said to himself, "I will banish from my mind this most
+unworthy subject. I have told Admiral Bell that contempt is the only
+feeling I can now have for his nephew, and yet I now find myself
+dwelling upon him, and upon his conduct, with a perseverance which is a
+foe to my repose."
+
+At length came the welcome and beautiful light of day, and Henry rose
+fevered and unrefreshed.
+
+His first impulse now was to hold a consultation with his brother
+George, as to what was to be done, and George advised that Mr.
+Marchdale, who as yet knew nothing of the matter, should be immediately
+informed of it, and consulted, as being probably better qualified than
+either of them to come to a just, a cool, and a reasonable opinion upon
+the painful circumstance, which it could not be expected that either of
+them would be able to view calmly.
+
+"Let it be so, then," said Henry; "Mr. Marchdale shall decide for us."
+
+They at once sought this friend of the family, who was in his own
+bed-room, and when Henry knocked at the door, Marchdale opened it
+hurriedly, eagerly inquiring what was the matter.
+
+"There is no alarm," said Henry. "We have only come to tell you of a
+circumstance which has occurred during the night, and which will
+somewhat surprise you."
+
+"Nothing calamitous, I hope?"
+
+"Vexatious; and yet, I think it is a matter upon which we ought almost
+to congratulate ourselves. Read those two letters, and give us your
+candid opinion upon them."
+
+Henry placed in Mr. Marchdale's hands the letter addressed to himself,
+as well as that to the admiral.
+
+Marchdale read them both with marked attention, but he did not exhibit
+in his countenance so much surprise as regret.
+
+When he had finished, Henry said to him,--
+
+"Well, Marchdale, what think you of this new and extraordinary episode
+in our affairs?"
+
+"My dear young friends," said Marchdale, in a voice of great emotion, "I
+know not what to say to you. I have no doubt but that you are both of
+you much astonished at the receipt of these letters, and equally so at
+the sudden absence of Charles Holland."
+
+"And are not you?"
+
+"Not so much as you, doubtless, are. The fact is, I never did entertain
+a favourable opinion of the young man, and he knew it. I have been
+accustomed to the study of human nature under a variety of aspects; I
+have made it a matter of deep, and I may add, sorrowful, contemplation,
+to study and remark those minor shades of character which commonly
+escape observation wholly. And, I repeat, I always had a bad opinion of
+Charles Holland, which he guessed, and hence he conceived a hatred to
+me, which more than once, as you cannot but remember, showed itself in
+little acts of opposition and hostility."
+
+"You much surprise me."
+
+"I expected to do so. But you cannot help remembering that at one time I
+was on the point of leaving here solely on his account."
+
+"You were so."
+
+"Indeed I should have done so, but that I reasoned with myself upon the
+subject, and subdued the impulse of the anger which some years ago, when
+I had not seen so much of the world, would have guided me."
+
+"But why did you not impart to us your suspicions? We should at least,
+then, have been prepared for such a contingency as has occurred."
+
+"Place yourself in my position, and then yourself what you would have
+done. Suspicion is one of those hideous things which all men should be
+most specially careful not only how they entertain at all, but how they
+give expression to. Besides, whatever may be the amount of one's own
+internal conviction with regard to the character of any one, there is
+just a possibility that one may be wrong."
+
+"True, true."
+
+"That possibility ought to keep any one silent who has nothing but
+suspicion to go upon, however cautious it may make him, as regards his
+dealings with the individual. I only suspected from little minute shades
+of character, that would peep out in spite of him, that Charles Holland
+was not the honourable man he would fain have had everybody believe him
+to be."
+
+"And had you from the first such a feeling?"
+
+"I had."
+
+"It is very strange."
+
+"Yes; and what is more strange still, is that he from the first seemed
+to know it; and despite a caution which I could see he always kept
+uppermost in his thoughts, he could not help speaking tartly to me at
+times."
+
+"I have noticed that," said George.
+
+"You may depend it is a fact," added Marchdale, "that nothing so much
+excites the deadly and desperate hatred of a man who is acting a
+hypocritical part, as the suspicion, well grounded or not, that another
+sees and understands the secret impulses of his dishonourable heart."
+
+"I cannot blame you, or any one else, Mr. Marchdale," said Henry, "that
+you did not give utterance to your secret thoughts, but I do wish that
+you had done so."
+
+"Nay, dear Henry," replied Mr. Marchdale, "believe me, I have made this
+matter a subject of deep thought, and have abundance of reasons why I
+ought not to have spoken to you upon the subject."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Indeed I have, and not among the least important is the one, that if I
+had acquainted you with my suspicions, you would have found yourself in
+the painful position of acting a hypocritical part yourself towards this
+Charles Holland, for you must either have kept the secret that he was
+suspected, or you must have shewn it to him by your behaviour."
+
+"Well, well. I dare say, Marchdale, you acted for the best. What shall
+we do now?"
+
+"Can you doubt?"
+
+"I was thinking of letting Flora at once know the absolute and complete
+worthlessness of her lover, so that she could have no difficulty in at
+once tearing herself from him by the assistance of the natural pride
+which would surely come to her aid, upon finding herself so much
+deceived."
+
+"The test may be possible."
+
+"You think so?"
+
+"I do, indeed."
+
+"Here is a letter, which of course remains unopened, addressed to Flora
+by Charles Holland. The admiral rather thought it would hurt her
+feelings to deliver her such an epistle, but I must confess I am of a
+contrary opinion upon that point, and think now the more evidence she
+has of the utter worthlessness of him who professed to love her with so
+much disinterested affection, the better it will be for her."
+
+"You could not, possibly, Henry, have taken a more sensible view of the
+subject."
+
+"I am glad you agree with me."
+
+"No reasonable man could do otherwise, and from what I have seen of
+Admiral Bell, I am sure, upon reflection, he will be of the same
+opinion."
+
+"Then it shall be so. The first shock to poor Flora may be severe, but
+we shall then have the consolation of knowing that it is the only one,
+and that in knowing the very worst, she has no more on that score to
+apprehend. Alas, alas! the hand of misfortune now appears to have
+pressed heavily upon us indeed. What in the name of all that is unlucky
+and disastrous, will happen next, I wonder?"
+
+"What can happen?" said Marchdale; "I think you have now got rid of the
+greatest evil of all--a false friend."
+
+"We have, indeed."
+
+"Go, then, to Flora; assure her that in the affection of others who know
+no falsehood, she will find a solace from every ill. Assure her that
+there are hearts that will place themselves between her and every
+misfortune."
+
+Mr. Marchdale was much affected as he spoke. Probably he felt deeper
+than he chose to express the misfortunes of that family for whom he
+entertained so much friendship. He turned aside his head to hide the
+traces of emotion which, despite even his great powers of self-command,
+would shew themselves upon his handsome and intelligent countenance.
+Then it appeared as if his noble indignation had got, for a few brief
+moments, the better of all prudence, and he exclaimed,--
+
+"The villain! the worse than villain! who would, with a thousand
+artifices, make himself beloved by a young, unsuspecting, and beautiful
+girl, but then to leave her to the bitterness of regret, that she had
+ever given such a man a place in her esteem. The heartless ruffian!"
+
+"Be calm, Mr. Marchdale, I pray you be calm," said George; "I never saw
+you so much moved."
+
+"Excuse me," he said, "excuse me; I am much moved, and I am human. I
+cannot always, let me strive my utmost, place a curb upon my feelings."
+
+"They are feelings which do you honour."
+
+"Nay, nay, I am foolish to have suffered myself to be led away into such
+a hasty expression of them. I am accustomed to feel acutely and to feel
+deeply, but it is seldom I am so much overcome as this."
+
+"Will you accompany us to the breakfast room at once, Mr. Marchdale,
+where we will make this communication to Flora; you will then be able to
+judge by her manner of receiving it, what it will be best to say to
+her."
+
+"Come, then, and pray be calm. The least that is said upon this painful
+and harassing subject, after this morning, will be the best."
+
+"You are right--you are right."
+
+Mr. Marchdale hastily put on his coat. He was dressed, with the
+exception of that one article of apparel, when the brothers came to his
+chamber, and then he came to the breakfast-parlour where the painful
+communication was to be made to Flora of her lover's faithlessness.
+
+Flora was already seated in that apartment. Indeed, she had been
+accustomed to meet Charles Holland there before others of the family
+made their appearance, but, alas! this morning the kind and tender lover
+was not there.
+
+The expression that sat upon the countenances of her brothers, and of
+Mr. Marchdale, was quite sufficient to convince her that something more
+serious than usual had occurred, and she at the moment turned very pale.
+Marchdale observed this change of change of countenance in her, and he
+advanced towards her, saying,--
+
+"Calm yourself, Flora, we have something to communicate to you, but it
+is a something which should excite indignation, and no other feeling, in
+your breast."
+
+"Brother, what is the meaning of this?" said Flora, turning aside from
+Marchdale, and withdrawing the hand which he would have taken.
+
+"I would rather have Admiral Bell here before I say anything," said
+Henry, "regarding a matter in which he cannot but feel much interested
+personally."
+
+"Here he is," said the admiral, who at that moment had opened the door
+of the breakfast room. "Here he is, so now fire away, and don't spare
+the enemy."
+
+"And Charles?" said Flora, "where is Charles?"
+
+"D--n Charles!" cried the admiral, who had not been much accustomed to
+control his feelings.
+
+"Hush! hush!" said Henry; "my dear sir, hush! do not indulge now in any
+invectives. Flora, here are three letters; you will see that the one
+which is unopened is addressed to yourself. However, we wish you to read
+the whole three of them, and then to form your own free and unbiased
+opinion."
+
+Flora looked as pale as a marble statue, when she took the letters into
+her hands. She let the two that were open fall on the table before her,
+while she eagerly broke the seal of that which was addressed to herself.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Henry, with an instinctive delicacy, beckoned every one present to the
+window, so that Flora had not the pain of feeling that any eyes were
+fixed upon her but those of her mother, who had just come into the room,
+while she was perusing those documents which told such a tale of
+heartless dissimulation.
+
+"My dear child," said Mrs. Bannerworth, "you are ill."
+
+"Hush! mother--hush!" said Flora, "let me know all."
+
+She read the whole of the letters through, and then, as the last one
+dropped from her grasp, she exclaimed,--
+
+"Oh, God! oh, God! what is all that has occurred compared to this?
+Charles--Charles--Charles!"
+
+"Flora!" exclaimed Henry, suddenly turning from the window. "Flora, is
+this worthy of you?"
+
+"Heaven now support me!"
+
+"Is this worthy of the name you bear Flora? I should have thought, and I
+did hope, that woman's pride would have supported you."
+
+"Let me implore you," added Marchdale, "to summon indignation to your
+aid, Miss Bannerworth."
+
+"Charles--Charles--Charles!" she again exclaimed, as she wrung her hands
+despairingly.
+
+"Flora, if anything could add a sting to my already irritated feelings,"
+said Henry, "this conduct of yours would."
+
+"Henry--brother, what mean you? Are you mad?"
+
+"Are you, Flora?"
+
+"God, I wish now that I was."
+
+"You have read those letters, and yet you call upon the name of him who
+wrote them with frantic tenderness."
+
+"Yes, yes," she cried; "frantic tenderness is the word. It is with
+frantic tenderness I call upon his name, and ever will.--Charles!
+Charles!--dear Charles!"
+
+"This surpasses all belief," said Marchdale.
+
+"It is the frenzy of grief," added George; "but I did not expect it of
+her. Flora--Flora, think again."
+
+"Think--think--the rush of thought distracts. Whence came these
+letters?--where did you find these most disgraceful forgeries?"
+
+"Forgeries!" exclaimed Henry; and he staggered back, as if someone had
+struck him a blow.
+
+"Yes, forgeries!" screamed Flora. "What has become of Charles Holland?
+Has he been murdered by some secret enemy, and then these most vile
+fabrications made up in his name? Oh, Charles, Charles, are you lost to
+me for ever?"
+
+"Good God!" said Henry; "I did not think of that"
+
+"Madness!--madness!" cried Marchdale.
+
+"Hold!" shouted the admiral. "Let me speak to her."
+
+He pushed every one aside, and advanced to Flora. He seized both her
+hands in his own, and in a tone of voice that was struggling with
+feeling, he cried,--
+
+"Look at me, my dear; I'm an old man old enough to be your grandfather,
+so you needn't mind looking me steadily in the face. Look at me, I want
+to ask you a question."
+
+Flora raised her beautiful eyes, and looked the old weather-beaten
+admiral full in the face.
+
+Oh! what a striking contrast did those two persons present to each
+other. That young and beautiful girl, with her small, delicate,
+childlike hands clasped, and completely hidden in the huge ones of the
+old sailor, the white, smooth skin contrasting wonderfully with his
+wrinkled, hardened features.
+
+"My dear," he cried, "you have read those--those d----d letters, my
+dear?"
+
+"I have, sir."
+
+"And what do you think of them?"
+
+"They were not written by Charles Holland, your nephew."
+
+A choking sensation seemed to come over the old man, and he tried to
+speak, but in vain. He shook the hands of the young girl violently,
+until he saw that he was hurting her, and then, before she could be
+aware of what he was about, he gave her a kiss on the cheek, as he
+cried,--
+
+"God bless you--God bless you! You are the sweetest, dearest little
+creature that ever was, or that ever will be, and I'm a d----d old fool,
+that's what I am. These letters were not written by my nephew, Charles.
+He is incapable of writing them, and, d--n me, I shall take shame to
+myself as long as I live for ever thinking so."
+
+"Dear sir," said Flora, who somehow or another did not seem at all
+offended at the kiss which the old man had given her; "dear sir, how
+could you believe, for one moment, that they came from him? There has
+been some desperate villany on foot. Where is he?--oh, find him, if he
+be yet alive. If they who have thus striven to steal from him that
+honour, which is the jewel of his heart, have murdered him, seek them
+out, sir, in the sacred name of justice, I implore you."
+
+"I will--I will. I don't renounce him; he is my nephew still--Charles
+Holland--my own dear sister's son; and you are the best girl, God bless
+you, that ever breathed. He loved you--he loves you still; and if he's
+above ground, poor fellow, he shall yet tell you himself he never saw
+those infamous letters."
+
+"You--you will seek for him?" sobbed Flora, and the tears gushed from
+her eyes. "Upon you, sir, who, as I do, feel assured of his innocence, I
+alone rely. If all the world say he is guilty, we will not think so."
+
+"I'm d----d if we do."
+
+Henry had sat down by the table, and, with his hands clasped together,
+seemed in an agony of thought.
+
+He was now roused by a thump on the back by the admiral, who cried,--
+
+"What do you think, now, old fellow? D--n it, things look a little
+different now."
+
+"As God is my judge," said Henry, holding up his hands, "I know not what
+to think, but my heart and feelings all go with you and with Flora, in
+your opinion of the innocence of Charles Holland."
+
+"I knew you would say that, because you could not possibly help it, my
+dear boy. Now we are all right again, and all we have got to do is to
+find out which way the enemy has gone, and then give chase to him."
+
+"Mr. Marchdale, what do you think of this new suggestion," said George
+to that gentleman.
+
+"Pray, excuse me," was his reply; "I would much rather not be called
+upon to give an opinion."
+
+"Why, what do you mean by that?" said the admiral.
+
+"Precisely what I say, sir."
+
+"D--n me, we had a fellow once in the combined fleets, who never had an
+opinion till after something had happened, and then he always said that
+was just what he thought."
+
+"I was never in the combined, or any other fleet, sir," said Marchdale,
+coldly.
+
+"Who the devil said you were?" roared the admiral.
+
+Marchdale merely hawed.
+
+"However," added the admiral, "I don't care, and never did, for
+anybody's opinion, when I know I am right. I'd back this dear girl here
+for opinions, and good feelings, and courage to express them, against
+all the world, I would, any day. If I was not the old hulk I am, I would
+take a cruise in any latitude under the sun, if it was only for the
+chance of meeting with just such another."
+
+"Oh, lose no time!" said Flora. "If Charles is not to be found in the
+house, lose no time in searching for him, I pray you; seek him, wherever
+there is the remotest probability he may chance to be. Do not let him
+think he is deserted."
+
+"Not a bit of it," cried the admiral. "You make your mind easy, my dear.
+If he's above ground, we shall find him out, you may depend upon it.
+Come along master Henry, you and I will consider what had best be done
+in this uncommonly ugly matter."
+
+Henry and George followed the admiral from the breakfast-room, leaving
+Marchdale there, who looked serious and full of melancholy thought.
+
+It was quite clear that he considered Flora had spoken from the generous
+warmth of her affection as regarded Charles Holland, and not from the
+convictions which reason would have enforced her to feel.
+
+When he was now alone with her and Mrs. Bannerworth, he spoke in a
+feeling and affectionate tone regarding the painful and inexplicable
+events which had transpired.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+MR. MARCHDALE'S EXCULPATION OF HIMSELF.--THE SEARCH THROUGH THE
+GARDENS.--THE SPOT OF THE DEADLY STRUGGLE.--THE MYSTERIOUS PAPER.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It was, perhaps, very natural that, with her feelings towards Charles
+Holland, Flora should shrink from every one who seemed to be of a
+directly contrary impression, and when Mr. Marchdale now spoke, she
+showed but little inclination to hear what he had to say in explanation.
+
+The genuine and unaffected manner, however, in which he spoke, could not
+but have its effect upon her, and she found herself compelled to listen,
+as well as, to a great extent, approve of the sentiments that fell from
+his lips.
+
+"Flora," he said, "I beg that you will here, in the presence of your
+mother, give me a patient hearing. You fancy that, because I cannot join
+so glibly as the admiral in believing that these letters are forgeries,
+I must be your enemy."
+
+"Those letters," said Flora, "were not written by Charles Holland."
+
+"That is your opinion."
+
+"It is more than an opinion. He could not write them."
+
+"Well, then, of course, if I felt inclined, which Heaven alone knows I
+do not, I could not hope successfully to argue against such a
+conviction. But I do not wish to do so. All I want to impress upon you
+is, that I am not to be blamed for doubting his innocence; and, at the
+same time, I wish to assure you that no one in this house would feel
+more exquisite satisfaction than I in seeing it established."
+
+"I thank you for so much," said Flora; "but as, to my mind, his
+innocence has never been doubted, it needs to me no establishing."
+
+"Very good. You believe these letters forgeries?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"And that the disappearance of Charles Holland is enforced, and not of
+his own free will?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then you may rely upon my unremitting exertions night and day to find
+him and any suggestion you can make, which is likely to aid in the
+search, shall, I pledge myself, be fully carried out."
+
+"I thank you, Mr. Marchdale."
+
+"My dear," said the mother, "rely on Mr. Marchdale."
+
+"I will rely on any one who believe Charles Holland innocent of writing
+those odious letters, mother--I rely upon the admiral. He will aid me
+heart and hand."
+
+"And so will Mr. Marchdale."
+
+"I am glad to hear it."
+
+"And yet doubt it, Flora," said Marchdale, dejectedly. "I am very sorry
+that such should be the case; I will not, however, trouble you any
+further, nor, give me leave to assure you, will I relax in my honest
+endeavours to clear up this mystery."
+
+So saying, Mr. Marchdale bowed, and left the room, apparently more vexed
+than he cared to express at the misconstruction which had been put upon
+his conduct and motives. He at once sought Henry and the admiral, to
+whom he expressed his most earnest desire to aid in attempting to
+unravel the mysterious circumstances which had occurred.
+
+"This strongly-expressed opinion of Flora," he remarked, "is of course
+amply sufficient to induce us to pause before we say one word more that
+shall in any way sound like a condemnation of Mr. Holland. Heaven forbid
+that I should."
+
+"No," said the admiral; "don't."
+
+"I do not intend."
+
+"I would not advise anybody."
+
+"Sir, if you use that as a threat--"
+
+"A threat?"
+
+"Yes; I must say, it sounded marvellously like one."
+
+"Oh, dear, no--quite a mistake. I consider that every man has a fair
+right to the enjoyment of his opinion. All I have to remark is, that I
+shall, after what has occurred, feel myself called upon to fight anybody
+who says those letters were written by my nephew."
+
+"Indeed, sir!"
+
+"Ah, indeed."
+
+"You will permit me to say such is a strange mode of allowing every one
+the free enjoyment of his opinion."
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"Whatever pains and penalties may be the result, Admiral Bell, of
+differing with so infallible authority as yourself, I shall do so
+whenever my judgment induces me."
+
+"You will?"
+
+"Indeed I will."
+
+"Very good. You know the consequences."
+
+"As to fighting you, I should refuse to do so."
+
+"Refuse?"
+
+"Yes; most certainly."
+
+"Upon what ground?"
+
+"Upon the ground that you were a madman."
+
+"Come," now interposed Henry, "let me hope that, for my sake as well as
+for Flora's, this dispute will proceed no further."
+
+"I have not courted it," said Marchdale. "I have much temper, but I am
+not a stick or a stone."
+
+"D----e, if I don't think," said the admiral, "you are a bit of both."
+
+"Mr. Henry Bannerworth," said Marchdale, "I am your guest, and but for
+the duty I feel in assisting in the search for Mr. Charles Holland, I
+should at once leave your house."
+
+"You need not trouble yourself on my account," said the admiral; "if I
+find no clue to him in the neighbourhood for two or three days, I shall
+be off myself."
+
+"I am going," said Henry, rising, "to search the garden and adjoining
+meadows; if you two gentlemen choose to come with me, I shall of course
+be happy of your company; if, however, you prefer remaining here to
+wrangle, you can do so."
+
+This had the effect, at all events, of putting a stop to the dispute for
+the present, and both the admiral and Mr. Marchdale accompanied Henry on
+his search. That search was commenced immediately under the balcony of
+Charles Holland's window, from which the admiral had seen him emerge.
+
+There was nothing particular found there, or in the garden. Admiral Bell
+pointed out accurately the route he had seen Charles take across the
+grass plot just before he himself left his chamber to seek Henry.
+
+Accordingly, this route was now taken, and it led to a low part of the
+garden wall, which any one of ordinary vigour could easily have
+surmounted.
+
+"My impression is," said the admiral, "that he got over here."
+
+"The ivy appears to be disturbed," remarked Henry.
+
+"Suppose we mark the spot, and then go round to it on the outer side?"
+suggested George.
+
+This was agreed to; for, although the young man might have chosen rather
+to clamber over the wall than go round, it was doubtful if the old
+admiral could accomplish such a feat.
+
+The distance round, however, was not great, and as they had cast over
+the wall a handful of flowers from the garden to mark the precise spot,
+it was easily discoverable.
+
+The moment they reached it, they were panic-stricken by the appearances
+which it presented. The grass was for some yards round about completely
+trodden up, and converted into mud. There were deep indentations of
+feet-marks in all directions, and such abundance of evidence that some
+most desperate struggle had recently taken place there, that the most
+sceptical person in the world could not have entertained any doubt upon
+the subject.
+
+Henry was the first to break the silence with which they each regarded
+the broken ground.
+
+"This is conclusive to my mind," he said, with a deep sigh. "Here has
+poor Charles been attacked."
+
+"God keep him!" exclaimed Marchdale, "and pardon me my doubts--I am now
+convinced."
+
+The old admiral gazed about him like one distracted. Suddenly he cried--
+
+"They have murdered him. Some fiends in the shape of men have murdered
+him, and Heaven only knows for what."
+
+"It seems but too probable," said Henry. "Let us endeavour to trace the
+footsteps. Oh! Flora, Flora, what terrible news this will be to you."
+
+"A horrible supposition comes across my mind," said George. "What if he
+met the vampyre?"
+
+"It may have been so," said Marchdale, with a shudder. "It is a point
+which we should endeavour to ascertain, and I think we may do so."
+
+"How!"
+
+"By some inquiry as to whether Sir Francis Varney was from home at
+midnight last night."
+
+"True; that might be done."
+
+"The question, suddenly put to one of his servants, would, most
+probably, be answered as a thing of course."
+
+"It would."
+
+"Then that shall be decided upon. And now, my friends, since you have
+some of you thought me luke-warm in this business, I pledge myself that,
+should it be ascertained that Varney was from home at midnight last
+evening, I will defy him personally, and meet him hand to hand."
+
+"Nay, nay," said Henry, "leave that course to younger hands."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"It more befits me to be his challenger."
+
+"No, Henry. You are differently situated to what I am."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Remember, that I am in the world a lone man; without ties or
+connexions. If I lose my life, I compromise no one by my death; but you
+have a mother and a bereaved sister to look to who will deserve your
+care."
+
+"Hilloa," cried the admiral, "what's this?"
+
+"What?" cried each, eagerly, and they pressed forward to where the
+admiral was stooping to the ground to pick up something which was nearly
+completely trodden into the grass.
+
+He with some difficulty raised it. It was a small slip of paper, on
+which was some writing, but it was so much covered with mud as not to be
+legible.
+
+"If this be washed," said Henry, "I think we shall be able to read it
+clearly."
+
+"We can soon try that experiment," said George. "And as the footsteps,
+by some mysterious means, show themselves nowhere else but in this one
+particular spot, any further pursuit of inquiry about here appears
+useless."
+
+"Then we will return to the house," said Henry, "and wash the mud from
+this paper."
+
+"There is one important point," remarked Marchdale, "which it appears to
+me we have all overlooked."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What may that be?"
+
+"It is this. Is any one here sufficiently acquainted with the
+handwriting of Mr. Charles Holland to come to an opinion upon the
+letters?"
+
+"I have some letters from him," said Henry, "which we received while on
+the continent, and I dare say Flora has likewise."
+
+"Then they should be compared with the alleged forgeries."
+
+"I know his handwriting well," said the admiral. "The letters bear so
+strong a resemblance to it that they would deceive anybody."
+
+"Then you may depend," remarked Henry, "some most deep-laid and
+desperate plot is going on."
+
+"I begin," added Marchdale, "to dread that such must be the case. What
+say you to claiming the assistance of the authorities, as well as
+offering a large reward for any information regarding Mr. Charles
+Holland?"
+
+"No plan shall be left untried, you may depend."
+
+They had now reached the house, and Henry having procured some clean
+water, carefully washed the paper which had been found among the trodden
+grass. When freed from the mixture of clay and mud which had obscured
+it, they made out the following words,--
+
+"--it be so well. At the next full moon seek a convenient spot, and it
+can be done. The signature is, to my apprehension, perfect. The money
+which I hold, in my opinion, is much more in amount than you imagine,
+must be ours; and as for--"
+
+Here the paper was torn across, and no further words were visible upon
+it.
+
+Mystery seemed now to be accumulating upon mystery; each one, as it
+showed itself darkly, seeming to bear some remote relation to what
+preceded it; and yet only confusing it the more.
+
+That this apparent scrap of a letter had dropped from some one's pocket
+during the fearful struggle, of which there were such ample evidences,
+was extremely probable; but what it related to, by whom it was written,
+or by whom dropped, were unfathomable mysteries.
+
+In fact, no one could give an opinion upon these matters at all; and
+after a further series of conjectures, it could only be decided, that
+unimportant as the scrap of paper appeared now to be, it should be
+preserved, in case it should, as there was a dim possibility that it
+might become a connecting link in some chain of evidence at another
+time.
+
+"And here we are," said Henry, "completely at fault, and knowing not
+what to do."
+
+"Well, it is a hard case," said the admiral, "that, with all the will in
+the world to be up and doing something, we are lying here like a fleet
+of ships in a calm, as idle as possible."
+
+"You perceive we have no evidence to connect Sir Francis Varney with
+this affair, either nearly or remotely," said Marchdale.
+
+"Certainly not," replied Henry.
+
+"But yet, I hope you will not lose sight of the suggestion I proposed,
+to the effect of ascertaining if he were from home last night."
+
+"But how is that to be carried out?"
+
+"Boldly."
+
+"How boldly?"
+
+"By going at once, I should advise, to his house, and asking the first
+one of his domestics you may happen to see."
+
+"I will go over," cried George; "on such occasions as these one cannot
+act upon ceremony."
+
+He seized his hat, and without waiting for a word from any one approving
+or condemning his going, off he went.
+
+"If," said Henry, "we find that Varney has nothing to do with the
+matter, we are completely at fault."
+
+"Completely," echoed Marchdale.
+
+"In that case, admiral, I think we ought to defer to your feelings upon
+the subject, and do whatever you suggest should be done."
+
+"I shall offer a hundred pounds reward to any one who can and will bring
+any news of Charles."
+
+"A hundred pounds is too much," said Marchdale.
+
+"Not at all; and while I am about it, since the amount is made a subject
+of discussion, I shall make it two hundred, and that may benefit some
+rascal who is not so well paid for keeping the secret as I will pay him
+for disclosing it."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," said Marchdale.
+
+"I know I am, as I always am."
+
+Marchdale could not forbear a smile at the opinionated old man, who
+thought no one's opinion upon any subject at all equal to his own; but
+he made no remark, and only waited, as did Henry, with evident anxiety
+for the return of George.
+
+The distance was not great, and George certainly performed his errand
+quickly, for he was back in less time than they had thought he could
+return in. The moment he came into the room, he said, without waiting
+for any inquiry to be made of him,--
+
+"We are at fault again. I am assured that Sir Francis Varney never
+stirred from home after eight o'clock last evening."
+
+"D--n it, then," said the admiral, "let us give the devil his due. He
+could not have had any hand in this business."
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"From whom, George, did you get your information?" asked Henry, in a
+desponding tone.
+
+"From, first of all, one of his servants, whom I met away from the
+house, and then from one whom I saw at the house."
+
+"There can be no mistake, then?"
+
+"Certainly none. The servants answered me at once, and so frankly that I
+cannot doubt it."
+
+The door of the room was slowly opened, and Flora came in. She looked
+almost the shadow of what she had been but a few weeks before. She was
+beautiful, but she almost realised the poet's description of one who had
+suffered much, and was sinking into an early grave, the victim of a
+broken heart:--
+
+      "She was more beautiful than death,
+      And yet as sad to look upon."
+
+Her face was of a marble paleness, and as she clasped her hands, and
+glanced from face to face, to see if she could gather hope and
+consolation from the expression of any one, she might have been taken
+for some exquisite statue of despair.
+
+"Have you found him?" she said. "Have you found Charles?"
+
+"Flora, Flora," said Henry, as he approached her.
+
+"Nay, answer me; have you found him? You went to seek him. Dead or
+alive, have you found him?"
+
+"We have not, Flora."
+
+"Then I must seek him myself. None will search for him as I will search;
+I must myself seek him. 'Tis true affection that can alone be successful
+in such a search."
+
+"Believe me, dear Flora, that all has been done which the shortness of
+the time that has elapsed would permit. Further measures will now
+immediately be taken. Rest assured, dear sister, that all will be done
+that the utmost zeal can suggest."
+
+"They have killed him! they have killed him!" she said, mournfully. "Oh,
+God, they have killed him! I am not now mad, but the time will come when
+I must surely be maddened. The vampyre has killed Charles Holland--the
+dreadful vampyre!"
+
+"Nay, now, Flora, this is frenzy."
+
+"Because he loved me has he been destroyed. I know it, I know it. The
+vampyre has doomed me to destruction. I am lost, and all who loved me
+will be involved in one common ruin on my account. Leave me all of you
+to perish. If, for iniquities done in our family, some one must suffer
+to appease the divine vengeance, let that one be me, and only me."
+
+"Hush, sister, hush!" cried Henry. "I expected not this from you. The
+expressions you use are not your expressions. I know you better. There
+is abundance of divine mercy, but no divine vengeance. Be calm, I pray
+you."
+
+"Calm! calm!"
+
+"Yes. Make an exertion of that intellect we all know you to possess. It
+is too common a thing with human nature, when misfortune overtakes it,
+to imagine that such a state of things is specially arranged. We quarrel
+with Providence because it does not interfere with some special miracle
+in our favour; forgetting that, being denizens of this earth, and
+members of a great social system; We must be subject occasionally to the
+accidents which will disturb its efficient working."
+
+"Oh, brother, brother!" she exclaimed, as she dropped into a seat, "you
+have never loved."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"No; you have never felt what it was to hold your being upon the breath
+of another. You can reason calmly, because you cannot know the extent of
+feeling you are vainly endeavouring to combat."
+
+"Flora, you do me less than justice. All I wish to impress upon your
+mind is, that you are not in any way picked out by Providence to be
+specially unhappy--that there is no perversion of nature on your
+account."
+
+"Call you that hideous vampyre form that haunts me no perversion of
+ordinary nature?"
+
+"What is is natural," said Marchdale.
+
+"Cold reasoning to one who suffers as I suffer. I cannot argue with you;
+I can only know that I am most unhappy--most miserable."
+
+"But that will pass away, sister, and the sun of your happiness may
+smile again."
+
+"Oh, if I could but hope!"
+
+"And wherefore should you deprive yourself of that poorest privilege of
+the most unhappy?"
+
+"Because my heart tells me to despair."
+
+"Tell it you won't, then," cried Admiral Bell. "If you had been at sea
+as long as I have, Miss Bannerworth, you would never despair of anything
+at all."
+
+"Providence guarded you," said Marchdale.
+
+"Yes, that's true enough, I dare say, I was in a storm once off Cape
+Ushant, and it was only through Providence, and cutting away the
+mainmast myself, that we succeeded in getting into port."
+
+"You have one hope," said Marchdale to Flora, as he looked in her wan
+face.
+
+"One hope?"
+
+"Yes. Recollect you have one hope."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"You think that, by removing from this place, you may find that peace
+which is here denied you."
+
+"No, no, no."
+
+"Indeed. I thought that such was your firm conviction."
+
+"It was; but circumstances have altered."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Charles Holland has disappeared here, and here must I remain to seek
+for him."
+
+"True he may have disappeared here," remarked Marchdale; "and yet that
+may be no argument for supposing him still here."
+
+"Where, then, is he?"
+
+"God knows how rejoiced I should be if I were able to answer your
+question. I must seek him, dead or alive! I must see him yet before I
+bid adieu to this world, which has now lost all its charms for me."
+
+"Do not despair," said Henry; "I will go to the town now at once, to
+make known our suspicions that he has met with some foul play. I will
+set every means in operation that I possibly can to discover him. Mr.
+Chillingworth will aid me, too; and I hope that not many days will
+elapse, Flora, before some intelligence of a most satisfactory nature
+shall be brought to you on Charles Holland's account."
+
+"Go, go, brother; go at once."
+
+"I go now at once."
+
+"Shall I accompany you?" said Marchdale.
+
+"No. Remain here to keep watch over Flora's safety while I am gone; I
+can alone do all that can be done."
+
+"And don't forget to offer the two hundred pounds reward," said the
+admiral, "to any one who can bring us news of Charles, on which we can
+rely."
+
+"I will not."
+
+"Surely--surely something must result from that," said Flora, as she
+looked in the admiral's face, as if to gather encouragement in her
+dawning hopes from its expression.
+
+"Of course it will, my dear," he said. "Don't you be downhearted; you
+and I are of one mind in this affair, and of one mind we will keep. We
+won't give up our opinions for anybody."
+
+"Our opinions," she said, "of the honour and honesty of Charles Holland.
+That is what we will adhere to."
+
+"Of course we will."
+
+"Ah, sir, it joys me, even in the midst of this, my affliction, to find
+one at least who is determined to do him full justice. We cannot find
+such contradictions in nature as that a mind, full of noble impulses,
+should stoop to such a sudden act of selfishness as those letters would
+attribute to Charles Holland. It cannot--cannot be."
+
+"You are right, my dear. And now, Master Henry, you be off, will you, if
+you please."
+
+"I am off now. Farewell, Flora, for a brief space."
+
+"Farewell, brother; and Heaven speed you on your errand."
+
+"Amen to that," cried the admiral; "and now, my dear, if you have got
+half an hour to spare, just tuck your arm under mine, and take a walk
+with me in the garden, for I want to say something to you."
+
+"Most willingly," said Flora.
+
+"I would not advise you to stray far from the house, Miss Bannerworth,"
+said Marchdale.
+
+"Nobody asked you for advice," said the admiral. "D----e, do you want to
+make out that I ain't capable of taking care of her?"
+
+"No, no; but--"
+
+"Oh, nonsense! Come along, my dear; and if all the vampyres and odd fish
+that were ever created were to come across our path, we would settle
+them somehow or another. Come along, and don't listen to anybody's
+croaking."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+A PEEP THROUGH AN IRON GRATING.--THE LONELY PRISONER IN HIS
+DUNGEON.--THE MYSTERY.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Without forestalling the interest of our story, or recording a fact in
+its wrong place, we now call our readers' attention to a circumstance
+which may, at all events, afford some food for conjecture.
+
+Some distance from the Hall, which, from time immemorial, had been the
+home and the property of the Bannerworth family, was an ancient ruin
+known by the name of the Monks' Hall.
+
+It was conjectured that this ruin was the remains of some one of those
+half monastic, half military buildings which, during the middle ages,
+were so common in almost every commanding situation in every county of
+England.
+
+At a period of history when the church arrogated to itself an amount of
+political power which the intelligence of the spirit of the age now
+denies to it, and when its members were quite ready to assert at any
+time the truth of their doctrines by the strong arm of power, such
+buildings as the one, the old grey ruins of which were situated near to
+Bannerworth Hall, were erected.
+
+Ostensibly for religious purposes, but really as a stronghold for
+defence, as well as for aggression, this Monks' Hall, as it was called,
+partook quite as much of the character of a fortress, as of an
+ecclesiastical building.
+
+The ruins covered a considerable extent, of ground, but the only part
+which seemed successfully to have resisted the encroaches of time, at
+least to a considerable extent, was a long, hall in which the jolly
+monks no doubt feasted and caroused.
+
+Adjoining to this hall, were the walls of other parts of the building,
+and at several places there were small, low, mysterious-looking doors
+that led, heaven knows where, into some intricacies and labyrinths
+beneath the building, which no one had, within the memory of man, been
+content to run the risk of losing himself in.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It was related that among these subterranean passages and arches there
+were pitfalls and pools of water; and whether such a statement was true
+or not, it certainly acted as a considerable damper upon the vigour of
+curiosity.
+
+This ruin was so well known in the neighbourhood, and had become from
+earliest childhood so familiar to the inhabitants of Bannerworth Hall,
+that one would as soon expect an old inhabitant of Ludgate-hill to make
+some remark about St. Paul's, as any of them to allude to the ruins of
+Monks' Hall.
+
+They never now thought of going near to it, for in infancy they had
+spoiled among its ruins, and it had become one of those familiar objects
+which, almost, from that very familiarity, cease to hold a place in the
+memories of those who know it so well.
+
+It is, however, to this ruin we would now conduct our readers, premising
+that what we have to say concerning it now, is not precisely in the form
+of a connected portion of our narrative.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is evening--the evening of that first day of heart loneliness to poor
+Flora Bannerworth. The lingering rays of the setting sun are gilding the
+old ruins with a wondrous beauty. The edges of the decayed stones seem
+now to be tipped with gold, and as the rich golden refulgence of light
+gleams upon the painted glass which still adorned a large window of the
+hall, a flood of many-coloured beautiful light was cast within, making
+the old flag-stones, with which the interior was paved, look more like
+some rich tapestry, laid down to do honour to a monarch.
+
+So picturesque and so beautiful an aspect did the ancient ruin wear,
+that to one with a soul to appreciate the romantic and the beautiful, it
+would have amply repaid the fatigue of a long journey now to see it.
+
+And as the sun sank to rest, the gorgeous colours that it cast upon the
+mouldering wall, deepened from an appearance of burnished gold to a
+crimson hue, and from that again the colour changed to a shifting
+purple, mingling with the shadows of the evening, and so gradually
+fading away into absolute darkness.
+
+The place is as silent as the tomb--a silence far more solemn than could
+have existed, had there been no remains of a human habitation; because
+even these time-worn walls were suggestive of what once had been; and
+the wrapt stillness which now pervaded them brought with them a
+melancholy feeling for the past.
+
+There was not even the low hum of insect life to break the stillness of
+these ancient ruins.
+
+And now the last rays of the sun are gradually fading away. In a short
+time all will be darkness. A low gentle wind is getting up, and
+beginning slightly to stir the tall blades of grass that have shot up
+between some of the old stones. The silence is broken, awfully broken,
+by a sudden cry of despair; such a cry as might come from some
+imprisoned spirit, doomed to waste an age of horror in a tomb.
+
+And yet it was scarcely to be called a scream, and not all a groan. It
+might have come from some one on the moment of some dreadful sacrifice,
+when the judgment had not sufficient time to call courage to its aid,
+but involuntarily had induced that sound which might not be repeated.
+
+A few startled birds flew from odd holes and corners about the ruins, to
+seek some other place of rest. The owl hooted from a corner of what had
+once been a belfry, and a dreamy-looking bat flew out from a cranny and
+struck itself headlong against a projection.
+
+Then all was still again. Silence resumed its reign, and if there had
+been a mortal ear to drink in that sudden sound, the mind might well
+have doubted if fancy had not more to do with the matter than reality.
+
+From out a portion of the ruins that was enveloped in the deepest gloom,
+there now glides a figure. It is of gigantic height, and it moves along
+with a slow and measured tread. An ample mantle envelopes the form,
+which might well have been taken for the spirit of one of the monks who,
+centuries since, had made that place their home.
+
+It walked the whole length of the ample hall we have alluded to, and
+then, at the window from which had streamed the long flood of many
+coloured light, it paused.
+
+For more than ten minutes this mysterious looking figure there stood.
+
+At length there passed something on the outside of the window, that
+looked like the shadow of a human form.
+
+Then the tall, mysterious, apparition-looking man turned, and sought a
+side entrance to the hall.
+
+Then he paused, and, in about a minute, he was joined by another who
+must have been he who had so recently passed the stained glass window on
+the outer side.
+
+There was a friendly salutation between these two beings, and they
+walked to the centre of the hall, where they remained for some time in
+animated conversation.
+
+From the gestures they used, it was evident that the subject of their
+discourse was one of deep and absorbing interest to both. It was one,
+too, upon which, after a time, they seemed a little to differ, and more
+than once they each assumed attitudes of mutual defiance.
+
+This continued until the sun had so completely sunk, that twilight was
+beginning sensibly to wane, and then gradually the two men appeared to
+have come to a better understanding, and whatever might be the subject
+of their discourse, there was some positive result evidently arrived at
+now.
+
+They spoke in lower tones. They used less animated gestures than before;
+and, after a time, they both walked slowly down the hull towards the
+dark spot from whence the first tall figure had so mysteriously emerged.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There it a dungeon--damp and full of the most unwholesome
+exhalations--deep under ground it seems, and, in its excavations, it
+would appear as if some small land springs had been liberated, for the
+earthen floor was one continued extent of moisture.
+
+From the roof, too, came perpetually the dripping of water, which fell
+with sullen, startling splashes in the pool below.
+
+At one end, and near to the roof,--so near that to reach it, without the
+most efficient means from the inside, was a matter of positive
+impossibility--is a small iron grating, and not much larger than might
+be entirely obscured by any human face that might be close to it from
+the outside of the dungeon.
+
+That dreadful abode is tenanted. In one corner, on a heap of straw,
+which appears freshly to have been cast into the place, lies a hopeless
+prisoner.
+
+It is no great stretch of fancy to suppose, that it is from his lips
+came the sound of terror and of woe that had disturbed the repose of
+that lonely spot.
+
+The prisoner is lying on his back; a rude bandage round his head, on
+which were numerous spots of blood, would seem to indicate that he had
+suffered personal injury in some recent struggle. His eyes were open.
+They were fixed desparingly, perhaps unconsciously, upon that small
+grating which looked into the upper world.
+
+That grating slants upwards, and looks to the west, so that any one
+confined in that dreary dungeon might be tantalized, on a sweet summer's
+day, by seeing the sweet blue sky, and occasionally the white clouds
+flitting by in that freedom which he cannot hope for.
+
+The carol of a bird, too, might reach him there. Alas! sad remembrance
+of life, and joy, and liberty.
+
+But now all is deepening gloom. The prisoner sees nothing--hears
+nothing; and the sky is not quite dark. That small grating looks like a
+strange light-patch in the dungeon wall.
+
+Hark! some footstep sounds upon his ear. The creaking of a door
+follows--a gleam of light shines into the dungeon, and the tall
+mysterious-looking figure in the cloak stands before the occupant of
+that wretched place.
+
+Then comes in the other man, and he carries in his hand writing
+materials. He stoops to the stone couch on which the prisoner lies, and
+offers him a pen, as he raises him partially from the miserable damp
+pallet.
+
+But there is no speculation in the eyes of that oppressed man. In vain
+the pen is repeatedly placed in his grasp, and a document of some
+length, written on parchment, spread out before him to sign. In vain is
+he held up now by both the men, who have thus mysteriously sought him in
+his dungeon; he has not power to do as they would wish him. The pen
+falls from his nerveless grasp, and, with a deep sigh, when they cease
+to hold him up, he falls heavily back upon the stone couch.
+
+Then the two men looked at each other for about a minute silently; after
+which he who was the shorter of the two raised one hand, and, in a voice
+of such concentrated hatred and passion as was horrible to hear, he
+said,--
+
+"D--n!"
+
+The reply of the other was a laugh; and then he took the light from the
+floor, and motioned the one who seemed so little able to control his
+feelings of bitterness and disappointment to leave the place with him.
+
+With a haste and vehemence, then, which showed how much angered he was,
+the shorter man of the two now rolled up the parchment, and placed it in
+a breast-pocket of his coat.
+
+He cast a withering look of intense hatred on the form of the
+nearly-unconscious prisoner, and then prepared to follow the other.
+
+But when they reached the door of the dungeon, the taller man of the two
+paused, and appeared for a moment or two to be in deep thought; after
+which he handed the lamp he carried to his companion, and approached the
+pallet of the prisoner.
+
+He took from his pocket a small bottle, and, raising the head of the
+feeble and wounded man, he poured some portion of the contents into his
+mouth, and watched him swallow it.
+
+The other looked on in silence, and then they both slowly left the
+dreary dungeon.
+
+* * *
+
+The wind rose, and the night had deepened into the utmost darkness. The
+blackness of a night, unillumined by the moon, which would not now rise
+for some hours, was upon the ancient ruins. All was calm and still, and
+no one would have supposed that aught human was within those ancient,
+dreary looking walls.
+
+Time will show who it was who lay in that unwholesome dungeon, as well
+as who were they who visited him so mysteriously, and retired again with
+feelings of such evident disappointment with the document it seemed of
+such importance, at least to one of them, to get that unconscious man to
+sign.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE VISIT OF FLORA TO THE VAMPYRE.--THE OFFER.--THE SOLEMN ASSEVERATION.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Admiral Bell had, of course, nothing particular to communicate to Flora
+in the walk he induced her to take with him in the gardens of
+Bannerworth Hall, but he could talk to her upon a subject which was sure
+to be a welcome one, namely, of Charles Holland.
+
+And not only could he talk to her of Charles, but he was willing to talk
+of him in the style of enthusiastic commendation which assimilated best
+with her own feelings. No one but the honest old admiral, who was as
+violent in his likes and his dislikes as any one could possibly be,
+could just then have conversed with Flora Bannerworth to her
+satisfaction of Charles Holland.
+
+He expressed no doubts whatever concerning Charles's faith, and to his
+mind, now that he had got that opinion firmly fixed in his mind,
+everybody that held a contrary one he at once denounced as a fool or a
+rogue.
+
+"Never you mind, Miss Flora," he said; "you will find, I dare say, that
+all will come right eventually. D--n me! the only thing that provokes me
+in the whole business is, that I should have been such an old fool as
+for a moment to doubt Charles."
+
+"You should have known him better, sir."
+
+"I should, my dear, but I was taken by surprise, you see, and that was
+wrong, too, for a man who has held a responsible command."
+
+"But the circumstances, dear sir, were of a nature to take every one by
+surprise."
+
+"They were, they were. But now, candidly speaking, and I know I can
+speak candidly to you; do you really think this Varney is the vampyre?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"You do? Well, then, somebody must tackle him, that's quite clear; we
+can't put up with his fancies always."
+
+"What can be done?"
+
+"Ah, that I don't know, but something must be done, you know. He wants
+this place; Heaven only knows why or wherefore he has taken such a fancy
+to it; but he has done so, that is quite clear. If it had a good sea
+view, I should not be so much surprised; but there's nothing of the
+sort, so it's no way at all better than any other shore-going stupid
+sort of house, that you can see nothing but land from."
+
+"Oh, if my brother would but make some compromise with him to restore
+Charles to us and take the house, we might yet be happy."
+
+"D--n it! then you still think that he has a hand in spiriting away
+Charles?"
+
+"Who else could do so?"
+
+"I'll be hanged if I know. I do feel tolerably sure, and I have good
+deal of reliance upon your opinion, my dear; I say, I do feel tolerably
+sure: but, if I was d----d sure, now, I'd soon have it out of him."
+
+"For my sake, Admiral Bell, I wish now to extract one promise from you."
+
+"Say your say, my dear, and I'll promise you."
+
+"You will not then expose yourself to the danger of any personal
+conflict with that most dreadful man, whose powers of mischief we do not
+know, and therefore cannot well meet or appreciate."
+
+"Whew! is that what you mean?"
+
+"Yes; you will, I am sure, promise me so much."
+
+"Why, my dear, you see the case is this. In affairs of fighting, the
+less ladies interfere the better."
+
+"Nay, why so?"
+
+"Because--because, you see, a lady has no reputation for courage to keep
+up. Indeed, it's rather the other way, for we dislike a bold woman as
+much as we hold in contempt a cowardly man."
+
+"But if you grant to us females that in consequence of our affections,
+we are not courageous, you must likewise grant how much we are doomed to
+suffer from the dangers of those whom we esteem."
+
+"You would be the last person in the world to esteem a coward."
+
+"Certainly. But there is more true courage often in not fighting than in
+entering into a contest."
+
+"You are right enough there, my dear."
+
+"Under ordinary circumstances, I should not oppose your carrying out the
+dictates of your honour, but now, let me entreat you not to meet this
+dreadful man, if man he can be called, when you know not how unfair the
+contest may be."
+
+"Unfair?"
+
+"Yes. May he not have some means of preventing you from injuring him,
+and of overcoming you, which no mortal possesses?"
+
+"He may."
+
+"Then the supposition of such a case ought to be sufficient ground for
+at once inducing you to abandon all idea of meeting with him."
+
+"My dear, I'll consider of this matter."
+
+"Do so."
+
+"There is another thing, however, which now you will permit me to ask of
+you as a favour."
+
+"It is granted ere it is spoken."
+
+"Very good. Now you must not be offended with what I am going to say,
+because, however it may touch that very proper pride which you, and such
+as you, are always sure to possess, you are fortunately at all times
+able to call sufficient judgment to your aid to enable you to see what
+is really offensive and what is not."
+
+"You alarm me by such a preface."
+
+"Do I? then here goes at once. Your brother Henry, poor fellow, has
+enough to do, has he not, to make all ends meet."
+
+A flush of excitement came over Flora's cheek as the old admiral thus
+bluntly broached a subject of which she already knew the bitterness to
+such a spirit as her brother's.
+
+"You are silent," continued the old man; "by that I guess I am not wrong
+in my I supposition; indeed it is hardly a supposition at all, for
+Master Charles told me as much, and no doubt he had it from a correct
+quarter."
+
+"I cannot deny it, sir."
+
+"Then don't. It ain't worth denying, my dear. Poverty is no crime, but,
+like being born a Frenchman, it's a d----d misfortune."
+
+Flora could scarcely refuse a smile, as the nationality of the old
+admiral peeped out even in the midst of his most liberal and best
+feelings.
+
+"Well," he continued, "I don't intend that he shall have so much trouble
+as he has had. The enemies of his king and his country shall free him
+from his embarrassments."
+
+"The enemies?"
+
+"Yes; who else?"
+
+"You speak in riddles, sir."
+
+"Do I? Then I'll soon make the riddles plain. When I went to sea I was
+worth nothing--as poor as a ship's cat after the crew had been paid off
+for a month. Well, I began fighting away as hard and fast as I could,
+and the more I fought, and the more hard knocks I gave and took, the
+more money I got."
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Yes; prize after prize we hauled into port, and at last the French
+vessels wouldn't come out of their harbours."
+
+"What did you do then?"
+
+"What did we do then? Why what was the most natural thing in the whole
+world for us to do, we did."
+
+"I cannot guess."
+
+"Well, I am surprised at that. Try again."
+
+"Oh, yes; I can guess now. How could I have been so dull? You went and
+took them out."
+
+"To be sure we did--to be sure we did, my dear; that's how we managed
+them. And, do you see, at the end of the war I found myself with lots of
+prize money, all wrung from old England's enemies, and I intend that
+some of it shall find it's way to your brother's pocket; and you see
+that will bear out just what I said, that the enemies of his king and
+his country shall free him from his difficulties--don't you see?"
+
+"I see your noble generosity, admiral."
+
+"Noble fiddlestick! Now I have mentioned this matter to you, my dear,
+and I don't so much mind talking to you about such matters as I should
+to your brother, I want you to do me the favour of managing it all for
+me."
+
+"How, sir?"
+
+"Why, just this way. You must find out how much money will free your
+brother just now from a parcel of botherations that beset him, and then
+I will give it to you, and you can hand it to him, you see, so I need
+not say anything about it; and if he speaks to me on the subject at all,
+I can put him down at once by saying, 'avast there, it's no business of
+mine.'"
+
+"And can you, dear admiral, imagine that I could conceal the generous
+source from where so much assistance came?"
+
+"Of course; it will come from you. I take a fancy to make you a present
+of a sum of money; you do with it what you please--it's yours, and I
+have no right and no inclination to ask you what use you put it to."
+
+Tears gushed from the eyes of Flora as she tried to utter some word, but
+could not. The admiral swore rather fearfully, and pretended to wonder
+much what on earth she could be crying for. At length, after the first
+gush of feeling was over, she said,--
+
+"I cannot accept of so much generosity, sir--I dare not"
+
+"Dare not!"
+
+"No; I should think meanly of myself were I to take advantage of the
+boundless munificence of your nature."
+
+"Take advantage! I should like to see anybody take advantage of me,
+that's all."
+
+"I ought not to take the money of you. I will speak to my brother, and
+well I know how much he will appreciate the noble, generous offer, my
+dear sir."
+
+"Well, settle it your own way, only remember I have a right to do what I
+like with my own money."
+
+"Undoubtedly."
+
+"Very good. Then as that is undoubted, whatever I lend to him, mind I
+give to you, so it's as broad as it's long, as the Dutchman said, when
+he looked at the new ship that was built for him, and you may as well
+take it yourself you see, and make no more fuss about it."
+
+"I will consider," said Flora, with much emotion--"between this time and
+the same hour to-morrow I will consider, sir, and if you can find any
+words more expressive of heartfelt gratitude than others, pray imagine
+that I have used them with reference to my own feelings towards you for
+such an unexampled offer of friendship."
+
+"Oh, bother--stuff."
+
+The admiral now at once changed the subject, and began to talk of
+Charles--a most grateful theme to Flora, as may well be supposed. He
+related to her many little particulars connected with him which all
+tended to place his character in a most amiable light, and as her ears
+drank in the words of commendation of him she loved, what sweeter music
+could there be to her than the voice of that old weather-beaten
+rough-spoken man.
+
+"The idea," he added, to a warm eulogium he had uttered concerning
+Charles--"the idea that he could write those letters my dear, is quite
+absurd."
+
+"It is, indeed. Oh, that we could know what had become of him!"
+
+"We shall know. I don't think but what he's alive. Something seems to
+assure me that we shall some of these days look upon his face again."
+
+"I am rejoiced to hear you say so."
+
+"We will stir heaven and earth to find him. If he were killed, do you
+see, there would have been some traces of him now at hand; besides, he
+would have been left lying where the rascals attacked him."
+
+Flora shuddered.
+
+"But don't you fret yourself. You may depend that the sweet little
+cherub that sits up aloft has looked after him."
+
+"I will hope so."
+
+"And now, my dear, Master Henry will soon be home, I am thinking, and as
+he has quite enough disagreeables on his own mind to be able to spare a
+few of them, you will take the earliest opportunity, I am sure, of
+acquainting him with the little matter we have been talking about, and
+let me know what he says."
+
+"I will--I will."
+
+"That's right. Now, go in doors, for there's a cold air blowing here,
+and you are a delicate plant rather just now--go in and make yourself
+comfortable and easy. The worst storm must blow over at last."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+SIR FRANCIS VARNEY AND HIS MYSTERIOUS VISITOR.--THE STRANGE CONFERENCE.
+
+
+Sir Francis Varney is in what he calls his own apartment. It is night,
+and a dim and uncertain light from a candle which has been long
+neglected, only serves to render obscurity more perplexing. The room is
+a costly one. One replete with all the appliances of refinement and
+luxury which the spirit and the genius of the age could possibly supply
+him with, but there is upon his brow the marks of corroding care, and
+little does that most mysterious being seem to care for all the rich
+furnishing of that apartment in which he sits.
+
+His cadaverous-looking face is even paler and more death-like-looking
+than usual; and, if it can be conceived possible that such an one can
+feel largely interested in human affairs, to look at him, we could well
+suppose that some interest of no common magnitude was at stake.
+
+Occasionally, too, he muttered some unconnected words, no doubt mentally
+filling up the gaps, which rendered the sentences incomplete, and being
+unconscious, perhaps, that he was giving audible utterance to any of his
+dark and secret meditations.
+
+At length he rose, and with an anxious expression of countenance, he
+went to the window, and looked out into the darkness of the night. All
+was still, and not an object was visible. It was that pitchy darkness
+without, which, for some hours, when the moon is late in lending her
+reflected beams, comes over the earth's surface.
+
+"It is near the hour," he muttered. "It is now very near the hour;
+surely he will come, and yet I know not why I should fear him, although
+I seem to tremble at the thought of his approach. He will surely come.
+Once a year--only once does he visit me, and then 'tis but to take the
+price which he has compelled me to pay for that existence, which but for
+him had been long since terminated. Sometimes I devoutly wish it were."
+
+With a shudder he returned to the seat he had so recently left, and
+there for some time he appeared to meditate in silence.
+
+Suddenly now, a clock, which was in the hall of that mansion he had
+purchased, sounded the hour loudly.
+
+"The time has come," said Sir Francis. "The time has come. He will
+surely soon be here. Hark! hark!"
+
+Slowly and distinctly he counted the strokes of the clock, and, when
+they had ceased, he exclaimed, with sudden surprise--
+
+"Eleven! But eleven! How have I been deceived. I thought the hour of
+midnight was at hand."
+
+He hastily consulted the watch he wore, and then he indeed found, that
+whatever he had been looking forward to with dread for some time past,
+as certain to ensue, at or about twelve o clock, had yet another hour in
+which to prey upon his imagination.
+
+"How could I have made so grievous an error?" he exclaimed. "Another
+hour of suspense and wonder as to whether that man be among the living
+or the dead. I have thought of raising my hand against his life, but
+some strange mysterious feeling has always staid me; and I have let him
+come and go freely, while an opportunity might well have served me to
+put such a design into execution. He is old, too--very old, and yet he
+keeps death at a distance. He looked pale, but far from unwell or
+failing, when last I saw him. Alas! a whole hour yet to wait. I would
+that this interview were over."
+
+That extremely well known and popular disease called the fidgets, now
+began, indeed, to torment Sir Francis Varney. He could not sit--he could
+not walk, and, somehow or another, he never once seemed to imagine that
+from the wine cup he should experience any relief, although, upon a side
+table, there stood refreshments of that character. And thus some more
+time passed away, and he strove to cheat it of its weariness by thinking
+of a variety of subjects; but as the fates would have it, there seemed
+not one agreeable reminiscence in the mind of that most inexplicable
+man, and the more he plunged into the recesses of memory the more
+uneasy, not to say almost terrified, he looked and became. A shuddering
+nervousness came across him, and, for a few moments, he sat as if he
+were upon the point of fainting. By a vigorous effort, however, he shook
+this off, and then placing before him the watch, which now indicated
+about the quarter past eleven, he strove with a calmer aspect to wait
+the coming of him whose presence, when he did come, would really be a
+great terror, since the very thought beforehand produced so much
+hesitation and apparent dismay.
+
+In order too, if possible, then to further withdraw himself from a too
+painful consideration of those terrors, which in due time the reader
+will be acquainted with the cause of, he took up a book, and plunging at
+random into its contents, he amused his mind for a time with the
+following brief narrative:--
+
+The wind howled round the gable ends of Bridport House in sudden and
+furious gusts, while the inmates sat by the fire-side, gazing in silence
+upon the blazing embers of the huge fire that shed a red and bright
+light all over the immense apartment in which they all sat.
+
+It was an ancient looking place, very large, end capable of containing a
+number of guests. Several were present.
+
+An aged couple were seated in tall high straight-backed chairs. They
+were the owners of that lordly mansion, and near them sat two young
+maidens of surpassing beauty; they were dissimilar, and yet there was a
+slight likeness, but of totally different complexions.
+
+The one had tresses of raven black; eyebrows, eyelashes, and eyes were
+all of the same hue; she was a beautiful and proud-looking girl, her
+complexion clear, with the hue of health upon her cheeks, while a smile
+played around her lips. The glance of the eye was sufficient to thrill
+through the whole soul.
+
+The other maiden was altogether different; her complexion altogether
+fairer--her hair of sunny chestnut, and her beautiful hazel eyes were
+shaded by long brown eyelashes, while a playful smile also lit up her
+countenance. She was the younger of the two.
+
+The attention of the two young maidens had been directed to the words of
+the aged owner of the house, for he had been speaking a few moments
+before.
+
+There were several other persons present, and at some little distance
+were many of the domestics who were not denied the privilege of warmth
+and rest in the presence of their master.
+
+These were not the times, when, if servants sat down, they were deemed
+idle; but the daily task done, then the evening hour was spent by the
+fire-side.
+
+"The wind howls and moans," said an aged domestic, "in an awful manner.
+I never heard the like."
+
+"It seems as though some imprisoned spirit was waiting for the repose
+that had been denied on earth," said the old lady as she shifted her
+seat and gazed steadily on the fire.
+
+"Ay," said her aged companion, "it is a windy night, and there will be a
+storm before long, or I'm mistaken."
+
+"It was just such a night as that my son Henry left his home," said Mrs.
+Bradley, "just such another--only it had the addition of sleet and
+rain."
+
+The old man sighed at the mention of his son's name, a tear stood in the
+eyes of the maidens, while one looked silently at the other, and seemed
+to exchange glances.
+
+"I would that I might again see him before my body seeks its final home
+in the cold remorseless grave."
+
+"Mother," said the fairest of the two maidens, "do not talk thus, let us
+hope that we yet may have many years of happiness together."
+
+"Many, Emma?"
+
+"Yes, mamma, many."
+
+"Do you know that I am very old, Emma, very old indeed, considering what
+I have suffered, such a life of sorrow and ill health is at least equal
+to thirty years added to my life."
+
+"You may have deceived yourself, aunt," said the other maiden; "at all
+events, you cannot count upon life as certain, for the strongest often
+go first, while those who seem much more likely to fall, by care, as
+often live in peace and happiness."
+
+"But I lead no life of peace and happiness, while Henry Bradley is not
+here; besides, my life might be passed without me seeing him again."
+
+"It is now two years since he was here last," said the old man,
+
+"This night two years was the night on which he left."
+
+"This night two years?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It was this night two years," said one of the servant men, "because old
+Dame Poutlet had twins on that night."
+
+"A memorable circumstance."
+
+"And one died at a twelvemonth old," said the man; "and she had a dream
+which foretold the event."
+
+"Ay, ay."
+
+"Yes, and moreover she's had the same dream again last Wednesday was a
+week," said the man.
+
+"And lost the other twin?"
+
+"Yes sir, this morning."
+
+"Omens multiply," said the aged man; "I would that it would seem to
+indicate the return of Henry to his home."
+
+"I wonder where he can have gone to, or what he could have done all this
+time; probably he may not be in the land of the living."
+
+"Poor Henry," said Emma.
+
+"Alas, poor boy! We may never see him again--it was a mistaken act of
+his, and yet he knew not otherwise how to act or escape his father's
+displeasure."
+
+"Say no more--say no more upon that subject; I dare not listen to it.
+God knows I know quite enough," said Mr. Bradley; "I knew not he would
+have taken my words so to heart as he did."
+
+"Why," said the old woman, "he thought you meant what you said."
+
+There was a long pause, during which all gazed at the blazing fire,
+seemingly wrapt in their own meditation.
+
+Henry Bradley, the son of the apparently aged couple, had left that day
+two years, and wherefore had he left the home of his childhood?
+wherefore had he, the heir to large estates, done this?
+
+He had dared to love without his father's leave, and had refused the
+offer his father made him of marrying a young lady whom he had chosen
+for him, but whom he could not love.
+
+It was as much a matter of surprise to the father that the son should
+refuse, as it was to the son that his father should contemplate such a
+match.
+
+"Henry," said the father, "you have been thought of by me, I have made
+proposals for marrying you to the daughter of our neighbour, Sir Arthur
+Onslow."
+
+"Indeed, father!"
+
+"Yes; I wish you to go there with me to see the young lady."
+
+"In the character of a suitor?"
+
+"Yes," replied the father, "certainly; it's high time you were settled."
+
+"Indeed, I would rather not go, father; I have no intention of marrying
+just yet. I do not desire to do so."
+
+This was an opposition that Mr. Bradley had not expected from his son,
+and which his imperious temper could ill brook, and with a darkened brow
+he said,--
+
+"It is not much, Henry, that I trespass upon your obedience; but when I
+do so, I expect that you will obey me."
+
+"But, father, this matter affects me for my whole life."
+
+"That is why I have deliberated so long and carefully over it."
+
+"But it is not unreasonable that I should have a voice in the affair,
+father, since it may render me miserable."
+
+"You shall have a voice."
+
+"Then I say no to the whole regulation," said Henry, decisively.
+
+"If you do so you forfeit my protection, much more favour; but you had
+better consider over what you have said. Forget it, and come with me."
+
+"I cannot."
+
+"You will not?"
+
+"No, father; I cannot do as you wish me; my mind is fully made up upon
+that matter."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"And so is mine. You either do as I would have you, or you leave the
+house, and seek your own living, and you are a beggar."
+
+"I should prefer being such," said Henry, "than to marry any young lady,
+and be unable to love her."
+
+"That is not required."
+
+"No! I am astonished! Not necessary to love the woman you marry!"
+
+"Not at all; if you act justly towards her she ought to be grateful; and
+it is all that is requisite in the marriage state. Gratitude will beget
+love, and love in one begets love in the other."
+
+"I will not argue with you, father, upon the matter. You are a better
+judge than I; you have had more experience."
+
+"I have."
+
+"And it would be useless to speak upon the subject; but of this I can
+speak--my own resolve--that I will not marry the lady in question."
+
+The son had all the stern resolve of the father, but he had also very
+good reasons for what he did. He loved, and was beloved in return; and
+hence he would not break his faith with her whom he loved.
+
+To have explained this to his father would have been to gain nothing
+except an accession of anger, and he would have made a new demand upon
+his (the son's) obedience, by ordering him to discard from his bosom the
+image that was there indelibly engraven.
+
+"You will not marry her whom I have chosen for your bride?"
+
+"I cannot."
+
+"Do not talk to me of can and can't, when I speak of will and wont. It
+Is useless to disguise the fact. You have your free will in the matter.
+I shall take no answer but yes or no."
+
+"Then, no, father."
+
+"Good, sir; and now we are strangers."
+
+With that Mr. Bradley turned abruptly from his son, and left him to
+himself.
+
+It was the first time they had any words of difference together, and it
+was sudden and soon terminated.
+
+Henry Bradley was indignant at what had happened; he did not think his
+father would have acted as he had done in this instance; but he was too
+much interested in the fate of another to hesitate for a moment. Then
+came the consideration as to what he should do, now that he had arrived
+at such a climax.
+
+His first thoughts turned to his mother and sister. He could not leave
+the house without bidding them good-bye. He determined to see his
+mother, for his father had left the Hall upon a visit.
+
+Mrs. Bradley and Emma were alone when he entered their apartment, and to
+them he related all that had passed between himself and father.
+
+They besought him to stay, to remain there, or at least in the
+neighbourhood; but he was resolved to quit the place altogether for a
+time, as he could do nothing there, and he might chance to do something
+elsewhere.
+
+Upon this, they got together all the money and such jewels as they could
+spare, which in all amounted to a considerable sum; then taking an
+affectionate leave of his mother and sister, Henry left the Hall--not
+before he had taken a long and affectionate farewell of one other who
+lived within those walls.
+
+This was no other than the raven-eyed maiden who sat by the fire side,
+and listened attentively to the conversation that was going on. She was
+his love--she, a poor cousin. For her sake he had braved all his
+father's anger, and attempted to seek his fortune abroad.
+
+This done, he quietly left the Hall, without giving any one any
+intimation of where he was going.
+
+Old Mr. Bradley, when he had said so much to his son, was highly
+incensed at what he deemed his obstinacy; and he thought the threat
+hanging over him would have had a good effect; but he was amazed when he
+discovered that Henry had indeed left the Hall, and he knew not whither.
+
+For some time he comforted himself with the assurance that he would, he
+must return, but, alas! he came not, and this was the second anniversary
+of that melancholy day, which no one more repented of and grieved for,
+than did poor Mr. Bradley.
+
+"Surely, surely he will return, or let us know where he is," he said;
+"he cannot be in need, else he would have written to us for aid."
+
+"No, no," said Mrs. Bradley; "it is, I fear, because he has not written,
+that he is in want; he would never write if he was in poverty, lest he
+should cause us unhappiness at his fate. Were he doing well, we should
+hear of it, for he would be proud of the result of his own unaided
+exertions."
+
+"Well, well," said Mr. Bradley, "I can say no more; if I was hasty, so
+was he; but it is passed. I would forgive all the past, if I could but
+see him once again--once again!"
+
+"How the wind howls," added the aged man; "and it's getting worse and
+worse."
+
+"Yes, and the snow is coming down now in style," said one of the
+servants, who brought in some fresh logs which were piled up on the
+fire, and he shook the white flakes off his clothes.
+
+"It will be a heavy fall before morning," said one of the men.
+
+"Yes, it has been gathering for some days; it will be much warmer than
+it has been when it is all down."
+
+"So it will--so it will."
+
+At that moment there was a knocking at the gate, and the dogs burst into
+a dreadful uproar from their kennels.
+
+"Go, Robert," said Mr. Bradley, "and see who it is that knocks such a
+night as this; it is not fit or safe that a dog should be out in it."
+
+The man went out, and shortly returned, saying,--
+
+"So please you, sir, there is a traveller that has missed his way, and
+desires to know if he can obtain shelter here, or if any one can be
+found to guide him to the nearest inn."
+
+"Bid him come in; we shall lose no warmth because there is one more
+before the fire."
+
+The stranger entered, and said,--"I have missed my way, and the snow
+comes down so thick and fast, and is whirled in such eddies, that I
+fear, by myself, I should fall into some drift, and perish before
+morning."
+
+"Do not speak of it, sir," said Mr. Bradley; "such a night as this is a
+sufficient apology for the request you make, and an inducement to me to
+grant it most willingly."
+
+"Thanks," replied the stranger; "the welcome is most seasonable."
+
+"Be seated, sir; take your seat by the ingle; it is warm."
+
+The stranger seated himself, and seemed lost in reflection, as he gazed
+intently on the blazing logs. He was a robust man, with great whiskers
+and beard, and, to judge from his outward habiliments, he was a stout
+man.
+
+"Have you travelled far?"
+
+"I have, sir."
+
+"You appear to belong to the army, if I mistake not?"
+
+"I do, sir."
+
+There was a pause; the stranger seemed not inclined to speak of himself
+much; but Mr. Bradley continued,--
+
+"Have you come from foreign service, sir? I presume you have."
+
+"Yes; I have not been in this country more than six days."
+
+"Indeed; shall we have peace think you?"
+
+"I do so, and I hope it may be so, for the sake of many who desire to
+return to their native land, and to those they love best."
+
+Mr. Bradley heaved a deep sigh, which was echoed softly by all present,
+and the stranger looked from one to another, with a hasty glance, and
+then turned his gaze upon the fire.
+
+"May I ask, sir, if you have any person whom you regard in the army--any
+relative?"
+
+"Alas! I have--perhaps, I ought to say I had a son. I know not, however,
+where he is gone."
+
+"Oh! a runaway; I see."
+
+"Oh, no; he left because there were some family differences, and now, I
+would, that he were once more here."
+
+"Oh!" said the stranger, softly, "differences and mistakes will happen
+now and then, when least desired."
+
+At this moment, an old hound who had lain beside Ellen Mowbray, she who
+wore the coal-black tresses, lifted his head at the difference in sound
+that was noticed in the stranger's voice. He got up and slowly walked up
+to him, and began to smell around him, and, in another moment, he rushed
+at him with a cry of joy, and began to lick and caress him in the most
+extravagant manner. This was followed by a cry of joy in all present.
+
+"It is Henry!" exclaimed Ellen Mowbray, rising and rushing into his
+arms.
+
+It was Henry, and he threw off the several coats he had on, as well as
+the large beard he wore to disguise himself.
+
+The meeting was a happy one; there was not a more joyful house than that
+within many miles around. Henry was restored to the arms of those who
+loved him, and, in a month, a wedding was celebrated between him and his
+cousin Ellen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sir Francis Varney glanced at his watch. It indicated but five minutes
+to twelve o'clock, and he sprang to his feet. Even as he did so, a loud
+knocking at the principal entrance to his house awakened every echo
+within its walls.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THE THOUSAND POUNDS.--THE STRANGER'S PRECAUTIONS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Varney moved not now, nor did he speak, but, like a statue, he stood,
+with his unearthly looking eyes rivetted upon the door of the apartment.
+
+In a few moments one of his servants came, and said--
+
+"Sir, a person is here, who says he wants to see you. He desired me to
+say, that he had ridden far, and that moments were precious when the
+tide of life was ebbing fast."
+
+"Yes! yes!" gasped Varney; "admit him, I know him! Bring him here? It
+is--an--old friend--of mine."
+
+He sank into a chair, and still he kept his eyes fixed upon that door
+through which his visitor must come. Surely some secret of dreadful
+moment must be connected with him whom Sir Francis expected--dreaded--and
+yet dared not refuse to see. And now a footstep approaches--a slow and a
+solemn footstep--it pauses a moment at the door of the apartment, and
+then the servant flings it open, and a tall man enters. He is enveloped
+in the folds of a horseman's cloak, and there is the clank of spurs upon
+his heels as he walks into the room.
+
+Varney rose again, but he said not a word and for a few moments they
+stood opposite each other in silence. The domestic has left the room,
+and the door is closed, so that there was nothing to prevent them from
+conversing; and, yet, silent they continued for some minutes. It seemed
+as if each was most anxious that the other should commence the
+conversation, first.
+
+And yet there was nothing so very remarkable in the appearance of that
+stranger which should entirely justify Sir Francis Varney, in feeling so
+much alarm at his presence. He certainly was a man past the prime of
+life; and he looked like one who had battled much with misfortune, and
+as if time had not passed so lightly over his brow, but that it had left
+deep traces of its progress. The only thing positively bad about his
+countenance, was to be found in his eyes. There there was a most
+ungracious and sinister expression, a kind of lurking and suspicions
+look, as if he were always resolving in his mind some deep laid scheme,
+which might be sufficient to circumvent the whole of mankind.
+
+Finding, probably, that Varney would not speak first, he let his cloak
+fall more loosely about him, and in a low, deep tone, he said,
+
+"I presume I was expected?"
+
+"You were," said Varney. "It is the day, and it is the hour."
+
+"You are right. I like to see you so mindful. You don't improve in looks
+since--"
+
+"Hush--hush! no more of that; can we not meet without a dreadful
+allusion to the past! There needs nothing to remind me of it; and your
+presence here now shows that you are not forgetful. Speak not of that
+fearful episode. Let no words combine to place it in a tangible shape to
+human understanding. I cannot, dare not, hear you speak of that."
+
+"It is well," said the stranger; "as you please. Let our interview be
+brief. You know my errand?"
+
+"I do. So fearful a drag upon limited means, is not likely to be readily
+forgotten."
+
+"Oh, you are too ingenious--too full of well laid schemes, and to apt
+and ready in their execution, to feel, as any fearful drag, the
+conditions of our bargain. Why do you look at me so earnestly?"
+
+"Because," said Varney--and he trembled as he spoke--"because each
+lineament of your countenance brings me back to the recollection of the
+only scene in life that made me shudder, and which I cannot think of,
+even with the indifference of contempt. I see it all before my mind's
+eye, coming in frightful panoramic array, those incidents, which even to
+dream of, are sufficient to drive the soul to madness; the dread of this
+annual visit, hangs upon me like a dark cloud upon my very heart; it
+sits like some foul incubus, destroying its vitality and dragging me,
+from day to day, nearer to that tomb, from whence not as before, I can
+emerge."
+
+"You have been among the dead?" said the stranger.
+
+"I have."
+
+"And yet are mortal."
+
+"Yes," repeated Varney, "yes, and yet am mortal."
+
+"It was I that plucked you back to that world, which, to judge from your
+appearance, has had since that eventful period but few charms for you.
+By my faith you look like--"
+
+"Like what I am," interrupted Varney.
+
+"This is a subject that once a year gets frightfully renewed between us.
+For weeks before your visit I am haunted by frightful recollections, and
+it takes me many weeks after you are gone, before I can restore myself
+to serenity. Look at me; am I not an altered man?"
+
+"In faith you are," said the stranger "I have no wish to press upon you
+painful recollections. And yet 'tis strange to me that upon such a man
+as you, the event to which you allude should produce so terrible an
+impression."
+
+"I have passed through the agony of death," said Varney, "and have again
+endured the torture--for it is such--of the re-union of the body and the
+soul; not having endured so much, not the faintest echo of such feelings
+can enter into your imagination."
+
+"There may be truth in that, and yet, like a fluttering moth round a
+flame, it seems to me, that when I do see you, you take a terrific kind
+of satisfaction in talking of the past."
+
+"That is strictly true," said Varney; "the images with which my mind is
+filled are frightful. Pent up do they remain for twelve long months. I
+can speak to you, and you only, without disguise, and thus does it seem
+to me that I get rid of the uneasy load of horrible imaginings. When you
+are gone, and have been gone a sufficient lapse of time, my slumbers are
+not haunted with frightful images--I regain a comparative peace, until
+the time slowly comes around again, when we are doomed to meet."
+
+"I understand you. You seem well lodged here?"
+
+"I have ever kept my word, and sent to you, telling you where I am."
+
+"You have, truly. I have no shadow of complaint to make against you. No
+one, could have more faithfully performed his bond than you have. I give
+you ample credit for all that, and long may you live still to perform
+your conditions."
+
+"I dare not deceive you, although to keep such faith I may be compelled
+to deceive a hundred others."
+
+"Of that I cannot judge. Fortune seems to smile upon you; you have not
+as yet disappointed me."
+
+"And will not now," said Varney. "The gigantic and frightful penalty of
+disappointing you, stares me in the face. I dare not do so."
+
+He took from his pocket, as he spoke, a clasped book, from which he
+produced several bank notes, which he placed before the stranger.
+
+"A thousand pounds," he said; "that is the agreement."
+
+"It is to the very letter. I do not return to you a thousand thanks--we
+understand each other better than to waste time with idle compliment.
+Indeed I will go quite as far as to say, truthfully, that did not my
+necessities require this amount from you, you should have the boon, for
+which you pay that price at a much cheaper rate."
+
+"Enough! enough!" said Varney. "It is strange, that your face should
+have been the last I saw, when the world closed upon me, and the first
+that met my eyes when I was again snatched back to life! Do you pursue
+still your dreadful trade?"
+
+"Yes," said the stranger, "for another year, and then, with such a
+moderate competence as fortune has assigned me, I retire, to make way
+for younger and abler spirits."
+
+"And then," said Varney, "shall you still require of me such an amount
+as this?"
+
+"No; this is my last visit but one. I shall be just and liberal towards
+you. You are not old; and I have no wish to become the clog of your
+existence. As I have before told you, it is my necessity, and not my
+inclination, that sets the value upon the service I rendered you."
+
+"I understand you, and ought to thank you. And in reply to so much
+courtesy, be assured, that when I shudder at your presence, it is not
+that I regard you with horror, as an individual, but it is because the
+sight of you awakens mournfully the remembrance of the past."
+
+"It is clear to me," said the stranger; "and now I think we part with
+each other in a better spirit than we ever did before; and when we meet
+again, the remembrance that it is the last time, will clear away the
+gloom that I now find hanging over you."
+
+"It may! it may! With what an earnest gaze you still regard me!"
+
+"I do. It does appear to me most strange, that time should not have
+obliterated the effects which I thought would have ceased with their
+cause. You are no more the man that in my recollection you once were,
+than I am like a sporting child."
+
+"And I never shall be," said Varney; "never--never again! This self-same
+look which the hand of death had placed upon me, I shall ever wear. I
+shudder at myself, and as I oft perceive the eye of idle curiosity fixed
+steadfastly upon me, I wonder in my inmost heart, if even the wildest
+guesser hits upon the cause why I am not like unto other men?"
+
+"No. Of that you may depend there is no suspicion; but I will leave you
+now; we part such friends, as men situated as we are can be. Once again
+shall we meet, and then farewell for ever."
+
+"Do you leave England, then?"
+
+"I do. You know my situation in life. It is not one which offers me
+inducements to remain. In some other land, I shall win the respect and
+attention I may not hope for here. There my wealth will win many golden
+opinions; and casting, as best I may, the veil of forgetfulness over my
+former life, my declining years may yet be happy. This money, that I
+have had of you from time to time, has been more pleasantly earned than
+all beside. Wrung, as it has been, from your fears, still have I taken
+it with less reproach. And now, farewell!"
+
+Varney rang for a servant to show the stranger from the house, and
+without another word they parted.
+
+Then, when he was alone, that mysterious owner of that costly home drew
+a long breath of apparently exquisite relief.
+
+"That is over!--that is over!" he said. "He shall have the other
+thousand pounds, perchance, sooner than he thinks. With all expedition I
+will send it to him. And then on that subject I shall be at peace. I
+shall have paid a large sum; but that which I purchased was to me
+priceless. It was my life!--it was my life itself! That possession which
+the world's wealth cannot restore! And shall I grudge these thousands,
+which have found their way into this man's hands? No! 'Tis true, that
+existence, for me, has lost some of its most resplendent charms. 'Tis
+true, that I have no earthly affections, and that shunning companionship
+with all, I am alike shunned by all; and yet, while the life-blood still
+will circulate within my shrunken veins, I cling to vitality."
+
+He passed into an inner room, and taking from a hook, on which it hung,
+a long, dark-coloured cloak, he enveloped his tall, unearthly figure
+within its folds.
+
+Then, with his hat in his hand, he passed out of his house, and appeared
+to be taking his way towards Bannerworth House.
+
+Surely it must be guilt of no common die that could oppress a man so
+destitute of human sympathies as Sir Francis Varney. The dreadful
+suspicions that hovered round him with respect to what he was, appeared
+to gather confirmation from every act of his existence.
+
+Whether or not this man, to whom he felt bound to pay annually so large
+a sum, was in the secret, and knew him to be something more than
+earthly, we cannot at present declare; but it would seem from the tenor
+of their conversation as if such were the fact.
+
+Perchance he had saved him from the corruption of the tomb, by placing
+out, on some sylvan spot, where the cold moonbeams fell, the apparently
+lifeless form, and now claimed so large a reward for such a service, and
+the necessary secrecy contingent upon it.
+
+We say this may be so, and yet again some more natural and rational
+explanation may unexpectedly present itself; and there may be yet a dark
+page in Sir Francis Varney's life's volume, which will place him in a
+light of superadded terrors to our readers.
+
+Time, and the now rapidly accumulating incidents of our tale, will soon
+tear aside the veil of mystery that now envelopes some of our _dramatis
+personae_.
+
+And let us hope that in the development of those incidents we shall be
+enabled to rescue the beautiful Flora Bannerworth from the despairing
+gloom that is around her. Let us hope and even anticipate that we shall
+see her smile again; that the roseate hue of health will again revisit
+her cheeks, the light buoyancy of her step return, and that as before
+she may be the joy of all around her, dispensing and receiving
+happiness.
+
+And, he too, that gallant fearless lover, he whom no chance of time or
+tide could sever from the object of his fond affections, he who listened
+to nothing but the dictates of his heart's best feelings, let us indulge
+a hope that he will have a bright reward, and that the sunshine of a
+permanent felicity will only seem the brighter for the shadows that for
+a time have obscured its glory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE STRANGE INTERVIEW.--THE CHASE THROUGH THE HALL.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It was with the most melancholy aspect that anything human could well
+bear, that Sir Francis Varney took his lonely walk, although perhaps in
+saying so much, probably we are instituting a comparison which
+circumstances scarcely empower us to do; for who shall say that that
+singular man, around whom a very atmosphere of mystery seemed to be
+perpetually increasing, was human?
+
+Averse as we are to believe in the supernatural, or even to invest
+humanity with any preternatural powers, the more than singular facts and
+circumstances surrounding the existence and the acts of that man bring
+to the mind a kind of shuddering conviction, that if he be indeed really
+mortal he still must possess some powers beyond ordinary mortality, and
+be walking the earth for some unhallowed purposes, such as ordinary men
+with the ordinary attributes of human nature can scarcely guess at.
+
+Silently and alone he took his way through that beautiful tract of
+country, comprehending such picturesque charms of hill and dale which
+lay between his home and Bannerworth Hall. He was evidently intent upon
+reaching the latter place by the shortest possible route, and in the
+darkness of that night, for the moon had not yet risen, he showed no
+slight acquaintance with the intricacies of that locality, that he was
+at all enabled to pursue so undeviatingly a tract as that which he took.
+
+He muttered frequently to himself low, indistinct words as he went, and
+chiefly did they seem to have reference to that strange interview he had
+so recently had with one who, from some combination of circumstances
+scarcely to be guessed at, evidently exercised a powerful control over
+him, and was enabled to make a demand upon his pecuniary resources of
+rather startling magnitude.
+
+And yet, from a stray word or two, which were pronounced more
+distinctly, he did not seem to be thinking in anger over that interview;
+but it would appear that it rather had recalled to his remembrance
+circumstances of a painful and a degrading nature, which time had not
+been able entirely to obliterate from his recollection.
+
+"Yes, yes," he said, as he paused upon the margin of the wood, to the
+confines of which he, or what seemed to be he, had once been chased by
+Marchdale and the Bannerworths--"yes, the very sight of that man recalls
+all the frightful pageantry of a horrible tragedy, which I can
+never--never forget. Never can it escape my memory, as a horrible, a
+terrific fact; but it is the sight of this man alone that can recall all
+its fearful minutiae to my mind, and paint to my imagination, in the
+most vivid colours, every, the least particular connected with that time
+of agony. These periodical visits much affect me. For months I dread
+them, and for months I am but slowly recovering from the shocks they
+give me. 'But once more,' he says--'but once more,' and then we shall
+not meet again. Well, well; perchance before that time arrives, I may be
+able to possess myself of those resources which will enable me to
+forestall his visit, and so at least free myself from the pang of
+expecting him."
+
+He paused at the margin of the wood, and glanced in the direction of
+Bannerworth Hall. By the dim light which yet showed from out the light
+sky, he could discern the ancient gable ends, and turret-like windows;
+he could see the well laid out gardens, and the grove of stately firs
+that shaded it from the northern blasts, and, as he gazed, a strong
+emotion seemed to come over him, such as no one could have supposed
+would for one moment have possessed the frame of one so apparently
+unconnected with all human sympathies.
+
+"I know this spot well," he said, "and my appearance here on that
+eventful occasion, when the dread of my approach induced a crime only
+second to murder itself, was on such a night as this, when all was so
+still and calm around, and when he who, at the merest shadow of my
+presence, rather chose to rush on death than be assured it was myself.
+Curses on the circumstances that so foiled me! I should have been most
+wealthy. I should have possessed the means of commanding the adulation
+of those who now hold me but cheaply; but still the time may come. I
+have a hope yet, and that greatness which I have ever panted for, that
+magician-like power over my kind, which the possession of ample means
+alone can give, may yet be mine."
+
+Wrapping his cloak more closely around him, he strode forward with that
+long, noiseless step which was peculiar to him. Mechanically he appeared
+to avoid those obstacles of hedge and ditch which impeded his pathway.
+Surely he had come that road often, or he would not so easily have
+pursued his way. And now he stood by the edge of a plantation which in
+some measure protected from trespassers the more private gardens of the
+Hall, and there he paused, as if a feeling of irresolution had come over
+him, or it might be, as indeed it seemed from his subsequent conduct,
+that he had come without any fixed intention, or if with a fixed
+intention, without any regular plan of carrying it into effect.
+
+Did he again dream of intruding into any of the chambers of that
+mansion, with the ghastly aspect of that terrible creation with which,
+in the minds of its inhabitants, he seemed to be but too closely
+identified? He was pale, attenuated, and trembled. Could it be that so
+soon it had become necessary to renew the life-blood in his veins in the
+awful manner which it is supposed the vampyre brood are compelled to
+protract their miserable existence?
+
+It might be so, and that he was even now reflecting upon how once more
+he could kindle the fire of madness in the brain of that beautiful girl,
+who he had already made so irretrievably wretched.
+
+He leant against an aged tree, and his strange, lustrous-looking eyes
+seemed to collect every wandering scintillation of light that was
+around, and to shine with preternatural intensity.
+
+"I must, I will," he said, "be master of Bannerworth Hall. It must come
+to that. I have set an existence upon its possession, and I will have
+it; and then, if with my own hands I displace it brick by brick and
+stone by stone, I will discover that hidden secret which no one but
+myself now dreams of. It shall be done by force or fraud, by love or by
+despair, I care not which; the end shall sanctify all means. Ay, even if
+I wade through blood to my desire, I say it shall be done."
+
+There was a holy and a still calmness about the night much at variance
+with the storm of angry passion that appeared to be momentarily
+gathering power in the breast of that fearful man. Not the least sound
+came from Bannerworth Hall, and it was only occasionally that from afar
+off on the night air there came the bark of some watchdog, or the low of
+distant cattle. All else was mute save when the deep sepulchral tones of
+that man, if man he was, gave an impulse to the soft air around him.
+
+With a strolling movement as if he were careless if he proceeded in that
+direction or not, he still went onward toward the house, and now he
+stood by that little summer-house once so sweet and so dear a retreat,
+in which the heart-stricken Flora had held her interview with him whom
+she loved with a devotion unknown to meaner minds.
+
+This spot scarcely commanded any view of the house, for so enclosed was
+it among evergreens and blooming flowers, that it seemed like a very
+wilderness of nature, upon which, with liberal hand, she had showered
+down in wild luxuriance her wildest floral beauties.
+
+In and around that spot the night air was loaded with sweets. The
+mingled perfume of many flowers made that place seem a very paradise.
+But oh, how sadly at variance with that beauty and contentedness of
+nature was he who stood amidst such beauty! All incapable as he was of
+appreciating its tenderness, or of gathering the faintest moral from its
+glory.
+
+"Why am I here?" he said. "Here, without fixed design or stability of
+purpose, like some miser who has hidden his own hoards so deeply within
+the bowels of the earth he cannot hope that he shall ever again be able
+to bring them to the light of day. I hover around this spot which I
+feel--which I know--contains my treasure, though I cannot lay my hands
+upon it, or exult in its glistening beauty."
+
+Even as he spoke he cowered down like some guilty thing, for he heard a
+faint footstep upon the garden path. So light, so fragile was the step,
+that, in the light of day, the very hum of summer insects would have
+drowned the noise; but he heard it, that man of crime--of unholy and
+awful impulses. He heard it, and he shrunk down among the shrubs and
+flowers till he was hidden completely from observation amid a world of
+fragrant essences.
+
+Was it some one stealthily in that place even as he was, unwelcome or
+unknown? or was it one who had observed him intrude upon the privacy of
+those now unhappy precincts, and who was coming to deal upon him that
+death which, vampyre though he might be, he was yet susceptible of from
+mortal hands?
+
+The footstep advanced, and lower down he shrunk until his coward-heart
+beat against the very earth itself. He knew that he was unarmed, a
+circumstance rare with him, and only to be accounted for by the
+disturbance of his mind consequent upon the visit of that strange man to
+his house, whose presence had awakened so many conflicting emotions.
+
+Nearer and nearer still came that light footstep, and his deep-seated
+fears would not let him perceive that it was not the step of caution or
+of treachery, but owed its lightness to the natural grace and freedom of
+movement of its owner.
+
+The moon must have arisen, although obscured by clouds, through which it
+cast but a dim radiance, for the night had certainly grown lighter; so
+that although there were no strong shadows cast, a more diffused
+brightness was about all things, and their outlines looked not so
+dancing, and confused the one with the other.
+
+He strained his eyes in the direction whence the sounds proceeded, and
+then his fears for his personal safety vanished, for he saw it was a
+female form that was slowly advancing towards him.
+
+His first impulse was to rise, for with the transient glimpse he got of
+it, he knew that it must be Flora Bannerworth; but a second thought,
+probably one of intense curiosity to know what could possibly have
+brought her to such a spot at such a time, restrained him, and he was
+quiet. But if the surprise of Sir Francis Varney was great to see Flora
+Bannerworth at such a time in such a place, we have no doubt, that with
+the knowledge which our readers have of her, their astonishment would
+more than fully equal his; and when we come to consider, that since that
+eventful period when the sanctity of her chamber had been so violated by
+that fearful midnight visitant, it must appear somewhat strange that she
+could gather courage sufficient to wander forth alone at such an hour.
+
+Had she no dread of meeting that unearthly being? Did the possibility
+that she might fall into his ruthless grasp, not come across her mind
+with a shuddering consciousness of its probability? Had she no
+reflection that each step she took, was taking her further and further
+from those who would aid her in all extremities? It would seem not, for
+she walked onward, unheeding, and apparently unthinking of the presence,
+possible or probable, of that bane of her existence.
+
+But let us look at her again. How strange and spectral-like she moves
+along; there seems no speculation in her countenance, but with a strange
+and gliding step, she walks like some dim shadow of the past in that
+ancient garden. She is very pale, and on her brow there is the stamp of
+suffering; her dress is a morning robe, she holds it lightly round her,
+and thus she moves forward towards that summer-house which probably to
+her was sanctified by having witnessed those vows of pure affection,
+which came from the lips of Charles Holland, about whose fate there now
+hung so great a mystery.
+
+Has madness really seized upon the brain of that beautiful girl? Has the
+strong intellect really sunk beneath the oppressions to which it has
+been subjected? Does she now walk forth with a disordered intellect, the
+queen of some fantastic realm, viewing the material world with eyes that
+are not of earth; shunning perhaps that which she should have sought,
+and, perchance, in her frenzy, seeking that which in a happier frame of
+mind she would have shunned.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Such might have been the impression of any one who had looked upon her
+for a moment, and who knew the disastrous scenes through which she had
+so recently passed; but we can spare our readers the pangs of such a
+supposition. We have bespoken their love for Flora Bannerworth, and we
+are certain that she has it; therefore would we spare them, even for a
+few brief moments, from imagining that cruel destiny had done its worst,
+and that the fine and beautiful spirit we have so much commended had
+lost its power of rational reflection. No; thank Heaven, such is not the
+case. Flora Bannerworth is not mad, but under the strong influence of
+some eccentric dream, which has pictured to her mind images which have
+no home but in the airy realms of imagination. She has wandered forth
+from her chamber to that sacred spot where she had met him she loved,
+and heard the noblest declaration of truth and constancy that ever
+flowed from human lips.
+
+Yes, she is sleeping; but, with a precision such as the somnambulist so
+strangely exerts, she trod the well-known paths slowly, but surely,
+toward that summer's bower, where her dreams had not told her lay
+crouching that most hideous spectre of her imagination, Sir Francis
+Varney. He who stood between her and her heart's best joy; he who had
+destroyed all hope of happiness, and who had converted her dearest
+affections into only so many causes of greater disquietude than the
+blessings they should have been to her.
+
+Oh! could she have imagined but for one moment that he was there, with
+what an eagerness of terror would she have flown back again to the
+shelter of those walls, where at least was to be found some protection
+from the fearful vampyre's embrace, and where she would be within hail
+of friendly hearts, who would stand boldly between her and every thought
+of harm.
+
+But she knew it not, and onwards she went until the very hem of her
+garment touched the face of Sir Francis Varney.
+
+And he was terrified--he dared not move--he dared not speak! The idea
+that she had died, and that this was her spirit, come to wreak some
+terrible vengeance upon him, for a time possessed him, and so paralysed
+with fear was he, that he could neither move nor speak.
+
+It had been well if, during that trance of indecision in which his
+coward heart placed him, Flora had left the place, and again sought her
+home; but unhappily such an impulse came not over her; she sat upon that
+rustic seat, where she had reposed when Charles had clasped her to his
+heart, and through her very dream the remembrance of that pure affection
+came across her, and in the tenderest and most melodious accents, she
+said,--
+
+"Charles! Charles! and do you love me still? No--no; you have not
+forsaken me. Save me, save me from the vampyre!"
+
+She shuddered, and Sir Francis Varney heard her weeping.
+
+"Fool that I am," he muttered, "to be so terrified. She sleeps. This is
+one of the phases which a disordered imagination oft puts on. She
+sleeps, and perchance this may be an opportunity of further increasing
+the dread of my visitation, which shall make Bannerworth Hall far too
+terrible a dwelling-place for her; and well I know, if she goes, they
+will all go. It will become a deserted house, and that is what I want. A
+house, too, with such an evil reputation, that none but myself, who have
+created that reputation, will venture within its walls:--a house, which
+superstition will point out as the abode of evil spirits;--a house, as
+it were, by general opinion, ceded to the vampyre. Yes, it shall be my
+own; fit dwelling-place for a while for me. I have sworn it shall be
+mine, and I will keep my oath, little such as I have to do with vows."
+
+He rose, and moved slowly to the narrow entrance of the summer-house; a
+movement he could make, without at all disturbing Flora, for the rustic
+seat, on which she sat, was at its further extremity. And there he
+stood, the upper part of his gaunt and hideous form clearly defined upon
+the now much lighter sky, so that if Flora Bannerworth had not been in
+that trance of sleep in which she really was, one glance upward would
+let her see the hideous companion she had, in that once much-loved
+spot--a spot hitherto sacred to the best and noblest feelings, but now
+doomed for ever to be associated with that terrific spectre of despair.
+
+But she was in no state to see so terrible a sight. Her hands were over
+her face, and she was weeping still.
+
+"Surely, he loves me," she whispered; "he has said he loved me, and he
+does not speak in vain. He loves me still, and I shall again look upon
+his face, a Heaven to me! Charles! Charles! you will come again? Surely,
+they sin against the divinity of love, who would tell me that you love
+me not!"
+
+"Ha!" muttered Varney, "this passion is her first, and takes a strong
+hold on her young heart--she loves him--but what are human affections to
+me? I have no right to count myself in the great muster-roll of
+humanity. I look not like an inhabitant of the earth, and yet am on it.
+I love no one, expect no love from any one, but I will make humanity a
+slave to me; and the lip-service of them who hate me in their hearts,
+shall be as pleasant jingling music to my ear, as if it were quite
+sincere! I will speak to this girl; she is not mad--perchance she may
+be."
+
+There was a diabolical look of concentrated hatred upon Varney's face,
+as he now advanced two paces towards the beautiful Flora.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+THE THREAT.--ITS CONSEQUENCES.--THE RESCUE, AND SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S
+DANGER.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Sir Francis Varney now paused again, and he seemed for a few moments to
+gloat over the helpless condition of her whom he had so determined to
+make his victim; there was no look of pity in his face, no one touch of
+human kindness could be found in the whole expression of those
+diabolical features; and if he delayed making the attempt to strike
+terror into the heart of that unhappy, but beautiful being, it could not
+be from any relenting feeling, but simply, that he wished for a few
+moments to indulge his imagination with the idea of perfecting his
+villany more effectually.
+
+Alas! and they who would have flown to her rescue,--they, who for her
+would have chanced all accidents, ay, even life itself, were sleeping,
+and knew not of the loved one's danger. She was alone, and far enough
+from the house, to be driven to that tottering verge where sanity ends,
+and the dream of madness, with all its terrors, commences.
+
+But still she slept--if that half-waking sleep could indeed be
+considered as any thing akin to ordinary slumber--still she slept, and
+called mournfully upon her lover's name; and in tender, beseeching
+accents, that should have melted even the stubbornest hearts, did she
+express her soul's conviction that he loved her still.
+
+The very repetition of the name of Charles Holland seemed to be galling
+to Sir Francis Varney. He made a gesture of impatience, as she again
+uttered it, and then, stepping forward, he stood within a pace of where
+she sat, and in a fearfully distinct voice he said,--
+
+"Flora Bannerworth, awake! awake! and look upon me, although the sight
+blast and drive you to despair. Awake! awake!"
+
+It was not the sound of the voice which aroused her from that strange
+slumber. It is said that those who sleep in that eccentric manner, are
+insensible to sounds, but that the lightest touch will arouse them in an
+instant; and so it was in this case, for Sir Francis Varney, as he
+spoke, laid upon the hand of Flora two of his cold, corpse-like looking
+fingers. A shriek burst from her lips, and although the confusion of her
+memory and conceptions was immense, yet she was awake, and the
+somnambulistic trance had left her.
+
+"Help, help!" she cried. "Gracious Heavens! Where am I?"
+
+Varney spoke not, but he spread out his long, thin arms in such a manner
+that he seemed almost to encircle her, while he touched her not, so that
+escape became a matter of impossibility, and to attempt to do so, must
+have been to have thrown herself into his hideous embrace.
+
+She could obtain but a single view of the face and figure of him who
+opposed her progress, but, slight as that view was, it more than
+sufficed. The very extremity of fear came across her, and she sat like
+one paralysed; the only evidence of existence she gave consisting in the
+words,--
+
+"The vampyre--the vampyre!"
+
+"Yes," said Varney, "the vampyre. You know me, Flora
+Bannerworth--Varney, the vampyre; your midnight guest at that feast of
+blood. I am the vampyre. Look upon me well; shrink not from my gaze. You
+will do well not to shun me, but to speak to me in such a shape that I
+may learn to love you."
+
+Flora shook as in a convulsion, and she looked as white as any marble
+statue.
+
+"This is horrible!" she said. "Why does not Heaven grant me the death I
+pray for?"
+
+"Hold!" said Varney. "Dress not up in the false colours of the
+imagination that which in itself is sufficiently terrific to need none
+of the allurements of romance. Flora Bannerworth, you are
+persecuted--persecuted by me, the vampyre. It is my fate to persecute
+you; for there are laws to the invisible as well as the visible creation
+that force even such a being as I am to play my part in the great drama
+of existence. I am a vampyre; the sustenance that supports this frame
+must be drawn from the life-blood of others."
+
+"Oh, horror--horror!"
+
+"But most I do affect the young and beautiful. It is from the veins of
+such as thou art, Flora Bannerworth, that I would seek the sustenance
+I'm compelled to obtain for my own exhausted energies. But never yet, in
+all my long career--a career extending over centuries of time--never yet
+have I felt the soft sensation of human pity till I looked on thee,
+exquisite piece of excellence. Even at the moment when the reviving
+fluid from the gushing fountain of your veins was warming at my heart, I
+pitied and I loved you. Oh, Flora! even I can now feel the pang of being
+what I am!"
+
+There was a something in the tone, a touch of sadness in the manner, and
+a deep sincerity in these words, that in some measure disabused Flora of
+her fears. She sobbed hysterically, and a gush of tears came to her
+relief, as, in almost inarticulate accents, she said,--
+
+"May the great God forgive even you!"
+
+"I have need of such a prayer," exclaimed Varney--"Heaven knows I have
+need of such a prayer. May it ascend on the wings of the night air to
+the throne of Heaven. May it be softly whispered by ministering angels
+to the ear of Divinity. God knows I have need of such a prayer!"
+
+"To hear you speak in such a strain," said Flora, "calms the excited
+fancy, and strips even your horrible presence of some of its maddening
+influence."
+
+"Hush," said the vampire, "you must hear more--you must know more ere
+you speak of the matters that have of late exercised an influence of
+terror over you."
+
+"But how came I here?" said Flora, "tell me that. By what more than
+earthly power have you brought me to this spot? If I am to listen to
+you, why should it not be at some more likely time and place?"
+
+"I have powers," said Varney, assuming from Flora's words, that she
+would believe such arrogance--"I have powers which suffice to bend many
+purposes to my will--powers incidental to my position, and therefore is
+it I have brought you here to listen to that which should make you
+happier than you are."
+
+"I will attend," said Flora. "I do not shudder now; there's an icy
+coldness through my veins, but it is the night air--speak, I will attend
+you."
+
+"I will. Flora Bannerworth, I am one who has witnessed time's mutations
+on man and on his works, and I have pitied neither; I have seen the fall
+of empires, and sighed not that high reaching ambition was toppled to
+the dust. I have seen the grave close over the young and the
+beautiful--those whom I have doomed by my insatiable thirst for human
+blood to death, long ere the usual span of life was past, but I never
+loved till now."
+
+"Can such a being as you," said Flora "be susceptible of such an earthly
+passion?"
+
+"And wherefore not?"
+
+"Love is either too much of heaven, or too much of earth to find a home
+with thee."
+
+"No, Flora, no! it may be that the feeling is born of pity. I will save
+you--I will save you from a continuance of the horrors that are
+assailing you."
+
+"Oh! then may Heaven have mercy in your hour of need!"
+
+"Amen!"
+
+"May you even yet know peace and joy above."
+
+"It is a faint and straggling hope--but if achieved, it will be through
+the interposition of such a spirit as thine, Flora, which has already
+exercised so benign an influence upon my tortured soul, as to produce
+the wish within my heart, to do a least one unselfish action."
+
+"That wish," said Flora, "shall be father to the deed. Heaven has
+boundless mercy yet."
+
+"For thy sweet sake, I will believe so much, Flora Bannerworth; it is a
+condition with my hateful race, that if we can find one human heart to
+love us, we are free. If, in the face of Heaven, you will consent to be
+mine, you will snatch me from a continuance of my frightful doom, and
+for your pure sake, and on your merits, shall I yet know heavenly
+happiness. Will you be mine?"
+
+A cloud swept from off the face of the moon, and a slant ray fell upon
+the hideous features of the vampire. He looked as if just rescued from
+some charnel-house, and endowed for a space with vitality to destroy all
+beauty and harmony in nature, and drive some benighted soul to madness.
+
+"No, no, no!" shrieked Flora, "never!"
+
+"Enough," said Varney, "I am answered. It was a bad proposal. I am a
+vampyre still."
+
+"Spare me! spare me!"
+
+"Blood!"
+
+Flora sank upon her knees, and uplifted her hands to heaven. "Mercy,
+mercy!" she said.
+
+"Blood!" said Varney, and she saw his hideous, fang-like teeth. "Blood!
+Flora Bannerworth, the vampyre's motto. I have asked you to love me, and
+you will not--the penalty be yours."
+
+"No, no!" said Flora. "Can it be possible that even you, who have
+already spoken with judgment and precision, can be so unjust? you must
+feel that, in all respects, I have been a victim, most gratuitously--a
+sufferer, while there existed no just cause that I should suffer; one
+who has been tortured, not from personal fault, selfishness, lapse of
+integrity, or honourable feelings, but because you have found it
+necessary, for the prolongation of your terrific existence, to attack me
+as you have done. By what plea of honour, honesty, or justice, can I be
+blamed for not embracing an alternative which is beyond all human
+control?--I cannot love you."
+
+"Then be content to suffer. Flora Bannerworth, will you not, even for a
+time, to save yourself and to save me, become mine?"
+
+"Horrible proposition!"
+
+"Then am I doomed yet, perhaps, for many a cycle of years, to spread
+misery and desolation around me; and yet I love you with a feeling which
+has in it more of gratefulness and unselfishness than ever yet found a
+home within my breast. I would fain have you, although you cannot save
+me; there may yet be a chance, which shall enable you to escape from the
+persecution of my presence."
+
+"Oh! glorious chance!" said Flora. "Which way can it come? tell me how I
+may embrace it, and such grateful feelings as a heart-stricken mourner
+can offer to him who has rescued her from her deep affliction, shall yet
+be yours."
+
+"Hear me, then, Flora Bannerworth, while I state to you some particulars
+of mysterious existence, of such beings as myself, which never yet have
+been breathed to mortal ears."
+
+Flora looked intently at him, and listened, while, with a serious
+earnestness of manner, he detailed to her something of the physiology of
+the singular class of beings which the concurrence of all circumstances
+tended to make him appear.
+
+"Flora," he said, "it is not that I am so enamoured of an existence to
+be prolonged only by such frightful means, which induces me to become a
+terror to you or to others. Believe me, that if my victims, those whom
+my insatiable thirst for blood make wretched, suffer much, I, the
+vampyre, am not without my moments of unutterable agony. But it is a
+mysterious law of our nature, that as the period approaches when the
+exhausted energies of life require a new support from the warm, gushing
+fountain of another's veins, the strong desire to live grows upon us,
+until, in a paroxysm of wild insanity, which will recognise no
+obstacles, human or divine, we seek a victim."
+
+"A fearful state!" said Flora.
+
+"It is so; and, when the dreadful repast is over, then again the pulse
+beats healthfully, and the wasted energies of a strange kind of vitality
+are restored to us, we become calm again, but with that calmness comes
+all the horror, all the agony of reflection, and we suffer far more than
+tongue can tell."
+
+"You have my pity," said Flora; "even you have my pity."
+
+"I might well demand it, if such a feeling held a place within your
+breast. I might well demand your pity, Flora Bannerworth, for never
+crawled an abject wretch upon the earth's rotundity, so pitiable as I."
+
+"Go on, go on."
+
+"I will, and with such brief conclusions as I may. Having once attacked
+any human being, we feel a strange, but terribly impulsive desire again
+to seek that person for more blood. But I love you, Flora; the small
+amount of sensibility that still lingers about my preternatural
+existence, acknowledges in you a pure and better spirit. I would fain
+save you."
+
+"Oh! tell me how I may escape the terrible infliction."
+
+"That can only be done by flight. Leave this place, I implore you! leave
+it as quickly as the movement may be made. Linger not--cast not one
+regretful look behind you on your ancient home. I shall remain in this
+locality for years. Let me lose sight of you, I will not pursue you;
+but, by force of circumstances, I am myself compelled to linger here.
+Flight is the only means by which you may avoid a doom as terrific as
+that which I endure."
+
+"But tell me," said Flora, after a moment's pause, during which she
+appeared to be endeavouring to gather courage to ask some fearful
+question; "tell me if it be true that those who have once endured the
+terrific attack of a vampyre, become themselves, after death, one of
+that dread race?"
+
+"It is by such means," said Varney, "that the frightful brood increases;
+but time and circumstances must aid the development of the new and
+horrible existence. You, however, are safe."
+
+"Safe! Oh! say that word again."
+
+"Yes, safe; not once or twice will the vampyre's attack have sufficient
+influence on your mortal frame, as to induce a susceptibility on your
+part to become coexistent with such as he. The attacks must be often
+repeated, and the termination of mortal existence must be a consequence
+essential, and direct from those attacks, before such a result may be
+anticipated."
+
+"Yes, yes; I understand."
+
+"If you were to continue my victim from year to year, the energies of
+life would slowly waste away, and, till like some faint taper's gleam,
+consuming more sustenance than it received, the veriest accident would
+extinguish your existence, and then, Flora Bannerworth, you might become
+a vampyre."
+
+"Oh! horrible! most horrible!"
+
+"If by chance, or by design, the least glimpse of the cold moonbeams
+rested on your apparently lifeless remains, you would rise again and be
+one of us--a terror to yourself and a desolation to all around."
+
+"Oh! I will fly from here," said Flora. "The hope of escape from so
+terrific and dreadful a doom shall urge me onward; if flight can save
+me--flight from Bannerworth Hall, I will pause not until continents and
+oceans divide us."
+
+"It is well. I'm able now thus calmly to reason with you. A few short
+months more and I shall feel the languor of death creeping over me, and
+then will come that mad excitement of the brain, which, were you hidden
+behind triple doors of steel, would tempt me again to seek your
+chamber--again to seize you in my full embrace--again to draw from your
+veins the means of prolonged life--again to convulse your very soul with
+terror."
+
+"I need no incentives," said Flora, with a shudder, "in the shape of
+descriptions of the past, to urge me on."
+
+"You will fly from Bannerworth Hall?"
+
+"Yes, yes!" said Flora, "it shall be so; its very chambers now are
+hideous with the recollection of scenes enacted in them. I will urge my
+brothers, my mother, all to leave, and in some distant clime we will
+find security and shelter. There even we will learn to think of you with
+more of sorrow than of anger--more pity than reproach--more curiosity
+than loathing."
+
+"Be it so," said the vampyre; and he clasped his hands, as if with a
+thankfulness that he had done so much towards restoring peace at least
+to one, who, in consequence of his acts, had felt such exquisite
+despair. "Be it so; and even I will hope that the feelings which have
+induced so desolated and so isolated a being as myself to endeavour to
+bring peace to one human heart, will plead for me, trumpet-tongued, to
+Heaven!"
+
+"It will--it will," said Flora.
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"I do; and I will pray that the thought may turn to certainty in such a
+cause."
+
+The vampyre appeared to be much affected; and then he added,--
+
+"Flora, you know that this spot has been the scene of a catastrophe
+fearful to look back upon, in the annals of your family?"
+
+"It has," said Flora. "I know to what you allude; 'tis a matter of
+common knowledge to all--a sad theme to me, and one I would not court."
+
+"Nor would I oppress you with it. Your father, here, on this very spot,
+committed that desperate act which brought him uncalled for to the
+judgment seat of God. I have a strange, wild curiosity upon such
+subjects. Will you, in return for the good that I have tried to do you,
+gratify it?"
+
+"I know not what you mean," said Flora.
+
+"To be more explicit, then, do you remember the day on which your father
+breathed his last?"
+
+"Too well--too well."
+
+"Did you see him or converse with him shortly before that desperate act
+was committed?"
+
+"No; he shut himself up for some time in a solitary chamber."
+
+"Ha! what chamber?"
+
+"The one in which I slept myself on the night--"
+
+"Yes, yes; the one with the portrait--that speaking portrait--the eyes
+of which seem to challenge an intruder as he enters the apartment."
+
+"The same."
+
+"For hours shut up there!" added Varney, musingly; "and from thence he
+wandered to the garden, where, in this summer-house, he breathed his
+last?"
+
+"It was so."
+
+"Then, Flora, ere I bid you adieu--"
+
+These words were scarcely uttered, when there was a quick, hasty
+footstep, and Henry Bannerworth appeared behind Varney, in the very
+entrance of the summer-house.
+
+"Now," he cried, "for revenge! Now, foul being, blot upon the earth's
+surface, horrible imitation of humanity, if mortal arm can do aught
+against you, you shall die!"
+
+A shriek came from the lips of Flora, and flinging herself past Varney,
+who stepped aside, she clung to her brother, who made an unavailing pass
+with his sword at the vampyre. It was a critical moment; and had the
+presence of mind of Varney deserted him in the least, unarmed as he was,
+he must have fallen beneath the weapon of Henry. To spring, however, up
+the seat which Flora had vacated, and to dash out some of the flimsy and
+rotten wood-work at the back of the summer-house by the propulsive power
+of his whole frame, was the work of a moment; and before Henry could
+free himself from the clinging embrace of Flora, Varney, the vampyre was
+gone, and there was no greater chance of his capture than on a former
+occasion, when he was pursued in vain from the Hall to the wood, in the
+intricacies of which he was so entirely lost.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+THE EXPLANATION.--MARCHDALE'S ADVICE.--THE PROJECTED REMOVAL, AND THE
+ADMIRAL'S ANGER.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+This extremely sudden movement on the part of Varney was certainly as
+unexpected as it was decisive. Henry had imagined, that by taking
+possession of the only entrance to the summer-house, he must come into
+personal conflict with the being who had worked so much evil for him and
+his; and that he should so suddenly have created for himself another
+mode of exit, certainly never occurred to him.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, Flora," he said, "unhand me; this is a time for
+action."
+
+"But, Henry, Henry, hear me."
+
+"Presently, presently, dear Flora; I will yet make another effort to
+arrest the headlong flight of Varney."
+
+He shook her off, perhaps with not more roughness than was necessary to
+induce her to forego her grasp of him, but in a manner that fully showed
+he intended to be free; and then he sprang through the same aperture
+whence Varney had disappeared, just as George and Mr. Marchdale arrived
+at the door of the summer-house.
+
+It was nearly morning, so that the fields were brightening up with the
+faint radiance of the coming day; and when Henry reached a point which
+he knew commanded an extensive view, he paused, and ran his eye eagerly
+along the landscape, with a hope of discovering some trace of the
+fugitive.
+
+Such, however, was not the case; he saw nothing, heard nothing of Sir
+Francis Varney; and then he turned, and called loudly to George to join
+him, and was immediately replied to by his brother's presence,
+accompanied by Marchdale.
+
+Before, however, they could exchange a word, a rattling discharge of
+fire-arms took place from one of the windows, and they heard the
+admiral, in a loud voice, shouting,--
+
+"Broadside to broadside! Give it them again, Jack! Hit them between wind
+and water!"
+
+Then there was another rattling discharge, and Henry exclaimed,--
+
+"What is the meaning of that firing?"
+
+"It comes from the admiral's room," said Marchdale. "On my life, I think
+the old man must be mad. He has some six or eight pistols ranged in a
+row along the window-sill, and all loaded, so that by the aid of a match
+they can be pretty well discharged as a volley, which he considers the
+only proper means of firing upon the vampyre."
+
+"It is so," replied George; "and, no doubt, hearing an alarm, he has
+commenced operations by firing into the enemy."
+
+"Well, well," said Henry; "he must have his way. I have pursued Varney
+thus far, and that he has again retreated to the wood, I cannot doubt.
+Between this and the full light of day, let us at least make an effort
+to discover his place of retreat. We know the locality as well as he can
+possibly, and I propose now that we commence an active search."
+
+"Come on, then," said Marchdale. "We are all armed; and I, for one,
+shall feel no hesitation in taking the life, if it be possible to do so,
+of that strange being."
+
+"Of that possibility you doubt?" said George, as they hurried on across
+the meadows.
+
+"Indeed I do, and with reason too. I'm certain that when I fired at him
+before I hit him; and besides, Flora must have shot him upon the
+occasion when we were absent, and she used your pistols Henry, to defend
+herself and her mother."
+
+"It would seem so," said Henry; "and disregarding all present
+circumstances, if I do meet him, I will put to the proof whether he be
+mortal or not."
+
+The distance was not great, and they soon reached the margin of the
+wood; they then separated agreeing to meet within it, at a well-spring,
+familiar to them all: previous to which each was to make his best
+endeavour to discover if any one was hidden among the bush-wood or in
+the hollows of the ancient trees they should encounter on their line of
+march.
+
+The fact was, that Henry finding that he was likely to pass an
+exceedingly disturbed, restless night, through agitation of spirits,
+had, after tossing to and fro on his couch for many hours, wisely at
+length risen, and determined to walk abroad in the gardens belonging to
+the mansion, in preference to continuing in such a state of fever and
+anxiety, as he was in, in his own chamber.
+
+Since the vampyre's dreadful visit, it had been the custom of both the
+brothers, occasionally, to tap at the chamber door of Flora, who, at her
+own request, now that she had changed her room, and dispensed with any
+one sitting up with her, wished occasionally to be communicated with by
+some member of the family.
+
+Henry, then, after rapidly dressing, as he passed the door of her
+bedroom, was about to tap at it, when to his surprise he found it open,
+and upon hastily entering it he observed that the bed was empty, and a
+hasty glance round the apartment convinced him that Flora was not there.
+
+Alarm took possession of him, and hastily arming himself, he roused
+Marchdale and George, but without waiting for them to be ready to
+accompany him, he sought the garden, to search it thoroughly in case she
+should be anywhere there concealed.
+
+Thus it was he had come upon the conference so strangely and so
+unexpectedly held between Varney and Flora in the summer-house. With
+what occurred upon that discovery the readers are acquainted.
+
+Flora had promised George that she would return immediately to the
+house, but when, in compliance with the call of Henry, George and
+Marchdale had left her alone, she felt so agitated and faint that she
+began to cling to the trellis work of the little building for a few
+moments before she could gather strength to reach the mansion.
+
+Two or three minutes might thus have elapsed, and Flora was in such a
+state of mental bewilderment with all that had occurred, that she could
+scarce believe it real, when suddenly a slight sound attracted her
+attention, and through the gap which had been made in the wall of the
+summer-house, with an appearance of perfect composure, again appeared
+Sir Francis Varney.
+
+"Flora," he said, quietly resuming the discourse which had been broken
+off, "I am quite convinced now that you will be much the happier for the
+interview."
+
+"Gracious Heaven!" said Flora, "whence have you come from?"
+
+"I have never left," said Varney.
+
+"But I saw you fly from this spot."
+
+"You did; but it was only to another immediately outside the summer
+house. I had no idea of breaking off our conference so abruptly."
+
+"Have you anything to add to what you have already stated?"
+
+"Absolutely nothing, unless you have a question to propose to me--I
+should have thought you had, Flora. Is there no other circumstance
+weighing heavily upon your mind, as well as the dreadful visitation I
+have subjected you to?"
+
+"Yes," said Flora. "What has become of Charles Holland?"
+
+"Listen. Do not discard all hope; when you are far from here you will
+meet with him again."
+
+"But he has left me."
+
+"And yet he will be able, when you again encounter him, so far to
+extenuate his seeming perfidy, that you shall hold him as untouched in
+honour as when first he whispered to you that he loved you."
+
+"Oh, joy! joy!" said Flora; "by that assurance you have robbed
+misfortune of its sting, and richly compensated me for all that I have
+suffered."
+
+"Adieu!" said the vampyre. "I shall now proceed to my own home by a
+different route to that taken by those who would kill me."
+
+"But after this," said Flora, "there shall be no danger; you shall be
+held harmless, and our departure from Bannerworth Hall shall be so
+quick, that you will soon be released from all apprehension of vengeance
+from my brother, and I shall taste again of that happiness which I
+thought had fled from me for ever."
+
+"Farewell," said the vampire; and folding his cloak closely around him,
+he strode from the summer-house, soon disappearing from her sight behind
+the shrubs and ample vegetation with which that garden abounded.
+
+Flora sunk upon her knees, and uttered a brief, but heartfelt
+thanksgiving to Heaven for this happy change in her destiny. The hue of
+health faintly again visited her cheeks, and as she now, with a feeling
+of more energy and strength than she had been capable of exerting for
+many days, walked towards the house, she felt all that delightful
+sensation which the mind experiences when it is shaking off the trammels
+of some serious evil which it delights now to find that the imagination
+has attired in far worse colours than the facts deserved.
+
+It is scarcely necessary, after this, to say that the search in the wood
+for Sir Francis Varney was an unproductive one, and that the morning
+dawned upon the labours of the brother and of Mr. Marchdale, without
+their having discovered the least indication of the presence of Varney.
+Again puzzled and confounded, they stood on the margin of the wood, and
+looked sadly towards the brightening windows of Bannerworth Hall, which
+were now reflecting with a golden radiance the slant rays of the morning
+sun.
+
+"Foiled again," remarked Henry, with a gesture of impatience; "foiled
+again, and as completely as before. I declare that I will fight this
+man, let our friend the admiral say what he will against such a measure
+I will meet him in mortal combat; he shall consummate his triumph over
+our whole family by my death, or I will rid the world and ourselves of
+so frightful a character."
+
+"Let us hope," said Marchdale, "that some other course may be adopted,
+which shall put an end to these proceedings."
+
+"That," exclaimed Henry, "is to hope against all probability; what other
+course can be pursued? Be this Varney man or devil, he has evidently
+marked us for his prey."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Indeed, it would seem so," remarked George; "but yet he shall find that
+we will not fall so easily; he shall discover that if poor Flora's
+gentle spirit has been crushed by these frightful circumstances, we are
+of a sterner mould."
+
+"He shall," said Henry; "I for one will dedicate my life to this matter.
+I will know no more rest than is necessary to recruit my frame, until I
+have succeeded in overcoming this monster; I will seek no pleasure here,
+and will banish from my mind, all else that may interfere with that one
+fixed pursuit. He or I must fall."
+
+"Well spoken," said Marchdale; "and yet I hope that circumstances may
+occur to prevent such a necessity of action, and that probably you will
+yet see that it will be wise and prudent to adopt a milder and a safer
+course."
+
+"No, Marchdale, you cannot feel as we feel. You look on more as a
+spectator, sympathising with the afflictions of either, than feeling the
+full sting of those afflictions yourself."
+
+"Do I not feel acutely for you? I'm a lonely man in the world, and I
+have taught myself now to centre my affections in your family; my
+recollections of early years assist me in so doing. Believe me, both of
+you, that I am no idle spectator of your griefs, but that I share them
+fully. If I advise you to be peaceful, and to endeavour by the gentlest
+means possible to accomplish your aims, it is not that I would counsel
+you cowardice; but having seen so much more of the world than either of
+you have had time or opportunity of seeing, I do not look so
+enthusiastically upon matters, but, with a cooler, calmer judgment, I do
+not say a better, I proffer to you my counsel."
+
+"We thank you," said Henry; "but this is a matter in which action seems
+specially called for. It is not to be borne that a whole family is to be
+oppressed by such a fiend in human shape as that Varney."
+
+"Let me," said Marchdale, "counsel you to submit to Flora's decision in
+this business; let her wishes constitute the rules of action. She is the
+greatest sufferer, and the one most deeply interested in the termination
+of this fearful business. Moreover she has judgment and decision of
+character--she will advise you rightly, be assured."
+
+"That she would advise us honourably," said Henry, "and that we should
+feel every disposition in the world to defer to her wishes our
+proposition, is not to be doubted; but little shall be done without her
+counsel and sanction. Let us now proceed homeward, for I am most anxious
+to ascertain how it came about that she and Sir Francis Varney were
+together in that summer-house at so strange an hour."
+
+They all three walked together towards the house, conversing in a
+similar strain as they went.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+THE CONSULTATION.--THE DUEL AND ITS RESULTS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Independent of this interview which Flora had had with the much dreaded
+Sir Francis Varney, the circumstances in which she and all who were dear
+to her, happened at that moment to be placed, certainly required an
+amount of consideration, which could not be too soon bestowed.
+
+By a combination of disagreeables, everything that could possibly occur
+to disturb the peace of the family seemed to have taken place at once;
+like Macbeth's, their troubles had truly come in battalions, and now
+that the serenity of their domestic position was destroyed, minor evils
+and annoyances which that very serenity had enabled them to hold at
+arm's-length became gigantic, and added much to their distress.
+
+The small income, which, when all was happiness, health and peace, was
+made to constitute a comfortable household, was now totally inadequate
+to do so--the power to economise and to make the most of a little, had
+flown along with that contentedness of spirit which the harmony of
+circumstances alone could produce.
+
+It was not to be supposed that poor Mrs. Bannerworth could now, as she
+had formerly done, when her mind was free from anxiety, attend to those
+domestic matters which make up the comforts of a family--distracted at
+the situation of her daughter, and bewildered by the rapid succession of
+troublesome events which so short a period of time had given birth to,
+she fell into an inert state of mind as different as anything could
+possibly be, from her former active existence.
+
+It has likewise been seen how the very domestics fled from Bannerworth
+Hall in dismay, rather than remain beneath the same roof with a family
+believed to be subject to the visitations of so awful a being as a
+vampyre.
+
+Among the class who occupy positions of servitude, certainly there might
+have been found some, who, with feelings and understandings above such
+considerations, would have clung sympathetically to that family in
+distress, which they had known under a happier aspect; but it had not
+been the good fortune of the Bannerworths to have such as these about
+them; hence selfishness had its way, and they were deserted. It was not
+likely, then, that strangers would willingly accept service in a family
+so situated, without some powerful impulse in the shape of a higher
+pecuniary consideration, as was completely out of the power of the
+Bannerworths to offer.
+
+Thus was it, then, that most cruelly, at the very time that they had
+most need of assistance and of sympathy, this unfortunate family almost
+became isolated from their kind; and, apart from every other
+consideration, it would have been almost impossible for them to continue
+inhabitants of the Hall, with anything like comfort, or advantage.
+
+And then, although the disappearance of Charles Holland no longer
+awakened those feelings of indignation at his supposed perfidy which
+were first produced by that event; still, view it in which way they
+might, it was a severe blow of fate, and after it, they one and all
+found themselves still less able to contend against the sea of troubles
+that surrounded them.
+
+The reader, too, will not have failed to remark that there was about the
+whole of the family that pride of independence which induced them to
+shrink from living upon extraneous aid; and hence, although they felt
+and felt truly, that when Admiral Bell, in his frank manner, offered
+them pecuniary assistance, that it was no idle compliment, yet with a
+sensitiveness such as they might well be expected to feel, they held
+back, and asked each other what prospect there was of emerging from such
+a state of things, and if it were justifiable to commence a life of
+dependence, the end of which was not evident or tangible.
+
+Notwithstanding, too, the noble confidence of Flora in her lover, and
+notwithstanding that confidence had been echoed by her brothers, there
+would at times obtrude into the minds of the latter, a feeling of the
+possibility, that after all they might be mistaken; and Charles Holland
+might, from some sudden impulse, fancying his future happiness was all
+at stake, have withdrawn himself from the Hall, and really written the
+letters attributed to him.
+
+We say this only obtruded itself occasionally, for all their real
+feelings and aspirations were the other way, although Mr. Marchdale,
+they could perceive, had his doubts, and they could not but confess that
+he was more likely to view the matter calmly and dispassionately than
+they.
+
+In fact, the very hesitation with which he spoke upon the subject,
+convinced them of his doubt; for they attributed that hesitation to a
+fear of giving them pain, or of wounding the prejudices of Admiral Bell,
+with whom he had already had words so nearly approaching to a quarrel.
+
+Henry's visit to Mr. Chillingworth was not likely to be productive of
+any results beyond those of a conjectural character. All that that
+gentleman could do was to express a willingness to be directed by them
+in any way, rather than suggest any course of conduct himself upon
+circumstances which he could not be expected to judge of as they who
+were on the spot, and had witnessed their actual occurrence.
+
+And now we will suppose that the reader is enabled with us to look into
+one of the principal rooms of Bannerworth Hall. It is evening, and some
+candles are shedding a sickly light on the ample proportions of the once
+handsome apartment. At solemn consultation the whole of the family are
+assembled. As well as the admiral, Mr. Chillingworth, and Marchdale,
+Jack Pringle, too, walked in, by the sufferance of his master, as if he
+considered he had a perfect right to do so.
+
+The occasion of the meeting had been a communication which Flora had
+made concerning her most singular and deeply interesting interview with
+the vampyre. The details of this interview had produced a deep effect
+upon the whole of the family. Flora was there, and she looked better,
+calmer, and more collected than she had done for some days past.
+
+No doubt the interview she had had with Varney in the summer-house in
+the garden had dispelled a host of imaginary terrors with which she had
+surrounded him, although it had confirmed her fully that he and he only
+was the dreadful being who had caused her so much misery.
+
+That interview had tended to show her that about him there was yet
+something human, and that there was not a danger of her being hunted
+down from place to place by so horrible an existence.
+
+Such a feeling as this was, of course, a source of deep consolation; and
+with a firmer voice, and more of her old spirit of cheerfulness about
+her than she had lately exhibited, she again detailed the particulars of
+the interview to all who had assembled, concluding by saying,--
+
+"And this has given me hope of happier days. If it be a delusion, it is
+a happy one; and now that but a frightful veil of mystery still hangs
+over the fate of Charles Holland, I how gladly would I bid adieu to this
+place, and all that has made it terrible. I could almost pity Sir
+Francis Varney, rather than condemn him."
+
+"That may be true," said Henry, "to a certain extent, sister; but we
+never can forget the amount of misery he has brought upon us. It is no
+slight thing to be forced from our old and much-loved home, even if such
+proceeding does succeed in freeing us from his persecutions."
+
+"But, my young friend," said Marchdale, "you must recollect, that
+through life it is continually the lot of humanity to be endeavouring to
+fly from great evils to those which do not present themselves to the
+mind in so bad an aspect. It is something, surely, to alleviate
+affliction, if we cannot entirely remove it."
+
+"That is true," said Mr. Chillingworth, "to a considerable extent, but
+then it takes too much for granted to please me."
+
+"How so, sir?"
+
+"Why, certainly, to remove from Bannerworth Hall is a much less evil
+than to remain at Bannerworth Hall, and be haunted by a vampyre; but
+then that proposition takes for granted that vampyre business, which I
+will never grant. I repeat, again and again, it is contrary to all
+experience, to philosophy, and to all the laws of ordinary nature."
+
+"Facts are stubborn things," said Marchdale.
+
+"Apparently," remarked Mr. Chillingworth.
+
+"Well, sir; and here we have the fact of a vampyre."
+
+"The presumed fact. One swallow don't make a summer, Mr. Marchdale."
+
+"This is waste of time," said Henry--"of course, the amount of evidence
+that will suffice to bring conviction to one man's mind will fail in
+doing so to another. The question is, what are we to do?"
+
+All eyes were turned upon Flora, as if this question was more
+particularly addressed to her, and it behoved her, above all others, to
+answer it. She did so; and in a firm, clear voice, she said,--
+
+"I will discover the fate of Charles Holland, and then leave the Hall."
+
+"The fate of Charles Holland!" said Marchdale. "Why, really, unless that
+young gentleman chooses to be communicative himself upon so interesting
+a subject, we may be a long while discovering his fate. I know that it
+is not a romantic view to take of the question, to suppose simply that
+he wrote the three letters found upon his dressing-table, and then
+decamped; but to my mind, it savours most wonderfully of matter-of-fact.
+I now speak more freely than I have otherwise done, for I am now upon
+the eve of my departure. I have no wish to remain here, and breed
+dissension in any family, or to run a tilt against anybody's
+prejudices." Here he looked at Admiral Bell. "I leave this house
+to-night."
+
+"You're a d----d lubberly thief," said the admiral; "the sooner you
+leave it the better. Why, you bad-looking son of a gun, what do you
+mean? I thought we'd had enough of that."
+
+"I fully expected this abuse," said Marchdale.
+
+"Did you expect that?" said the admiral, as he snatched up an inkstand,
+and threw at Marchdale, hitting him a hard knock on the chin, and
+bespattering its contents on his breast. "Now I'll give you
+satisfaction, you lubber. D--me, if you ain't a second Jones, and enough
+to sink the ship. Shiver my timbers if I sha'n't say something strong
+presently."
+
+"I really," said Henry, "must protest, Admiral Bell, against this
+conduct."
+
+"Protest and be d----d."
+
+"Mr. Marchdale may be right, sir, or he may be wrong, it's a matter of
+opinion."
+
+"Oh, never mind," said Marchdale; "I look upon this old nautical ruffian
+as something between a fool and a madman. If he were a younger man I
+should chastise him upon the spot; but as it is I live in hopes yet of
+getting him into some comfortable lunatic asylum."
+
+"Me into an asylum!" shouted the admiral. "Jack, did you hear that?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"Farewell all of you," said Marchdale; "my best wishes be with this
+family. I cannot remain under this roof to be so insulted."
+
+"A good riddance," cried the admiral. "I'd rather sail round the world
+with a shipload of vampyres than with such a humbugging son of a gun as
+you are. D----e, you're worse than a lawyer."
+
+"Nay, nay," cried they, "Mr. Marchdale, stay."
+
+"Stay, stay," cried George, and Mrs. Bannerworth, likewise, said stay;
+but at the moment Flora stepped forward, and in a clear voice she
+said,--
+
+"No, let him go, he doubts Charles Holland; let all go who doubt Charles
+Holland. Mr. Marchdale, Heaven forgive you this injustice you are doing.
+We may never meet again. Farewell, sir!"
+
+These words were spoken in so decided a tone, that no one contradicted
+them. Marchdale cast a strange kind of look round upon the family
+circle, and in another instant he was gone.
+
+"Huzza!" shouted Jack Pringle; "that's one good job."
+
+Henry looked rather resentful, which the admiral could not but observe,
+and so, less with the devil-may-care manner in which he usually spoke,
+the old man addressed him.
+
+"Hark ye, Mr. Henry Bannerworth, you ain't best pleased with me, and in
+that case I don't know that I shall stay to trouble you any longer, as
+for your friend who has left you, sooner or later you'll find him out--I
+tell you there's no good in that fellow. Do you think I've been cruizing
+about for a matter of sixty years, and don't know an honest man when I
+see him. But never mind, I'm going on a voyage of discovery for my
+nephew, and you can do as you like."
+
+"Heaven only knows, Admiral Bell," said Henry, "who is right and who is
+wrong. I do much regret that you have quarrelled with Mr. Marchdale; but
+what is done can't be undone."
+
+"Do not leave us," said Flora; "let me beg of you, Admiral Bell, not to
+leave us; for my sake remain here, for to you I can speak freely and
+with confidence, of Charles, when probably I can do so to no one else.
+You knew him well and have a confidence in him, which no one else can
+aspire to. I pray you, therefore, to stay with us."
+
+"Only on one condition," said the admiral.
+
+"Name it--name it!
+
+"You think of letting the Hall?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"Let me have it, then, and let me pay a few years in advance. If you
+don't, I'm d----d if I stay another night in the place. You must give me
+immediate possession, too, and stay here as my guests until you suit
+yourselves elsewhere. Those are my terms and conditions. Say yes, and
+all's right; say no, and I'm off like a round shot from a carronade.
+D----me, that's the thing, Jack, isn't it?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+There was a silence of some few moments after this extraordinary offer
+had been made, and then they spoke, saying,--
+
+"Admiral Bell, your generous offer, and the feelings which dictated it,
+are by far too transparent for us to affect not to understand them. Your
+actions, Admiral--"
+
+"Oh, bother my actions! what are they to you? Come, now, I consider
+myself master of the house, d--n you! I invite you all to dinner, or
+supper, or to whatever meal comes next. Mrs. Bannerworth, will you
+oblige me, as I'm an old fool in family affairs, by buying what's wanted
+for me and my guests? There's the money, ma'am. Come along, Jack, we'll
+take a look over our new house. What do you think of it?"
+
+"Wants some sheathing, sir, here and there."
+
+"Very like; but, however, it will do well enough for us; we're in port,
+you know. Come along."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+And off went the admiral and Jack, after leaving a twenty pound note in
+Mrs. Bannerworth's lap.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S SEPARATE OPPONENTS.--THE INTERPOSITION OF FLORA.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The old admiral so completely overcame the family of the Bannerworths by
+his generosity and evident single-mindedness of his behaviour, that
+although not one, except Flora, approved of his conduct towards Mr.
+Marchdale, yet they could not help liking him; and had they been placed
+in a position to choose which of the two they would have had remain with
+them, the admiral or Marchdale, there can be no question they would have
+made choice of the former.
+
+Still, however, it was not pleasant to find a man like Marchdale
+virtually driven from the house, because he presumed to differ in
+opinion upon a very doubtful matter with another of its inmates. But as
+it was the nature of the Bannerworth family always to incline to the
+most generous view of subjects, the frank, hearty confidence of the old
+admiral in Charles Holland pleased them better than the calm and serious
+doubting of Marchdale.
+
+His ruse of hiring the house of them, and paying the rent in advance,
+for the purpose of placing ample funds in their hands for any
+contingency, was not the less amiable because it was so easily seen
+through; and they could not make up their minds to hurt the feelings of
+the old man by the rejection of his generous offer.
+
+When he had left, this subject was canvassed among them, and it was
+agreed that he should have his own way in the matter for the present,
+although they hoped to hear something from Marchdale, which should make
+his departure appear less abrupt and uncomfortable to the whole of the
+family.
+
+During the course of this conversation, it was made known to Flora with
+more distinctness than under any other circumstances it would have been,
+that George Holland had been on the eve of fighting a duel with Sir
+Francis Varney, previous to his mysterious disappearance.
+
+When she became fully aware of this fact, to her mind it seemed
+materially to add to the suspicions previously to then entertained, that
+foul means had been used in order to put Charles out of the way.
+
+"Who knows," she said, "that this Varney may not shrink with the
+greatest terror from a conflict with any human being, and feeling one
+was inevitable with Charles Holland, unless interrupted by some vigorous
+act of his own, he or some myrmidons of his may have taken Charles's
+life!"
+
+"I do not think, Flora," said Henry, "that he would have ventured upon
+so desperate an act; I cannot well believe such a thing possible. But
+fear not; he will find, if he have really committed any such atrocity,
+that it will not save him."
+
+These words of Henry, though it made no impression at the time upon
+Flora, beyond what they carried upon their surface, they really,
+however, as concerned Henry himself, implied a settled resolution, which
+he immediately set about reducing to practice.
+
+When the conference broke up, night, as it still was, he, without saying
+anything to any one, took his hat and cloak, and left the Hall,
+proceeding by the nearest practicable route to the residence of Sir
+Francis Varney, where he arrived without any interruption of any
+character.
+
+Varney was at first denied to him, but before he could leave the house,
+a servant came down the great staircase, to say it was a mistake; and
+that Sir Francis was at home, and would be happy to see him.
+
+He was ushered into the same apartment where Sir Francis Varney had
+before received his visitors; and there sat the now declared vampyre,
+looking pale and ghastly by the dim light which burned in the apartment,
+and, indeed, more like some spectre of the tomb, than one of the great
+family of man.
+
+"Be seated, sir," said Varney; "although my eyes have seldom the
+pleasure of beholding you within these walls, be assured you are a
+honoured guest."
+
+"Sir Francis Varney," said Henry, "I came not here to bandy compliments
+with you; I have none to pay to you, nor do I wish to hear any of them
+from your lips."
+
+"An excellent sentiment, young man," said Varney, "and well delivered.
+May I presume, then, without infringing too far upon your extreme
+courtesy, to inquire, to what circumstances I am indebted for your
+visit?"
+
+"To one, Sir Francis, that I believe you are better acquainted with than
+you will have the candour to admit."
+
+"Indeed, sir," said Varney, coldly; "you measure my candour, probably,
+by a standard of your own; in which case I fear, I may be no gainer; and
+yet that may be of itself a circumstance that should afford little food
+for surprise, but proceed, sir--since we have so few compliments to
+stand between us and our purpose, we shall in all due time arrive at
+it."
+
+"Yes, in due time, Sir Francis Varney, and that due time has arrived.
+Know you anything of my friend, Mr. Charles Holland?" said Henry, in
+marked accents; and he gazed on Sir Francis Varney with earnestness,
+that seemed to say not even a look should escape his observation.
+
+Varney, however, returned the gaze as steadily, but coldly, as he
+replied in his measured accents,--
+
+"I have heard of the young gentleman."
+
+"And seen him?"
+
+"And seen him too, as you, Mr. Bannerworth, must be well aware. Surely
+you have not come all this way, merely to make such an inquiry; but,
+sir, you are welcome to the answer."
+
+Henry had something of a struggle to keep down the rising anger, at
+these cool taunts of Varney; but he succeeded--and then he said,--
+
+"I suspect Charles Holland, Sir Francis Varney, has met with unfair
+treatment, and that he has been unfairly dealt with, for an unworthy
+purpose."
+
+"Undoubtedly," said Varney, "if the gentleman you allude to, has been
+unfairly dealt with, it was for a foul purpose; for no good or generous
+object, my young sir, could be so obtained--you acknowledge so much, I
+doubt not?"
+
+"I do, Sir Francis Varney; and hence the purpose of my visit here--for
+this reason I apply to you--"
+
+"A singular object, supported by a singular reason. I cannot see the
+connection, young sir; pray proceed to enlighten me upon this matter,
+and when you have done that, may I presume upon your consideration, to
+inquire in what way I can be of any service to you?"
+
+"Sir Francis," said Henry, his anger raising his tones--"this will not
+serve you--I have come to exact an account of how you have disposed of
+my friend; and I will have it."
+
+"Gently, my good sir; you are aware I know nothing of your friend; his
+motions are his own; and as to what I have done with him; my only answer
+is, that he would permit me to do nothing with him, had I been so
+inclined to have taken the liberty."
+
+"You are suspected, Sir Francis Varney, of having made an attempt upon
+the life or liberty of Charles Holland; you, in fact, are suspected of
+being his murderer--and, so help me Heaven! if I have not justice, I
+will have vengeance!"
+
+"Young sir, your words are of grave import, and ought to be coolly
+considered before they are uttered. With regard to justice and
+vengeance, Mr. Bannerworth, you may have both; but I tell you, of
+Charles Holland, or what has become of him, I know nothing. But
+wherefore do you come to so unlikely a quarter to learn something of an
+individual of whom I know nothing?"
+
+"Because Charles Holland was to have fought a duel with you: but before
+that had time to take place, he has suddenly become missing. I suspect
+that you are the author of his disappearance, because you fear an
+encounter with a mortal man."
+
+"Mr. Bannerworth, permit me to say, in my own defence, that I do not
+fear any man, however foolish he may be; and wisdom is not an attribute
+I find, from experience in all men, of your friend. However, you must be
+dreaming, sir--a kind of vivid insanity has taken possession of your
+mind, which distorts--"
+
+"Sir Francis Varney!" exclaimed Henry, now perfectly uncontrollable.
+
+"Sir," said Varney, as he filled up the pause, "proceed; I am all
+attention. You do me honour."
+
+"If," resumed Henry, "such was your object in putting Mr. Holland aside,
+by becoming personally or by proxy an assassin, you are mistaken in
+supposing you have accomplished your object."
+
+"Go on, sir," said Sir Francis Varney, in a bland and sweet tone; "I am
+all attention; pray proceed."
+
+"You have failed; for I now here, on this spot, defy you to mortal
+combat. Coward, assassin as you are, I challenge you to fight."
+
+"You don't mean on the carpet here?" said Varney, deliberately.
+
+"No, sir; but beneath the canopy of heaven, in the light of the day. And
+then, Sir Francis, we shall see who will shrink from the conflict."
+
+"It is remarkably good, Mr. Bannerworth, and, begging your pardon, for I
+do not wish to give any offence, my honoured sir, it would rehearse
+before an audience; in short, sir, it is highly dramatic."
+
+"You shrink from the combat, do you? Now, indeed, I know you."
+
+"Young man--young man," said Sir Francis, calmly, and shaking his head
+very deliberately, and the shadows passed across his pale face, "you
+know me not, if you think Sir Francis Varney shrinks from any man, much
+less one like yourself."
+
+"You are a coward, and worse, if you refuse my challenge."
+
+"I do not refuse it; I accept it," said Varney, calmly, and in a
+dignified manner; and then, with a sneer, he added,--"You are well
+acquainted with the mode in which gentlemen generally manage these
+matters, Mr. Bannerworth, and perhaps I am somewhat confined in my
+knowledge in the ways of the world, because you are your own principal
+and second. In all my experience, I never met with a similar case."
+
+"The circumstances under which it is given are as unexampled, and will
+excuse the mode of the challenge," said Henry, with much warmth.
+
+"Singular coincidence--the challenge and mode of it is most singular!
+They are well matched in that respect. Singular, did I say? The more I
+think of it, Mr. Bannerworth, the more I am inclined to think this
+positively odd."
+
+"Early to-morrow, Sir Francis, you shall hear from me."
+
+"In that case, you will not arrange preliminaries now? Well, well; it is
+very unusual for the principals themselves to do so; and yet, excuse my
+freedom, I presumed, as you had so far deserted the beaten track, that I
+had no idea how far you might be disposed to lead the same route."
+
+"I have said all I intended to say, Sir Francis Varney; we shall see
+each other again."
+
+"I may not detain you, I presume, to taste aught in the way of
+refreshment?"
+
+Henry made no reply, but turned towards the door, without even making an
+attempt to return the grave and formal bow that Sir Francis Varney made
+as he saw him about to quit the apartment; for Henry saw that his pale
+features were lighted up with a sarcastic smile, most disagreeable to
+look upon as well as irritating to Henry Bannerworth.
+
+He now quitted Sir Francis Varney's abode, being let out by a servant
+who had been rung for for that purpose by his master.
+
+Henry walked homeward, satisfied that he had now done all that he could
+under the circumstances.
+
+"I will send Chillingworth to him in the morning, and then I shall see
+what all this will end in. He must meet me, and then Charles Holland, if
+not discovered, shall be, at least, revenged."
+
+There was another person in Bannerworth Hall who had formed a similar
+resolution. That person was a very different sort of person to Henry
+Bannerworth, though quite as estimable in his way.
+
+This was no other than the old admiral. It was singular that two such
+very different persons should deem the same steps necessary, and both
+keep the secret from each other; but so it was, and, after some internal
+swearing, he determined upon challenging Varney in person.
+
+"I'd send Jack Pringle, but the swab would settle the matter as shortly
+as if a youngster was making an entry in a log, and heard the
+boatswain's whistle summoning the hands to a mess, and feared he would
+lose his grog.
+
+"D--n my quarters! but Sir Francis Varney, as he styles himself, sha'n't
+make any way against old Admiral Bell. He's as tough as a hawser, and
+just the sort of blade for a vampyre to come athwart. I'll pitch him
+end-long, and make a plank of him afore long. Cus my windpipe! what a
+long, lanky swab he is, with teeth fit to unpick a splice; but let me
+alone, I'll see if I can't make a hull of his carcass, vampyre or no
+vampyre.
+
+"My nevy, Charles Holland, can't be allowed to cut away without nobody's
+leave or licence. No, no; I'll not stand that anyhow. 'Never desert a
+messmate in the time of need,' is the first maxim of a seaman, and I
+ain't the one as 'll do so."
+
+Thus self-communing, the old admiral marched along until he came to Sir
+Francis Varney's house, at the gate of which he gave the bell what he
+called a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, that set it
+ringing with a fury, the like of which had never certainly been heard by
+the household.
+
+A minute or two scarcely elapsed before the domestics hurried to answer
+so urgent a summons; and when the gate was opened, the servant who
+answered it inquired his business.
+
+"What's that to you, snob? Is your master, Sir Francis Varney, in?
+because, if he be, let him know old Admiral Bell wants to speak to him.
+D'ye hear?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the servant, who had paused a few moments to examine
+the individual who gave this odd kind of address.
+
+In another minute word was brought to him that Sir Francis Varney would
+be very happy to see Admiral Bell.
+
+"Ay, ay," he muttered; "just as the devil likes to meet with holy water,
+or as I like any water save salt water."
+
+He was speedily introduced to Sir Francis Varney, who was seated in the
+same posture as he had been left by Henry Bannerworth not many minutes
+before.
+
+"Admiral Bell," said Sir Francis, rising, and bowing to that individual
+in the most polite, calm, and dignified manner imaginable, "permit me to
+express the honour I feel at this unexpected visit."
+
+"None of your gammon."
+
+"Will you be seated. Allow me to offer you such refreshments as this
+poor house affords."
+
+"D--n all this! You know, Sir Francis, I don't want none o' this
+palaver. It's for all the world like a Frenchman, when you are going to
+give him a broadside; he makes grimaces, throws dust in your eyes, and
+tries to stab you in the back. Oh, no! none of that for me."
+
+"I should say not, Admiral Bell. I should not like it myself, and I dare
+say you are a man of too much experience not to perceive when you are or
+are not imposed upon."
+
+"Well, what is that to you? D--n me, I didn't come here to talk to you
+about myself."
+
+"Then may I presume upon your courtesy so far as to beg that you will
+enlighten me upon the object of your visit!"
+
+"Yes; in pretty quick time. Just tell me where you have stowed away my
+nephew, Charles Holland?"
+
+"Really, I--"
+
+"Hold your slack, will you, and hear me out; if he's living, let him
+out, and I'll say no more about it; that's liberal, you know; it ain't
+terms everybody would offer you."
+
+"I must, in truth, admit they are not; and, moreover, they quite
+surprise even me, and I have learned not to be surprised at almost
+anything."
+
+"Well, will you give him up alive? but, hark ye, you mustn't have made
+very queer fish of him, do ye see?"
+
+"I hear you," said Sir Francis, with a bland smile, passing one hand
+gently over the other, and showing his front teeth in a peculiar manner;
+"but I really cannot comprehend all this; but I may say, generally, that
+Mr. Holland is no acquaintance of mine, and I have no sort of knowledge
+where he may be."
+
+"That won't do for me," said the admiral, positively, shaking his head.
+
+"I am particularly sorry, Admiral Bell, that it will not, seeing that I
+have nothing else to say."
+
+"I see how it is; you've put him out of the way, and I'm d----d if you
+shan't bring him to life, whole and sound, or I'll know the reason why."
+
+"With that I have already furnished you, Admiral Bell," quietly rejoined
+Varney; "anything more on that head is out of my power, though my
+willingness to oblige a person of such consideration as yourself, is
+very great; but, permit me to add, this is a very strange and odd
+communication from one gentleman to another. You have lost a relative,
+who has, very probably, taken some offence, or some notion into his
+head, of which nobody but himself knows anything, and you come to one
+yet more unlikely to know anything of him, than even yourself.
+
+"Gammon again, now, Sir Francis Varney, or Blarney."
+
+"Varney, if you please, Admiral Bell; I was christened Varney."
+
+"Christened, eh?"
+
+"Yes, christened--were you not christened? If not, I dare say you
+understand the ceremony well enough."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"I should think I did; but, as for christening, a--"
+
+"Go on, sir."
+
+"A vampyre! why I should as soon think of reading the burial service of
+a pig."
+
+"Very possible; but what has all this to do with your visit to me?"
+
+"This much, you lubber. Now, d--n my carcass from head to stern, if I
+don't call you out."
+
+"Well, Admiral Bell," slid Varney, mildly, "in that case, I suppose I
+must come out; but why do you insist that I have any knowledge of your
+nephew, Mr. Charles Holland?"
+
+"You were to have fought a duel with him, and now he's gone."
+
+"I am here," said Varney.
+
+"Ay," said the admiral, "that's as plain as a purser's shirt upon a
+handspike; but that's the very reason why my nevey ain't here, and
+that's all about it."
+
+"And that's marvellous little, so far as the sense is concerned," said
+Varney, without the movement of a muscle.
+
+"It is said that people of your class don't like fighting mortal men;
+now you have disposed of him, lest he should dispose of you."
+
+"That is explicit, but it is to no purpose, since the gentleman in
+question hasn't placed himself at my disposal."
+
+"Then, d----e, I will; fish, flesh, or fowl, I don't care; all's one to
+Admiral Bell. Come fair or fowl, I'm a tar for all men; a seaman ever
+ready to face a foe, so here goes, you lubberly moon manufactured calf."
+
+"I hear, admiral, but it is scarcely civil, to say the least of it;
+however, as you are somewhat eccentric, and do not, I dare say, mean all
+your words imply, I am quite willing to make every allowance."
+
+"I don't want any allowance; d--n you and your allowance, too; nothing
+but allowance of grog, and a pretty good allowance, too, will do for me,
+and tell you, Sir Francis Varney," said the admiral, with much wrath,
+"that you are a d----d lubberly hound, and I'll fight you; yes, I'm
+ready to hammer away, or with anything from a pop-gun to a ship's gun;
+you don't come over me with your gammon, I tell you. You've murdered
+Charles Holland because you couldn't face him--that's the truth of it."
+
+"With the other part of your speech, Admiral Bell, allow me to say, you
+have mixed up a serious accusation--one I cannot permit to pass
+lightly."
+
+"Will you or not fight?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I shall be happy to serve you any way that I can. I hope this
+will be an answer to your accusation, also."
+
+"That's settled, then."
+
+"Why, I am not captious, Admiral Bell, but it is not generally usual for
+the principals to settle the preliminaries themselves; doubtless you, in
+your career of fame and glory, know something of the manner in which
+gentlemen demean themselves on these occasions."
+
+"Oh, d--n you! Yes, I'll send some one to do all this. Yes, yes, Jack
+Pringle will be the man, though Jack ain't a holiday, shore-going,
+smooth-spoken swab, but as good a seaman as ever trod deck or handled a
+boarding-pike."
+
+"Any friend of yours," said Varney, blandly, "will be received and
+treated as such upon an errand of such consequence; and now our
+conference has, I presume, concluded."
+
+"Yes, yes, I've done--d----e, no--yes--no. I will keel-haul you but I'll
+know something of my neavy, Charles Holland."
+
+"Good day, Admiral Bell." As Varney spoke, he placed his hand upon the
+bell which he had near him, to summon an attendant to conduct the
+admiral out. The latter, who had said a vast deal more than he ever
+intended, left the room in a great rage, protesting to himself that he
+would amply avenge his nephew, Charles Holland.
+
+He proceeded homeward, considerably vexed and annoyed that he had been
+treated with so much calmness, and all knowledge of his nephew denied.
+
+When he got back, he quarrelled heartily with Jack Pringle--made it
+up--drank grog--quarrelled--made it up, and finished with grog
+again--until he went to bed swearing he should like to fire a broadside
+at the whole of the French army, and annihilate it at once.
+
+With this wish, he fell asleep.
+
+Early next morning, Henry Bannerworth sought Mr. Chillingworth, and
+having found him, he said in a serious tone,--
+
+"Mr. Chillingworth, I have rather a serious favour to ask you, and one
+which you may hesitate in granting."
+
+"It must be very serious indeed," said Mr. Chillingworth, "that I should
+hesitate to grant it to you; but pray inform me what it is that you deem
+so serious?"
+
+"Sir Francis Varney and I must have a meeting," said Henry.
+
+"Have you really determined upon such a course?" said Mr. Chillingworth;
+"you know the character of your adversary?"
+
+"That is all settled,--I have given a challenge, and he has accepted it;
+so all other considerations verge themselves into one--and that is the
+when, where, and how."
+
+"I see," said Mr. Chillingworth. "Well, since it cannot be helped on
+your part, I will do what is requisite for you--do you wish anything to
+be done or insisted on in particular in this affair."
+
+"Nothing with regard to Sir Francis Varney that I may not leave to your
+discretion. I feel convinced that he is the assassin of Charles Holland,
+whom he feared to fight in duel."
+
+"Then there remains but little else to do, but to arrange preliminaries,
+I believe. Are you prepared on every other point?"
+
+"I am--you will see that I am the challenger, and that he must now
+fight. What accident may turn up to save him, I fear not, but sure I am,
+that he will endeavour to take every advantage that may arise, and so
+escape the encounter."
+
+"And what do you imagine he will do now he has accepted your challenge?"
+said Mr. Chillingworth; "one would imagine he could not very well
+escape."
+
+"No--but he accepted the challenge which Charles Holland sent him--a
+duel was inevitable, and it seems to me to be a necessary consequence
+that he disappeared from amongst us, for Mr. Holland would never have
+shrunk from the encounter."
+
+"There can be no sort of suspicion about that," remarked Chillingworth;
+"but allow me to advise you that you take care of yourself, and keep a
+watchful eye upon every one--do not be seen out alone."
+
+"I fear not."
+
+"Nay, the gentleman who has disappeared was, I am sure, fearless enough;
+but yet that has not saved him. I would not advise you to be fearful,
+only watchful; you have now an event awaiting upon you, which it is well
+you should go through with, unless circumstances should so turn out,
+that it is needless; therefore I say, when you have the suspicions you
+do entertain of this man's conduct, beware, be cautious, and vigilant."
+
+"I will do so--in the mean time, I trust myself confidently in your
+hands--you know all that is necessary."
+
+"This affair is quite a secret from all of the family?"
+
+"Most certainly so, and will remain so--I shall be at the Hall."
+
+"And there I will see you--but be careful not to be drawn into any
+adventure of any kind--it is best to be on the safe side under all
+circumstances."
+
+"I will be especially careful, be assured, but farewell; see Sir Francis
+Varney as early as you can, and let the meeting be as early as you can,
+and thus diminish the chance of accident."
+
+"That I will attend to. Farewell for the present."
+
+Mr. Chillingworth immediately set about the conducting of the affair
+thus confided to him; and that no time might be lost, he determined to
+set out at once for Sir Francis Varney's residence.
+
+"Things with regard to this family seem to have gone on wild of late,"
+thought Mr. Chillingworth; "this may bring affairs to a conclusion,
+though I had much rather they had come to some other. My life for it,
+there is a juggle or a mystery somewhere; I will do this, and then we
+shall see what will come of it; if this Sir Francis Varney meets
+him--and at this moment I can see no reason why he should not do so--it
+will tend much to deprive him of the mystery about him; but if, on the
+other hand, he refuse--but then that's all improbable, because he has
+agreed to do so. I fear, however, that such a man as Varney is a
+dreadful enemy to encounter--he is cool and unruffled--and that gives
+him all the advantage in such affairs; but Henry's nerves are not bad,
+though shaken by these untowards events; but time will show--I would it
+were all over."
+
+With these thoughts and feelings strangely intermixed, Mr. Chillingworth
+set forward for Sir Francis Varney's house.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Admiral Bell slept soundly enough though, towards morning, he fell into
+a strange dream, and thought he was yard arm and yard arm with a strange
+fish--something of the mermaid species.
+
+"Well," exclaimed the admiral, after a customary benediction of his eyes
+and limbs, "what's to come next? may I be spliced to a shark if I
+understand what this is all about. I had some grog last night, but then
+grog, d'y'see, is--is--a seaman's native element, as the newspapers say,
+though I never read 'em now, it's such a plague."
+
+He lay quiet for a short time, considering in his own mind what was best
+to be done, and what was the proper course to pursue, and why he should
+dream.
+
+"Hilloa, hilloa, hil--loa! Jack a-hoy! a-hoy!" shouted the admiral, as a
+sudden recollection of his challenge came across his memory; "Jack
+Pringle a-hoy? d--n you, where are you?--you're never at hand when you
+are wanted. Oh, you lubber,--a-hoy!"
+
+"A-hoy!" shouted a voice, as the door opened, and Jack thrust his head
+in; "what cheer, messmate? what ship is this?"
+
+"Oh, you lubberly--"
+
+The door was shut in a minute, and Jack Pringle disappeared.
+
+"Hilloa, Jack Pringle, you don't mean to say you'll desert your colours,
+do you, you dumb dog?"
+
+"Who says I'll desert the ship as she's sea-worthy!"
+
+"Then why do you go away?"
+
+"Because I won't be called lubberly. I'm as good a man as ever swabbed a
+deck, and don't care who says to the contrary. I'll stick to the ship as
+long as she's seaworthy," said Jack.
+
+"Well, come here, and just listen to the log, and be d----d to you."
+
+"What's the orders now, admiral?" said Jack, "though, as we are paid
+off--"
+
+"There, take that, will you?" said Admiral Bell, as he flung a pillow at
+Jack, being the only thing in the shape of a missile within reach.
+
+Jack ducked, and the pillow produced a clatter in the washhand-stand
+among the crockery, as Jack said,--
+
+"There's a mutiny in the ship, and hark how the cargo clatters; will you
+have it back again?"
+
+"Come, will you? I've been dreaming, Jack."
+
+"Dreaming! what's that?"
+
+"Thinking of something when you are asleep, you swab."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Jack; "never did such a thing in my life--ha, ha,
+ha! what's the matter now?"
+
+"I'll tell you what's the matter. Jack Pringle, you are becoming
+mutinous, and I won't have it; if you don't hold your jaw and draw in
+your slacks, I'll have another second."
+
+"Another second! what's in the wind, now?" said Jack. "Is this the
+dream?"
+
+"If ever I dream when I'm alongside a strange craft, then it is a dream;
+but old Admiral Bell ain't the man to sleep when there's any work to be
+done."
+
+"That's uncommon true," said Jack, turning a quid.
+
+"Well, then, I'm going to fight."
+
+"Fight!" exclaimed Jack. "Avast, there, I don't see where's the
+enemy--none o' that gammon; Jack Pringle can fight, too, and will lay
+alongside his admiral, but he don't see the enemy anywhere."
+
+"You don't understand these things, so I'll tell you. I have had a bit
+of talk with Sir Francis Varney, and I am going to fight him."
+
+"What the _wamphigher_?" remarked Jack, parenthetically.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, then," resumed Jack, "then we shall see another blaze, at least
+afore we die; but he's an odd fish--one of Davy Jones's sort."
+
+"I don't care about that; he may be anything he likes; but Admiral Bell
+ain't a-going to have his nephew burned and eaten, and sucked like I
+don't know what, by a vampyre, or by any other confounded land-shark."
+
+"In course," said Jack, "we ain't a-going to put up with nothing of that
+sort, and if so be as how he has put him out of the way, why it's our
+duty to send him after him, and square the board."
+
+"That's the thing, Jack; now you know you must go to Sir Francis Varney
+and tell him you come from me."
+
+"I don't care if I goes on my own account," said Jack.
+
+"That won't do; I've challenged him and I must fight him."
+
+"In course you will," returned Jack, "and, if he blows you away, why
+I'll take your place, and have a blaze myself."
+
+The admiral gave a look at Jack of great admiration, and then said,--
+
+"You are a d----d good seaman, Jack, but he's a knight, and might say no
+to that, but do you go to him, and tell him that you come from me to
+settle the when and the where this duel is to be fought."
+
+"Single fight?" said Jack.
+
+"Yes; consent to any thing that is fair," said the admiral, "but let it
+be as soon as you can. Now, do you understand what I have said?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure; I ain't lived all these years without knowing your
+lingo."
+
+"Then go at once; and don't let the honour of Admiral Bell and old
+England suffer, Jack. I'm his man, you know, at any price."
+
+"Never fear," said Jack; "you shall fight him, at any rate. I'll go and
+see he don't back out, the warmint."
+
+"Then go along, Jack; and mind don't you go blazing away like a fire
+ship, and letting everybody know what's going on, or it'll be stopped."
+
+"I'll not spoil sport," said Jack, as he left the room, to go at once to
+Sir Francis Varney, charged with the conducting of the important cartel
+of the admiral. Jack made the best of his way with becoming gravity and
+expedition until he reached the gate of the admiral's enemy.
+
+Jack rang loudly at the gate; there seemed, if one might judge by his
+countenance, a something on his mind, that Jack was almost another man.
+The gate was opened by the servant, who inquired what he wanted there.
+
+"The wamphigher."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"The wamphigher."
+
+The servant frowned, and was about to say something uncivil to Jack, who
+winked at him very hard, and then said,--
+
+"Oh, may be you don't know him, or won't know him by that name: I wants
+to see Sir Francis Varney."
+
+"He's at home," said the servant; "who are you?"
+
+"Show me up, then. I'm Jack Pringle, and I'm come from Admiral Bell; I'm
+the Admiral's friend, you see, so none of your black looks."
+
+The servant seemed amazed, as well as rather daunted, at Jack's address;
+he showed him, however, into the hall, where Mr. Chillingworth had just
+that moment arrived, and was waiting for an interview with Varney.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+MARCHDALE'S OFFER.--THE CONSULTATION AT BANNERWORTH HALL.--THE MORNING
+OF THE DUEL.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Mr. Chillingworth was much annoyed to see Jack Pringle in the hall, and
+Jack was somewhat surprised at seeing Mr. Chillingworth there at that
+time in the rooming; they had but little time to indulge in their mutual
+astonishment, for a servant came to announce that Sir Francis Varney
+would see them both.
+
+Without saying anything to the servant or each other, they ascended the
+staircase, and were shown into the apartment where Sir Francis Varney
+received them.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Sir Francis, in his usual bland tone, "you are
+welcome."
+
+"Sir Francis," said Mr. Chillingworth, "I have come upon matters of some
+importance; may I crave a separate audience?"
+
+"And I too," said Jack Pringle; "I come as the friend of Admiral Bell, I
+want a private audience; but, stay, I don't care a rope's end who knows
+who I am, or what I come about; say you are ready to name time and
+place, and I'm as dumb as a figure-head; that is saying something, at all
+events; and now I'm done."
+
+"Why, gentlemen," said Sir Francis, with a quiet smile, "as you have
+both come upon the same errand, and as there may arise a controversy
+upon the point of precedence, you had better be both present, as I must
+arrange this matter myself upon due inquiry."
+
+"I do not exactly understand this," said Mr. Chillingworth; "do you, Mr.
+Pringle? perhaps you can enlighten me?"
+
+"It," said Jack, "as how you came here upon the same errand as I, and I
+as you, why we both come about fighting Sir Francis Varney."
+
+"Yes," said Sir Francis; "what Mr. Pringle says, is, I believe correct
+to a letter. I have a challenge from both your principals, and am ready
+to give you both the satisfaction you desire, provided the first
+encounter will permit me the honour of joining in the second. You, Mr.
+Pringle, are aware of the chances of war?"
+
+"I should say so," said Jack, with a wink and a nod of a familiar
+character. "I've seen a few of them."
+
+"Will you proceed to make the necessary agreement between you both,
+gentlemen? My affection for the one equals fully the good will I bear
+the other, and I cannot give a preference in so delicate a matter;
+proceed gentlemen."
+
+Mr. Chillingworth looked at Jack, and Jack Pringle looked at Mr.
+Chillingworth, and then the former said,--
+
+"Well, the admiral means fighting, and I am come to settle the
+necessaries; pray let me know what are your terms, Mr.
+What-d'ye-call'em."
+
+"I am agreeable to anything that is at all reasonable--pistols, I
+presume?"
+
+"Sir Francis Varney," said Mr. Chillingworth, "I cannot consent to carry
+on this office, unless you can appoint a friend who will settle these
+matters with us--myself, at least."
+
+"And I too," said Jack Pringle; "we don't want to bear down an enemy.
+Admiral Bell ain't the man to do that, and if he were, I'm not the man
+to back him in doing what isn't fair or right; but he won't do it."
+
+"But, gentlemen, this must not be; Mr. Henry Bannerworth must not be
+disappointed, and Admiral Bell must not be disappointed. Moreover, I
+have accepted the two cartels, and I am ready and willing to fight;--one
+at a time, I presume?"
+
+"Sir Francis, after what you have said, I must take upon myself, on the
+part of Mr. Henry Bannerworth, to decline meeting you, if you cannot
+name a friend with whom I can arrange this affair."
+
+"Ah!" said Jack Pringle, "that's right enough. I recollect very well
+when Jack Mizeu fought Tom Foremast, they had their seconds. Admiral
+Bell can't do anything in the dark. No, no, d----e! all must be above
+board."
+
+"Gentlemen," said Sir Francis Varney, "you see the dilemma I am in. Your
+principals have both challenged me. I am ready to fight any one, or both
+of them, as the case may be. Distinctly understand that; because it is a
+notion of theirs that I will not do so, or that I shrink from them; but
+I am a stranger in this neighbourhood, and have no one whom I could call
+upon to relinquish so much, as they run the risk of doing by attending
+me to the field."
+
+"Then your acquaintances are no friends, d----e!" said Jack Pringle,
+spitting through his teeth into the bars of a beautifully polished
+grate. "I'd stick to anybody--the devil himself, leave alone a
+vampyre--if so be as how I had been his friends and drunk grog from the
+same can. They are a set of lubbers."
+
+"I have not been here long enough to form any such friendships, Mr.
+Chillingworth; but can confidently rely upon your honour and that of
+your principal, and will freely and fairly meet him."
+
+"But, Sir Francis, you forget the fact, in transacting, myself for
+Mr. Bannerworth, and this person or Admiral Bell, we do match, and have
+our own characters at stake; nay more, our lives and fortunes. These may
+be small; but they are everything to us. Allow me to say, on my own
+behalf, that I will not permit my principal to meet you unless you can
+name a second, as is usual with gentlemen on such occasions."
+
+"I regret, while I declare to you my entire willingness to meet you,
+that I cannot comply through utter inability to do so, with your
+request. Let this go forth to the world as I have stated it, and let it
+be an answer to any aspersions that may be uttered as to my
+unwillingness to fight."
+
+There was a pause of some moments. Mr. Chillingworth was resolved that,
+come of it what would, he would not permit Henry to fight, unless Sir
+Francis Varney himself should appoint a friend, and then they could meet
+upon equal terms.
+
+Jack Pringle whistled, and spit, and chewed and turned his quid--hitched
+up his trousers, and looked wistfully from one to the other, as he
+said,--
+
+"So then it's likely to be no fight at all, Sir Francis what's-o'-name?"
+
+"It seems like it, Mr. Pringle," replied Varney, with a meaning smile;
+"unless you can be more complaisant towards myself, and kind towards the
+admiral."
+
+"Why, not exactly that," said Jack; "it's a pity to stop a good play in
+the beginning, just because some little thing is wrong in the tackling."
+
+"Perhaps your skill and genius may enable us to find some medium course
+that we may pursue with pleasure and profit. What say you, Mr. Pringle?"
+
+"All I know about genius, as you call it is the Flying Dutchman, or some
+such odd out of the way fish. But, as I said, I am not one to spoil
+sport, nor more is the admiral. Oh, no, we is all true men and good."
+
+"I believe it," said Varney, bowing politely.
+
+"You needn't keep your figure-head on the move; I can see you just as
+well. Howsoever, as I was saying, I don't like to spoil sport, and
+sooner than both parties should be disappointed, my principal shall
+become your second, Sir Francis."
+
+"What, Admiral Bell?" exclaimed Varney, lifting his eyebrows with
+surprise.
+
+"What, Charles Holland's uncle!" exclaimed Mr. Chillingworth, in accents
+of amazement.
+
+"And why not?" said Jack, with great gravity. "I will pledge my
+word--Jack Pringle's word--that Admiral Bell shall be second to Sir
+Francis Varney, during his scrimmage with Mr. Henry Bannerworth. That
+will let the matter go on; there can be no back-out then, eh?" continued
+Jack Pringle, with a knowing nod at Chillingworth as he spoke.
+
+"That will, I hope, remove your scruples, Mr. Chillingworth," said
+Varney, with a courteous smile.
+
+"But will Admiral Bell do this?"
+
+"His second says so, and has, I daresay, influence enough with him to
+induce that person to act in conformity with his promise."
+
+"In course he will. Do you think he would be the man to hang back? Oh,
+no; he would be the last to leave Jack Pringle in the lurch--no. Depend
+upon it, Sir Francis, he'll be as sure to do what I say, as I have said
+it."
+
+"After that assurance, I cannot doubt it," said Sir Francis Varney;
+"this act of kindness will, indeed, lay me under a deep and lasting
+obligation to Admiral Bell, which I fear I shall never be able to pay."
+
+"You need not trouble yourself about that," said Jack Pringle; "the
+admiral will credit all, and you can pay off old scores when his turn
+comes in the field."
+
+"I will not forget," said Varney; "he deserves every consideration; but
+now, Mr. Chillingworth, I presume that we may come to some understanding
+respecting this meeting, which you were so kind as to do me the honour
+of seeking."
+
+"I cannot object to its taking place. I shall be most happy to meet your
+second in the field, and will arrange with him."
+
+"I imagine that, under the circumstances, that it will be barely
+necessary to go to that length of ceremony. Future interviews can be
+arranged later; name the time and place, and after that we can settle
+all the rest on the ground."
+
+"Yes," said Jack; "it will be time enough, surely, to see the admiral
+when we are upon the ground. I'll warrant the old buffer is a true brick
+as ever was: there's no flinching about him."
+
+"I am satisfied," said Varney.
+
+"And I also," said Chillingworth; "but, understand, Sir Francis, any
+default for seconds makes the meeting a blank."
+
+"I will not doubt Mr. Pringle's honour so much as to believe it
+possible."
+
+"I'm d----d," said Jack, "if you ain't a trump-card, and no mistake;
+it's a great pity as you is a wamphigher."
+
+"The time, Mr. Chillingworth?"
+
+"To-morrow, at seven o'clock," replied that gentleman.
+
+"The place, sir?"
+
+"The best place that I can think of is a level meadow half-way between
+here and Bannerworth Hall; but that is your privilege, Sir Francis
+Varney."
+
+"I waive it, and am much obliged to you for the choice of the spot; it
+seems of the best character imaginable. I will be punctual."
+
+"I think we have nothing further to arrange now," said Mr.
+Chillingworth. "You will meet with Admiral Bell."
+
+"Certainly. I believe there is nothing more to be done; this affair is
+very satisfactorily arranged, and much better than I anticipated."
+
+"Good morning, Sir Francis," said Mr. Chillingworth. "Good morning."
+
+"Adieu," said Sir Francis, with a courteous salutation. "Good day, Mr.
+Pringle, and commend me to the admiral, whose services will be of
+infinite value to me."
+
+"Don't mention it," said Jack; "the admiral's the man as'd lend any body
+a helping hand in case of distress like the present; and I'll pledge my
+word--Jack Pringle's too, as that he'll do what's right, and give up his
+turn to Mr. Henry Bannerworth; cause you see he can have his turn
+arterwards, you know--it's only waiting awhile."
+
+"That's all," said Sir Francis.
+
+Jack Pringle made a sea bow and took his leave, as he followed Mr.
+Chillingworth, and they both left the house together, to return to
+Bannerworth Hall.
+
+"Well," said Mr. Chillingworth, "I am glad that Sir Francis Varney has
+got over the difficulty of having no seconds; for it would not be proper
+or safe to meet a man without a friend for him."
+
+"It ain't the right thing," said Jack hitching up his trousers; "but I
+was afeard as how he would back out, and that would be just the wrong
+thing for the admiral; he'd go raving mad."
+
+They had got but very few paces from Sir Francis Varney's house, when
+they were joined by Marchdale.
+
+"Ah," he said, as he came up, "I see you have been to Sir Francis
+Varney's, if I may judge from the direction whence you're coming, and
+your proximity."
+
+"Yes, we have," said Mr. Chillingworth. "I thought you had left these
+parts?"
+
+"I had intended to do so," replied Marchdale; "but second thoughts are
+sometimes best, you know."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"I have so much friendship for the family at the hall, that
+notwithstanding I am compelled to be absent from the mansion itself, yet
+I cannot quit the neighbourhood while there are circumstances of such a
+character hanging about them. I will remain, and see if there be not
+something arising, in which I may be useful to them in some matter."
+
+"It is very disinterested of you; you will remain here for some time, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Yes, undoubtedly; unless, as I do not anticipate, I should see any
+occasion to quit my present quarters."
+
+"I tell you what it is," said Jack Pringle; "if you had been here
+half-an-hour earlier you could have seconded the wamphigher."
+
+"Seconded!"
+
+"Yes, we're here to challenge."
+
+"A double challenge?"
+
+"Yes; but in confiding this matter to you, Mr. Marchdale, you will make
+no use of it to the exploding of this affair. By so doing you will
+seriously damage the honour of Mr. Henry Bannerworth."
+
+"I will not, you may rely upon it; but Mr. Chillingworth, do I not see
+you in the character of a second?"
+
+"You do, sir."
+
+"To Mr. Henry?"
+
+"The same, sir."
+
+"Have you reflected upon the probable consequences of such an act,
+should any serious mischief occur?"
+
+"What I have undertaken, Mr. Marchdale, I will go through with; the
+consequences I have duly considered, and yet you see me in the character
+of Mr. Henry Bannerworth's friend."
+
+"I am happy to see you as such, and I do not think Henry could find a
+better. But this is beside the question. What induced me to make the
+remark was this,--had I been at the hall, you will admit that Henry
+Bannerworth would have chosen myself, without any disparagement to you,
+Mr. Chillingworth."
+
+"Well sir, what then?"
+
+"Why I am a single man, I can live, reside and go any where; one country
+will suit me as well as another. I shall suffer no loss, but as for you,
+you will be ruined in every particular; for if you go in the character
+of a second, you will not be excused; for all the penalties incurred
+your profession of a surgeon will not excuse you."
+
+"I see all that, sir."
+
+"What I propose is, that you should accompany the parties to the field,
+but in your own proper character of surgeon, and permit me to take that
+of second to Mr. Bannerworth."
+
+"This cannot be done, unless by Mr. Henry Bannerworth's consent," said
+Mr. Chillingworth.
+
+"Then I will accompany you to Bannerworth Hall, and see Mr. Henry, whom
+I will request to permit me to do what I have mentioned to you."
+
+Mr. Chillingworth could not but admit the reasonableness of this
+proposal, and it was agreed they should return to Bannerworth Hall in
+company.
+
+Here they arrived in a very short time after, and entered together.
+
+"And now," said Mr. Chillingworth, "I will go and bring our two
+principals, who will be as much astonished to find themselves engaged in
+the same quarrel, as I was to find myself sent on a similar errand to
+Sir Francis with our friend Mr. John Pringle."
+
+"Oh, not John--Jack Pringle, you mean," said that individual.
+
+Chillingworth now went in search of Henry, and sent him to the apartment
+where Mr. Marchdale was with Jack Pringle, and then he found the admiral
+waiting the return of Jack with impatience.
+
+"Admiral!" he said, "I perceive you are unwell this morning."
+
+"Unwell be d----d," said the admiral, starting up with surprise. "Who
+ever heard that old admiral Bell looked ill just afore he was going into
+action? I say it's a scandalous lie."
+
+"Admiral, admiral, I didn't say you were ill; only you looked ill--a--a
+little nervous, or so. Rather pale, eh? Is it not so?"
+
+"Confound you, do you think I want to be physicked? I tell you, I have
+not a little but a great inclination to give you a good keelhauling. I
+don't want a doctor just yet."
+
+"But it may not be so long, you know, admiral; but there is Jack Pringle
+a-waiting you below. Will you go to him? There is a particular reason;
+he has something to communicate from Sir Francis Varney, I believe."
+
+The admiral gave a look of some amazement at Mr. Chillingworth, and then
+he said, muttering to himself,--
+
+"If Jack Pringle should have betrayed me--but, no; he could not do that,
+he is too true. I'm sure of Jack; and how did that son of a gallipot
+hint about the odd fish I sent Jack to?"
+
+Filled with a dubious kind of belief which he had about something he had
+heard of Jack Pringle, he entered the room, where he met Marchdale, Jack
+Pringle, and Henry Bannerworth. Immediately afterwards, Mr.
+Chillingworth entered the apartment.
+
+"I have," said he, "been to Sir Francis Varney, and there had an
+interview with him, and with Mr. Pringle; when I found we were both
+intent upon the same object, namely, an encounter with the knight by our
+principals."
+
+"Eh?" said the admiral.
+
+"What!" exclaimed Henry; "had he challenged you, admiral?"
+
+"Challenged me!" exclaimed Admiral Bell, with a round oath.
+"I--however--since it comes to this, I must admit I challenged him."
+
+"That's what I did," said Henry Bannerworth, after a moment's thought;
+"and I perceive we have both fallen into the same line of conduct."
+
+"That is the fact," said Mr. Chillingworth. "Both Mr. Pringle and I went
+there to settle the preliminaries, and we found an insurmountable bar to
+any meeting taking place at all."
+
+"He wouldn't fight, then?" exclaimed Henry. "I see it all now."
+
+"Not fight!" said Admiral Bell, with a sort of melancholy
+disappointment. "D--n the cowardly rascal! Tell me, Jack Pringle, what
+did the long horse-marine-looking slab say to it? He told me he would
+fight. Why he ought to be made to stand sentry over the wind."
+
+"You challenged him in person, too, I suppose?" said Henry.
+
+"Yes, confound him! I went there last night."
+
+"And I too."
+
+"It seems to me," said Marchdale, "that this affair has been not
+indiscretely conducted; but somewhat unusually and strangely, to say the
+least of it."
+
+"You see," said Chillingworth, "Sir Francis was willing to fight both
+Henry and the admiral, as he told us."
+
+"Yes," said Jack; "he told us he would fight us both, if so be as his
+light was not doused in the first brush."
+
+"That was all that was wanted," said the admiral.
+
+"We could expect no more."
+
+"But then he desired to meet you without any second; but, of course, I
+would not accede to this proposal. The responsibility was too great and
+too unequally borne by the parties engaged in the rencontre."
+
+"Decidedly," said Henry; "but it is unfortunate--very unfortunate."
+
+"Very," said the admiral--"very. What a rascally thing it is there ain't
+another rogue in the country to keep him in countenance."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"I thought it was a pity to spoil sport," said Jack Pringle. "It was a
+pity a good intention should be spoiled, and I promised the wamphigher
+that if as how he would fight, you should second him, and you'd meet him
+to do so."
+
+"Eh! who? I!" exclaimed the admiral in some perplexity.
+
+"Yes; that is the truth," said Mr. Chillingworth. "Mr Pringle said you
+would do so, and he then and there pledged his word that you should meet
+him on the ground and second him."
+
+"Yes," said Jack "You must do it. I knew you would not spoil sport, and
+that there had better be a fight than no fight. I believe you'd sooner
+see a scrimmage than none, and so it's all arranged."
+
+"Very well," said the admiral, "I only wish Mr. Henry Bannerworth had
+been his second; I think I was entitled to the first meeting."
+
+"No," said Jack, "you warn't, for Mr. Chillingworth was there first;
+first come first served, you know."
+
+"Well, well, I mustn't grumble at another man's luck; mine'll come in
+turn; but it had better be so than a disappointment altogether; I'll be
+second to this Sir Francis Varney; he shall have fair play, as I'm an
+admiral; but, d----e he shall fight--yes, yes, he shall fight."
+
+"And to this conclusion I would come," said Henry, "I wish him to fight;
+now I will take care that he shall not have any opportunity of putting
+me on one side quietly."
+
+"There is one thing," observed Marchdale, "that I wished to propose.
+After what has passed, I should not have returned, had I not some
+presentiment that something was going forward in which I could be useful
+to my friend."
+
+"Oh!" said the admiral, with a huge twist of his countenance.
+
+"What I was about to say was this,--Mr. Chillingworth has much to lose
+as he is situated, and I nothing as I am placed. I am chained down to no
+spot of earth. I am above following a profession--my means, I mean,
+place me above the necessity. Now, Henry, allow me to be your second in
+this affair; allow Mr. Chillingworth to attend in his professional
+capacity; he may be of service--of great service to one of the
+principals; whereas, if he go in any other capacity, he will inevitably
+have his own safety to consult."
+
+"That is most unquestionably true," said Henry, "and, to my mind, the
+best plan that can be proposed. What say you, Admiral Bell, will you act
+with Mr. Marchdale in this affair?"
+
+"Oh, I!--Yes--certainly--I don't care. Mr. Marchdale is Mr. Marchdale, I
+believe, and that's all I care about. If we quarrel to-day, and have
+anything to do to-morrow, in course, to-morrow I can put off my quarrel
+for next day; it will keep,--that's all I have to say at present."
+
+"Then this is a final arrangement?" said Mr. Chillingworth.
+
+"It is."
+
+"But, Mr. Bannerworth, in resigning my character of second to Mr.
+Marchdale, I only do so because it appears and seems to be the opinion
+of all present that I can be much better employed in another capacity."
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Chillingworth; and I cannot but feel that I am under the
+same obligations to you for the readiness and zeal with which you have
+acted."
+
+"I have done what I have done," said Chillingworth, "because I believed
+it was my duty to do so."
+
+"Mr. Chillingworth has undoubtedly acted most friendly and efficiently
+in this affair," said Marchdale; "and he does not relinquish the part
+for the purpose of escaping a friendly deed, but to perform one in which
+he may act in a capacity that no one else can."
+
+"That is true," said the admiral.
+
+"And now," said Chillingworth, "you are to meet to-morrow morning in the
+meadow at the bottom of the valley, half way between here and Sir
+Francis Varney's house, at seven o'clock in the morning."
+
+More conversation passed among them, and it was agreed that they should
+meet early the next morning, and that, of course, the affair should be
+kept a secret.
+
+Marchdale for that night should remain in the house, and the admiral
+should appear as if little or nothing was the matter; and he and Jack
+Pringle retired, to talk over in private all the arrangements.
+
+Henry Bannerworth and Marchdale also retired, and Mr. Chillingworth,
+after a time, retired, promising to be with them in time for the meeting
+next morning.
+
+Much of that day was spent by Henry Bannerworth in his own apartment, in
+writing documents and letters of one kind and another; but at night he
+had not finished, for he had been compelled to be about, and in Flora's
+presence, to prevent anything from being suspected.
+
+Marchdale was much with him, and in secret examined the arms,
+ammunition, and bullets, and saw all was right for the next morning; and
+when he had done, he said,--
+
+"Now, Henry, you must permit me to insist that you take some hours'
+repose, else you will scarcely be as you ought to be."
+
+"Very good," said Henry. "I have just finished, and can take your
+advice."
+
+After many thoughts and reflections, Henry Bannerworth fell into a deep
+sleep, and slept several hours in calmness and quietude, and at an early
+hour he awoke, and saw Marchdale sitting by him.
+
+"Is it time, Marchdale? I have not overslept myself, have I?"
+
+"No; time enough--time enough," said Marchdale. "I should have let you
+sleep longer, but I should have awakened you in good time."
+
+It was now the grey light of morning, and Henry arose and began to
+prepare for the encounter. Marchdale stole to Admiral Bell's chamber,
+but he and Jack Pringle were ready.
+
+Few words were spoken, and those few were in a whisper, and the whole
+party left the Hall in as noiseless a manner as possible. It was a mild
+morning, and yet it was cold at that time of the morning, just as day is
+beginning to dawn in the east. There was, however, ample time to reach
+the rendezvous.
+
+It was a curious party that which was now proceeding towards the spot
+appointed for the duel, the result of which might have so important an
+effect on the interests of those who were to be engaged in it.
+
+It would be difficult for us to analyse the different and conflicting
+emotions that filled the breasts of the various individuals composing
+that party--the hopes and fears--the doubts and surmises that were given
+utterance to; though we are compelled to acknowledge that though to
+Henry, the character of the man he was going to meet in mortal fight was
+of a most ambiguous and undefined nature, and though no one could
+imagine the means he might be endowed with for protection against the
+arms of man--Henry, as we said, strode firmly forward with unflinching
+resolution. His heart was set on recovering the happiness of his sister,
+and he would not falter.
+
+So far, then, we may consider that at length proceedings of a hostile
+character were so far clearly and fairly arranged between Henry
+Bannerworth and that most mysterious being who certainly, from some
+cause or another, had betrayed no inclination to meet an opponent in
+that manner which is sanctioned, bad as it is, by the usages of society.
+
+But whether his motive was one of cowardice or mercy, remained yet to be
+seen. It might be that he feared himself receiving some mortal injury,
+which would at once put a stop to that preternatural career of existence
+which he affected to shudder at, and yet evidently took considerable
+pains to prolong.
+
+Upon the other hand, it is just possible that some consciousness of
+invulnerability on his own part, or of great power to injure his
+antagonist, might be the cause why he had held back so long from
+fighting the duel, and placed so many obstacles in the way of the usual
+necessary arrangements incidental to such occasions.
+
+Now, however, there would seem to be no possible means of escape. Sir
+Francis Varney must fight or fly, for he was surrounded by too many
+opponents.
+
+To be sure he might have appealed to the civil authorities to protect
+him, and to sanction him in his refusal to commit what undoubtedly is a
+legal offence; but then there cannot be a question that the whole of the
+circumstances would come out, and meet the public eye--the result of
+which would be, his acquisition of a reputation as unenviable as it
+would be universal.
+
+It had so happened, that the peculiar position of the Bannerworth family
+kept their acquaintance within extremely narrow limits, and greatly
+indisposed them to set themselves up as marks for peculiar observation.
+
+Once holding, as they had, a proud position in the county, and being
+looked upon quite as magnates of the land, they did not now court the
+prying eye of curiosity to look upon their poverty; but rather with a
+gloomy melancholy they lived apart, and repelled the advances of society
+by a cold reserve, which few could break through.
+
+Had this family suffered in any noble cause, or had the misfortunes
+which had come over them, and robbed their ancestral house of its
+lustre, been an unavoidable dispensation of providence, they would have
+borne the hard position with a different aspect; but it must be
+remembered, that to the faults, the vices, and the criminality of some
+of their race, was to be attributed their present depressed state.
+
+It has been seen during the progress of our tale, that its action has
+been tolerably confined to Bannerworth Hall, its adjacent meadows, and
+the seat of Sir Francis Varney; the only person at any distance, knowing
+anything of the circumstances, or feeling any interest in them, being
+Mr. Chillingworth, the surgeon, who, from personal feeling, as well as
+from professional habit, was not likely to make a family's affairs a
+subject of gossip.
+
+A change, however, was at hand--a change of a most startling and
+alarming character to Varney--one which he might expect, yet not be well
+prepared for.
+
+This period of serenity was to pass away, and he was to become most
+alarmingly popular. We will not, however, anticipate, but proceed at
+once to detail as briefly as may be the hostile meeting.
+
+It would appear that Varney, now that he had once consented to the
+definitive arrangements of a duel, shrunk not in any way from carrying
+them out, nor in the slightest attempted to retard arrangements which
+might be fatal to himself.
+
+The early morning was one of those cloudy ones so frequently occurring
+in our fickle climate, when the cleverest weather prophet would find it
+difficult to predict what the next hour might produce.
+
+There was a kind of dim gloominess over all objects; and as there were
+no bright lights, there were no deep shadows--the consequence of which
+was a sureness of effect over the landscape, that robbed it of many of
+its usual beauties.
+
+Such was the state of things when Marchdale accompanied Henry and
+Admiral Bell from Bannerworth Hall across the garden in the direction of
+the hilly wood, close to which was the spot intended for the scene of
+encounter.
+
+Jack Pringle came on at a lazy pace behind with his hands in his
+pockets, and looking as unconcerned as if he had just come out for a
+morning's stroll, and scarcely knew whether he saw what was going on or
+not.
+
+The curious contortion into which he twisted his countenance, and the
+different odd-looking lumps that appeared in it from time to time, may
+be accounted for by a quid of unusual size, which he seemed to be
+masticating with a relish quite horrifying to one unused to so barbarous
+a luxury.
+
+The admiral had strictly enjoined him not to interfere on pain of being
+considered a lubber and no seaman for the remainder of his
+existence--threatened penalties which, of course, had their own weight
+with Jack, and accordingly he came just, to see the row in as quiet a
+way as possible, perhaps not without a hope, that something might turn
+up in the shape of a _causus belli_, that might justify him in adopting
+a threatening attitude towards somebody.
+
+"Now, Master Henry," said the admiral, "none of your palaver to me as we
+go along, recollect I don't belong to your party, you know. I've stood
+friend to two or three fellows in my time; but if anybody had said to
+me, 'Admiral Bell, the next time you go out on a quiet little shooting
+party, it will be as second to a vampyre,' I'd have said 'you're a liar'
+Howsomever, d--me, here you goes, and what I mean to say is this, Mr
+Henry, that I'd second even a Frenchman rather than he shouldn't fight
+when he's asked"
+
+"That's liberal of you," said Henry, "at all event"
+
+"I believe you it is," said the admiral, "so mind if you don't hit him,
+I'm not a-going to tell you how--all you've got to do, is to fire low;
+but that's no business of mine. Shiver my timbers, I oughtn't to tell
+you, but d--n you, hit him if you can."
+
+"Admiral," said Henry, "I can hardly think you are even preserving a
+neutrality in the matter, putting aside my own partisanship as regards
+your own man."
+
+"Oh, hang him. I'm not going to let him creep out of the thing on such a
+shabby pretence. I can tell you. I think I ought to have gone to his
+house this morning; only, as I said I never would cross his threshold
+again, I won't."
+
+"I wonder if he'll come," said Mr Marchdale to Henry. "After all, you
+know he may take to flight, and shun an encounter which, it is evident,
+he has entered into but tardily."
+
+"I hope not," said Henry, "and yet I must own that your supposition has
+several times crossed my mind. If, however, he do not meet me, he never
+can appear at all in the country, and we should, at least, be rid of
+him, and all his troublesome importunities concerning the Hall. I would
+not allow that man, on any account, to cross the threshold of my house,
+as its tenant or its owner."
+
+"Why, it ain't usual," said the admiral, "to let ones house to two
+people at once, unless you seem quite to forget that I've taken yours. I
+may as well remind you of it."
+
+"Hurra" said Jack Pringle, at this moment.
+
+"What's the matter with you? Who told you to hurra?"
+
+"Enemy in the offing," said Jack, "three or four pints to the sou-west."
+
+"So he is, by Jove! dodging about among the trees. Come, now, this
+vampyre's a decenter fellow than I thought him. He means, after all, to
+let us have a pop at him."
+
+They had now reached so close to the spot, that Sir Francis Varney, who,
+to all appearance, had been waiting, emerged from among the trees,
+rolled up in his dismal-looking cloak, and, if possible, looking longer
+and thinner than ever he had looked before.
+
+His face wore a singular cadaverous looking aspect. His very lips were
+white and there was a curious, pinkish-looking circle round each of his
+eyes, that imparted to his whole countenance a most uninviting
+appearance. He turned his eyes from one to the other of those who were
+advancing towards him, until he saw the admiral, upon which he gave such
+a grim and horrible smile, that the old man exclaimed,--
+
+"I say, Jack, you lubber, there's a face for a figure head."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"Did you ever see such a d----d grin as that in your life, in any
+latitude?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"You did you swab."
+
+"I should think so."
+
+"It's a lie, and you know it."
+
+"Very good," said Jack, "don't you recollect when that ere iron bullet
+walked over your head, leaving a nice little nick, all the way off
+Bergen-ap-Zoom, that was the time--blessed if you didn't give just such
+a grin as that."
+
+"I didn't, you rascal."
+
+"And I say you did."
+
+"Mutiny, by God!"
+
+"Go to blazes!"
+
+How far this contention might have gone, having now reached its
+culminating point, had the admiral and Jack been alone, it is hard to
+say; but as it was, Henry and Marchdale interfered, and so the quarrel
+was patched up for the moment, in order to give place to more important
+affairs.
+
+Varney seemed to think, that after the smiling welcome he had given to
+his second, he had done quite enough; for there he stood, tall, and
+gaunt, and motionless, if we may except an occasional singular movement
+of the mouth, and a clap together of his teeth, at times, which was
+enough to make anybody jump to hear.
+
+"For Heaven's sake," said Marchdale, "do not let us trifle at such a
+moment as this. Mr. Pringle, you really had no business here."
+
+"Mr. who?" said Jack.
+
+"Pringle, I believe, is your name?" returned Marchdale.
+
+"It were; but blowed if ever I was called mister before."
+
+The admiral walked up to Sir Francis Varney, and gave him a nod that
+looked much more like one of defiance than of salutation, to which the
+vampyre replied by a low, courtly bow.
+
+"Oh, bother!" muttered the old admiral. "If I was to double up my
+backbone like that, I should never get it down straight again. Well,
+all's right; you've come; that's all you could do, I suppose."
+
+"I am here," said Varney, "and therefore it becomes a work of
+supererogation to remark that I've come."
+
+"Oh! does it? I never bolted a dictionary, and, therefore, I don't know
+exactly what you mean."
+
+"Step aside with me a moment, Admiral Bell, and I will tell you what you
+are to do with me after I am shot, if such should be my fate."
+
+"Do with you! D----d if I'll do anything with you."
+
+"I don't expect you will regret me; you will eat."
+
+"Eat!"
+
+"Yes, and drink as usual, no doubt, notwithstanding being witness to the
+decease of a fellow-creature."
+
+"Belay there; don't call yourself a fellow-creature of mine; I ain't a
+vampyre."
+
+"But there's no knowing what you may be; and now listen to my
+instructions; for as you're my second, you cannot very well refuse to me
+a few friendly offices. Rain is falling. Step beneath this ancient tree,
+and I will talk to you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+THE STORM AND THE FIGHT.-THE ADMIRAL'S REPUDIATION OF HIS PRINCIPAL.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Well," said the admiral, when they were fairly under the tree, upon the
+leaves of which the pattering rain might be heard falling: "well--what
+is it?"
+
+"If your young friend, Mr. Bannerworth, should chance to send a
+pistol-bullet through any portion of my anatomy, prejudicial to the
+prolongation of my existence, you will be so good as not to interfere
+with anything I may have about me, or to make any disturbance whatever."
+
+"You may depend I sha'n't."
+
+"Just take the matter perfectly easy--as a thing of course."
+
+"Oh! I mean d----d easy."
+
+"Ha! what a delightful thing is friendship! There is a little knoll or
+mound of earth midway between here and the Hall. Do you happen to know
+it? There is one solitary tree glowing near its summit--an oriental
+looking tree, of the fir tribe, which, fan-like, spreads its deep green
+leaves; across the azure sky."
+
+"Oh! bother it; it's a d----d old tree, growing upon a little bit of a
+hill, I suppose you mean?"
+
+"Precisely; only much more poetically expressed. The moon rises at a
+quarter past four to-night, or rather to-morrow, morning."
+
+"Does it?"
+
+"Yes; and if I should happen to be killed, you will have me removed
+gently to this mound of earth, and there laid beneath this tree, with my
+face upwards; and take care that it is done before the moon rises. You
+can watch that no one interferes."
+
+"A likely job. What the deuce do you take me for? I tell you what it is,
+Mr. Vampyre, or Varney, or whatever's your name, if you should chance to
+be hit, where-ever you chance to fall, there you'll lie."
+
+"How very unkind."
+
+"Uncommon, ain't it?"
+
+"Well, well, since that is your determination, I must take care of
+myself in another way. I can do so, and I will."
+
+"Take care of yourself how you like, for all I care; I've come here to
+second you, and to see that, on the honour of a seaman, if you are put
+out of the world, it's done in a proper manner, that's all I have to do
+with you--now you know."
+
+Sir Francis Varney looked after him with a strange kind of smile, as he
+walked away to make the necessary preparation with Marchdale for the
+immediate commencement of the contest.
+
+These were simple and brief. It was agreed that twelve paces should be
+measured out, six each way, from a fixed point; one six to be paced by
+the admiral, and the other by Marchdale; then they were to draw lots, to
+see at which end of this imaginary line Varney was to be placed; after
+this the signal for firing was to be one, two, three--fire!
+
+A few minutes sufficed to complete these arrangements; the ground was
+measured in the manner we have stated, and the combatants placed in
+their respective positions, Sir Francis Varney occupying the same spot
+where he had at first stood, namely, that nearest to the little wood,
+and to his own residence.
+
+It is impossible that under such circumstances the bravest and the
+calmest of mankind could fail to feel some slight degree of tremour or
+uneasiness; and, although we can fairly claim for Henry Bannerworth that
+he was as truly courageous as any right feeling Christian man could wish
+to be, yet when it was possible that he stood within, as it were, a
+hair's breadth of eternity, a strange world of sensation and emotions
+found a home in his heart, and he could not look altogether undaunted on
+that future which might, for all he knew to the contrary, be so close at
+hand, as far as he was concerned.
+
+It was not that he feared death, but that he looked with a decent
+gravity upon so grave a change as that from this world to the next, and
+hence was it that his face was pale, and that he looked all the emotion
+which he really felt.
+
+This was the aspect and the bearing of a brave but not a reckless man;
+while Sir Francis Varney, on the other hand, seemed, now that he had
+fairly engaged in the duel, to look upon it and its attendant
+circumstances with a kind of smirking satisfaction, as if he were far
+more amused than personally interested.
+
+This was certainly the more extraordinary after the manner in which he
+had tried to evade the fight, and, at all events, was quite a sufficient
+proof that cowardice had not been his actuating motive in so doing.
+
+The admiral, who stood on a level with him, could not see the sort of
+expression he wore, or, probably, he would have been far from well
+pleased; but the others did, and they found something inexpressibly
+disagreeable in the smirking kind of satisfaction with which the vampyre
+seemed to regard now the proceedings.
+
+"Confound him," whispered Marchdale to Henry, "one would think he was
+quite delighted, instead, as we had imagined him, not well pleased, at
+these proceedings; look how he grins."
+
+"It is no matter," said Henry; "let him wear what aspect he may, it is
+the same to me; and, as Heaven is my judge, I here declare, if I did not
+think myself justified in so doing, I would not raise my hand against
+this man."
+
+"There can be no shadow of a doubt regarding your justification. Have at
+him, and Heaven protect you."
+
+"Amen!"
+
+The admiral was to give the word to fire, and now he and Marshal having
+stepped sufficiently on one side to be out of all possible danger from
+any stray shot, he commenced repeating the signal,--
+
+"Are you ready, gentlemen?--once."
+
+They looked sternly at each other, and each grasped his pistol.
+
+"Twice!"
+
+Sir Francis Varney smiled and looked around him, as if the affair were
+one of the most common-place description.
+
+"Thrice!"
+
+Varney seemed to be studying the sky rather than attending to the duel.
+
+"Fire!" said the admiral, and one report only struck upon the ear. It
+was that from Henry's pistol.
+
+All eyes were turned upon Sir Francis Varney, who had evidently reserved
+his fire, for what purpose could not be devised, except a murderous one,
+the taking of a more steady aim at Henry.
+
+Sir Francis, however, seemed in no hurry, but smiled significantly, and
+gradually raised the point of his weapon.
+
+"Did you hear the word, Sir Francis? I gave it loud enough, I am sure. I
+never spoke plainer in my life; did I ever, Jack?"
+
+"Yes, often," said Jack Pringle; "what's the use of your asking such
+yarns as them? you know you have done so often enough when you wanted
+grog."
+
+"You d----d rascal, I'll--I'll have your back scored, I will."
+
+"So you will, when you are afloat again, which you never will be--you're
+paid off, that's certain."
+
+"You lubberly lout, you ain't a seaman; a seaman would never mutiny
+against his admiral; howsomever, do you hear, Sir Francis, I'll give the
+matter up, if you don't pay some attention to me."
+
+Henry looked steadily at Varney, expecting every moment to feel his
+bullet. Mr. Marchdale hastily exclaimed that this was not according to
+usage.
+
+Sir Francis Varney took no notice, but went on elevating his weapon;
+when it was perpendicular to the earth he fired in the air.
+
+"I had not anticipated this," said Marchdale, as he walked to Henry. "I
+thought he was taking a more deadly aim."
+
+"And I," said Henry.
+
+"Ay, you have escaped, Henry; let me congratulate you."
+
+"Not so fast; we may fire again."
+
+"I can afford to do that," he said, with a smile.
+
+"You should have fired, sir, according to custom," said the admiral;
+"this is not the proper thing."
+
+"What, fire at your friend?"
+
+"Oh, that's all very well! You are my friend for a time, vampyre as you
+are, and I intend you shall fire."
+
+"If Mr. Henry Bannerworth demands another fire, I have no objection to
+it, and will fire at him; but as it is I shall not do so, indeed, it
+would be quite useless for him to do so--to point mortal weapons at me
+is mere child's play, they will not hurt me."
+
+"The devil they won't," said the admiral.
+
+"Why, look you here," said Sir Francis Varney, stepping forward and
+placing his hand to his neckerchief; "look you here; if Mr. Henry
+Bannerworth should demand another fire, he may do so with the same
+bullet."
+
+"The same bullet!" said Marchdale, stepping forward--"the same bullet!
+How is this?"
+
+"My eyes," said Jack; "who'd a thought it; there's a go! Wouldn't he do
+for a dummy--to lead a forlorn hope, or to put among the boarders?"
+
+"Here," said Sir Francis, handing a bullet to Henry Bannerworth--"here
+is the bullet you shot at me."
+
+Henry looked at it--it was blackened by powder; and then Marchdale
+seized it and tried it in the pistol, but found the bullet fitted
+Henry's weapon.
+
+"By heavens, it is so!" he exclaimed, stepping back and looking at
+Varney from top to toe in horror and amazement.
+
+"D----e," said the admiral, "if I understand this. Why Jack Pringle, you
+dog, here's a strange fish."
+
+"On, no! there's plenty on 'um in some countries."
+
+"Will you insist upon another fire, or may I consider you satisfied?"
+
+"I shall object," said Marchdale. "Henry, this affair must go no
+further; it would be madness--worse than madness, to fight upon such
+terms."
+
+"So say I," said the admiral. "I will not have anything to do with you,
+Sir Francis. I'll not be your second any longer. I didn't bargain for
+such a game as this. You might as well fight with the man in brass
+armour, at the Lord Mayor's show, or the champion at a coronation."
+
+"Oh!" said Jack Pringle; "a man may as well fire at the back of a
+halligator as a wamphigher."
+
+"This must be considered as having been concluded," said Mr. Marchdale.
+
+"No!" said Henry.
+
+"And wherefore not?"
+
+"Because I have not received his fire."
+
+"Heaven forbid you should."
+
+"I may not with honour quit the ground without another fire."
+
+"Under ordinary circumstances there might be some shadow of an excuse
+for your demand; but as it is there is none. You have neither honour nor
+credit to gain by such an encounter, and, certainly, you can gain no
+object."
+
+"How are we to decide this affair? Am I considered absolved from the
+accusation under which I lay, of cowardice?" inquired Sir Francis
+Varney, with a cold smile.
+
+"Why, as for that," said the admiral, "I should as soon expect credit
+for fighting behind a wall, as with a man that I couldn't hit any more
+than the moon."
+
+"Henry; let me implore you to quit this scene; it can do no good."
+
+At this moment, a noise, as of human voices, was heard at a distance;
+this caused a momentary pause, and, the whole party stood still and
+listened.
+
+The murmurs and shouts that now arose in the distance were indistinct
+and confused.
+
+"What can all this mean?" said Marchdale; "there is something very
+strange about it. I cannot imagine a cause for so unusual an
+occurrence."
+
+"Nor I," said Sir Francis Varney, looking suspiciously at Henry
+Bannerworth.
+
+"Upon my honour I know neither what is the cause nor the nature of the
+sounds themselves."
+
+"Then we can easily see what is the matter from yonder hillock," said
+the admiral; "and there's Jack Pringle, he's up there already. What's he
+telegraphing about in that manner, I wonder?"
+
+The fact was, Jack Pringle, hearing the riot, had thought that if he got
+to the neighbouring eminence he might possibly ascertain what it was
+that was the cause of what he termed the "row," and had succeeded in
+some degree.
+
+There were a number of people of all kinds coming out from the village,
+apparently armed, and shouting. Jack Pringle hitched up his trousers and
+swore, then took off his hat and began to shout to the admiral, as he
+said,--
+
+"D----e, they are too late to spoil the sport. Hilloa! hurrah!"
+
+"What's all that about, Jack?" inquired the admiral, as he came puffing
+along. "What's the squall about?"
+
+"Only a few horse-marines and bumboat-women, that have been startled
+like a company of penguins."
+
+"Oh! my eyes! wouldn't a whole broadside set 'em flying, Jack?"
+
+"Ay; just as them Frenchmen that you murdered on board the Big
+Thunderer, as you called it."
+
+"I murder them, you rascal?"
+
+"Yes; there was about five hundred of them killed."
+
+"They were only shot."
+
+"They were killed, only your conscience tells you it's uncomfortable."
+
+"You rascal--you villain! You ought to be keel-hauled and well payed."
+
+"Ay; you're payed, and paid off as an old hulk."
+
+"D----e--you--you--oh! I wish I had you on board ship, I'd make your
+lubberly carcass like a union jack, full of red and blue stripes."
+
+"Oh! it's all very well; but if you don't take to your heels, you'll
+have all the old women in the village a whacking on you, that's all I
+have to say about it. You'd better port your helm and about ship, or
+you'll be keel-hauled."
+
+"D--n your--"
+
+"What's the matter?" inquired Marchdale, as he arrived.
+
+"What's the cause of all the noise we have heard?" said Sir Francis;
+"has some village festival spontaneously burst forth among the rustics
+of this place?"
+
+"I cannot tell the cause of it," said Henry Bannerworth; "but they seem
+to me to be coming towards this place."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"I think so too," said Marchdale.
+
+"With what object?" inquired Sir Francis Varney.
+
+"No peaceable one," observed Henry; "for, as far I can observe, they
+struck across the country, as though they would enclose something, or
+intercept somebody."
+
+"Indeed! but why come here?"
+
+"If I knew that I could have at once told the cause."
+
+"And they appear armed with a variety of odd weapons," observed Sir
+Francis; "they mean an attack upon some one! Who is that man with them?
+he seems to be deprecating their coming."
+
+"That appears to be Mr. Chillingworth," said Henry; "I think that is
+he."
+
+"Yes," observed the admiral; "I think I know the build of that craft;
+he's been in our society before. I always know a ship as soon as I see
+it."
+
+"Does you, though?" said Jack.
+
+"Yea; what do you mean, eh? let me hear what you've got to say against
+your captain and your admiral, you mutinous dog; you tell me, I say."
+
+"So I will; you thought you were fighting a big ship in a fog, and fired
+a dozen broadsides or so, and it was only the Flying Dutchman, or the
+devil."
+
+"You infernal dog--"
+
+"Well, you know it was; it might a been our own shadow for all I can
+tell. Indeed, I think it was."
+
+"You think!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That's mutiny; I'll have no more to do with you, Jack Pringle; you're
+no seaman, and have no respect for your officer. Now sheer off, or I'll
+cut your yards."
+
+"Why, as for my yards, I'll square 'em presently if I like, you old
+swab; but as for leaving you, very well; you have said so, and you shall
+be accommodated, d----e; however, it was not so when your nob was nearly
+rove through with a boarding pike; it wasn't 'I'll have no more to do
+with Jack Pringle' then, it was more t'other."
+
+"Well, then, why be so mutinous?"
+
+"Because you aggrawates me."
+
+The cries of the mob became more distinct as they drew nearer to the
+party, who began to evince some uneasiness as to their object.
+
+"Surely," said Marchdale, "Mr. Chillingworth has not named anything
+respecting the duel that has taken place."
+
+"No, no."
+
+"But he was to have been here this morning," said the admiral. "I
+understood he was to be here in his own character of a surgeon, and yet
+I have not seen him; have any of you?"
+
+"No," said Henry.
+
+"Then here he comes in the character of conservator of the public
+peace," said Varney, coldly; "however, I believe that his errand will be
+useless since the affair is, I presume, concluded."
+
+"Down with the vampyre!"
+
+"Eh!" said the admiral, "eh, what's that, eh? What did they say?"
+
+"If you'll listen they'll tell you soon enough, I'll warrant."
+
+"May be they will, and yet I'd like to know now."
+
+Sir Francis Varney looked significantly at Marchdale, and then waited
+with downcast eyes for the repetition of the words.
+
+"Down with the vampyre!" resounded on all sides from the people who came
+rapidly towards them, and converging towards a centre. "Burn, destroy,
+and kill the vampyre! No vampyre; burn him out; down with him; kill
+him!"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Then came Mr. Chillingworth's voice, who, with much earnestness,
+endeavoured to exhort them to moderation, and to refrain from violence.
+
+Sir Francis Varney became very pale agitated; he immediately turned, and
+taking the least notice, he made for the wood, which lay between him and
+his own house, leaving the people in the greatest agitation.
+
+Mr. Marchdale was not unmoved at this occurrence, but stood his ground
+with Henry Bannerworth, the admiral, and Jack Pringle, until the mob
+came very near to them, shouting, and uttering cries of vengeance, and
+death of all imaginable kinds that it was possible to conceive, against
+the unpopular vampyre.
+
+Pending the arrival of these infuriated persons, we will, in a few
+words, state how it was that so suddenly a set of circumstances arose
+productive of an amount of personal danger to Varney, such as, up to
+that time, had seemed not at all likely to occur.
+
+We have before stated there was but one person out of the family of the
+Bannerworths who was able to say anything of a positive character
+concerning the singular and inexplicable proceedings at the Hall; and
+that that person was Mr. Chillingworth, an individual not at all likely
+to become garrulous upon the subject.
+
+But, alas! the best of men have their weaknesses, and we much regret to
+say that Mr. Chillingworth so far in this instance forgot that admirable
+discretion which commonly belonged to him, as to be the cause of the
+popular tumult which had now readied such a height.
+
+In a moment of thoughtlessness and confidence, he told his wife. Yes,
+this really clever man, from whom one would not have expected such a
+piece of horrible indiscretion, actually told his wife all about the
+vampyre. But such is human nature; combined with an amount of firmness
+and reasoning power, that one would have thought to be invulnerable
+safeguards, we find some weakness which astonishes all calculation.
+
+Such was this of Mr. Chillingworth's. It is true, he cautioned the lady
+to be secret, and pointed to her the danger of making Varney the vampyre
+a theme for gossip; but he might as well have whispered to a hurricane
+to be so good as not to go on blowing so, as request Mrs. Chillingworth
+to keep a secret.
+
+Of course she burst into the usual fervent declarations of "Who was she
+to tell? Was she a person who went about telling things? When did she
+see anybody? Not she, once in a blue moon;" and then, when Mr.
+Chillingworth went out, like the King of Otaheite, she invited the
+neighbours round about to come to take some tea.
+
+Under solemn promises of secrecy, sixteen ladies that evening were made
+acquainted with the full and interesting particulars of the attack of
+the vampyre on Flora Bannerworth, and all the evidence inculpating Sir
+Francis Varney as the blood-thirsty individual.
+
+When the mind comes to consider that these sixteen ladies multiplied
+their information by about four-and-twenty each, we become quite lost in
+a sea of arithmetic, and feel compelled to sum up the whole by a candid
+assumption that in four-and-twenty hours not an individual in the whole
+town was ignorant of the circumstances.
+
+On the morning before the projected duel, there was an unusual commotion
+in the streets. People were conversing together in little knots, and
+using rather violent gesticulations. Poor Mr. Chillingworth! he alone
+was ignorant of the causes of the popular commotion, and so he went to
+bed wondering that an unusual bustle pervaded the little market town,
+but not at all guessing its origin.
+
+Somehow or another, however, the populace, who had determined to make a
+demonstration on the following morning against the vampyre, thought it
+highly necessary first to pay some sort of compliment to Mr.
+Chillingworth, and, accordingly, at an early hour, a great mob assembled
+outside his house, and gave three terrific applauding shouts, which
+roused him most unpleasantly from his sleep; and induced the greatest
+astonishment at the cause of such a tumult.
+
+Oh, that artful Mrs. Chillingworth! too well she knew what was the
+matter; yet she pretended to be so oblivious upon the subject.
+
+"Good God!" cried Mr. Chillingworth, as he started up in bed, "what's
+all that?"
+
+"All what?" said his wife.
+
+"All what! Do you mean to say you heard nothing?"
+
+"Well, I think I did hear a little sort of something."
+
+"A little sort of something? It shook the house."
+
+"Well, well; never mind. Go to sleep again; it's no business of ours."
+
+"Yes; but it may be, though. It's all very well to say 'go to sleep.'
+That happens to be a thing I can't do. There's something amiss."
+
+"Well, what's that to you?"
+
+"Perhaps nothing; but, perhaps, everything."
+
+Mr. Chillingworth sprang from his bed, and began dressing, a process
+which he executed with considerable rapidity, and in which he was much
+accelerated by two or three supplementary shouts from the people below.
+
+Then, in a temporary lull, a loud voice shouted,--
+
+"Down with the vampyre--down with the vampyre!"
+
+The truth in an instant burst over the mind of Mr. Chillingworth; and,
+turning to his wife, he exclaimed,--
+
+"I understand it now. You've been gossipping about Sir Francis Varney,
+and have caused all this tumult."
+
+"I gossip! Well, I never! Lay it on me; it's sure to be my fault. I
+might have known that beforehand. I always am."
+
+"But you must have spoken of it."
+
+"Who have I got to speak to about it?"
+
+"Did you, or did you not?"
+
+"Who should I tell?"
+
+Mr. Chillingworth was dressed, and he hastened down and entered the
+street with great desperation. He had a hope that he might be enabled to
+disperse the crowd, and yet be in time to keep his appointment at the
+duel.
+
+His appearance was hailed with another shout, for it was considered, of
+course, that he had come to join in the attack upon Sir Francis Varney.
+He found assembled a much more considerable mob than he had imagined,
+and to his alarm he found many armed with all sorts of weapons of
+offence.
+
+"Hurrah!" cried a great lumpy-looking fellow, who seemed half mad with
+the prospect of a disturbance. "Hurrah! here's the doctor, he'll tell us
+all about it as we go along. Come on."
+
+"For Heaven's sake," said Mr. Chillingworth, "stop; What are you about
+to do all of you?"
+
+"Burn the vampyre--burn the vampyre!"
+
+"Hold--hold! this is folly. Let me implore you all to return to your
+homes, or you will get into serious trouble on this subject."
+
+This was a piece of advice not at all likely to be adopted; and when the
+mob found that Mr. Chillingworth was not disposed to encourage and
+countenance it in its violence, it gave another loud shout of defiance,
+and moved off through the long straggling streets of the town in a
+direction towards Sir Francis Varney's house.
+
+It is true that what were called the authorities of the town had become
+alarmed, and were stirring, but they found themselves in such a
+frightful minority, that it became out of the question for them to
+interfere with any effect to stop the lawless proceedings of the
+rioters, so that the infuriated populace had it all their own way, and
+in a straggling, disorderly-looking kind of procession they moved off,
+vowing vengeance as they went against Varney the vampyre.
+
+Hopeless as Mr. Chillingworth thought it was to interfere with any
+degree of effect in the proceedings of the mob, he still could not
+reconcile it to himself to be absent from a scene which he now felt
+certain had been produced by his own imprudence, so he went on with the
+crowd, endeavouring, as he did so, by every argument that could be
+suggested to him to induce them to abstain from the acts of violence
+they contemplated. He had a hope, too, that when they reached Sir
+Francis Varney's, finding him not within, as probably would be the case,
+as by that time he would have started to meet Henry Bannerworth on the
+ground, to fight the duel, he might induce the mob to return and forego
+their meditated violence.
+
+And thus was it that, urged on by a multitude of persons, the unhappy
+surgeon was expiating, both in mind and person, the serious mistakes he
+had committed in trusting a secret to his wife.
+
+Let it not be supposed that we for one moment wish to lay down a general
+principle as regards the confiding secrets to ladies, because from the
+beginning of the world it has become notorious how well they keep them,
+and with what admirable discretion, tact, and forethought this fairest
+portion of humanity conduct themselves.
+
+We know how few Mrs. Chillingworths there are in the world, and have but
+to regret that our friend the doctor should, in his matrimonial
+adventure, have met with such a specimen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+THE POPULAR RIOT.--SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S DANGER.--THE SUGGESTION AND ITS
+RESULTS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Such, then, were the circumstances which at once altered the whole
+aspect of the affairs, and, from private and domestic causes of very
+deep annoyance, led to public results of a character which seemed likely
+to involve the whole country-side in the greatest possible confusion.
+
+But while we blame Mr. Chillingworth for being so indiscreet as to
+communicate the secret of such a person as Varney the vampyre to his
+wife, we trust in a short time to be enabled to show that he made as
+much reparation as it was possible to make for the mischief he had
+unintentionally committed. And now as he struggled onward--apparently
+onward--first and foremost among the rioters, he was really doing all in
+his power to quell that tumult which superstition and dread had raised.
+
+Human nature truly delights in the marvellous, and in proportion as a
+knowledge of the natural phenomena of nature is restricted, and
+unbridled imagination allowed to give the rein to fathomless conjecture,
+we shall find an eagerness likewise to believe the marvellous to be the
+truth.
+
+That dim and uncertain condition concerning vampyres, originating
+probably as it had done in Germany, had spread itself slowly, but
+insidiously, throughout the whole of the civilized world.
+
+In no country and in no clime is there not something which bears a kind
+of family relationship to the veritable vampyre of which Sir Francis
+Varney appeared to be so choice a specimen.
+
+The _ghoul_ of eastern nations is but the same being, altered to suit
+habits and localities; and the _sema_ of the Scandinavians is but the
+vampyre of a more primitive race, and a personification of that morbid
+imagination which has once fancied the probability of the dead walking
+again among the living, with all the frightful insignia of corruption
+and the grave about them.
+
+Although not popular in England, still there had been tales told of such
+midnight visitants, so that Mrs. Chillingworth, when she had imparted
+the information which she had obtained, had already some rough material
+to work upon in the minds of her auditors, and therefore there was no
+great difficulty in very soon establishing the fact.
+
+Under such circumstances, ignorant people always do what they have heard
+has been done by some one else before them and in an incredibly short
+space of time the propriety of catching Sir Francis Varney, depriving
+him of his vampyre-like existence, and driving a stake through his body,
+became not at all a questionable proposition.
+
+Alas, poor Mr. Chillingworth! as well might he have attempted King
+Canute's task of stemming the waves of the ocean as that of attempting
+to stop the crowd from proceeding to Sir Francis Varney's house.
+
+His very presence was a sort of confirmation of the whole affair. In
+vain he gesticulated, in vain he begged and prayed that they would go
+back, and in vain he declared that full and ample justice should be done
+upon the vampyre, provided popular clamour spared him, and he was left
+to more deliberate judgment.
+
+Those who were foremost in the throng paid no attention to these
+remonstrances while those who were more distant heard them not, and, for
+all they knew, he might be urging the crowd on to violence, instead of
+deprecating it.
+
+Thus, then, this disorderly rabble soon reached the house of Sir Francis
+Varney and loudly demanded of his terrified servant where he was to be
+found.
+
+The knocking at the Hall door was prodigious, and, with a laudable
+desire, doubtless, of saving time, the moment one was done amusing
+himself with the ponderous knocker, another seized it; so that until the
+door was flung open by some of the bewildered and terrified men, there
+was no cessation whatever of the furious demands for admittance.
+
+"Varney the vampyre--Varney the vampyre!" cried a hundred voices. "Death
+to the vampyre! Where is he? Bring him out. Varney the vampyre!"
+
+The servants were too terrified to speak for some moments, as they saw
+such a tumultuous assemblage seeking their master, while so singular a
+name was applied to him. At length, one more bold than the rest
+contrived to stammer out,--
+
+"My good people, Sir Francis Varney is not at home. He took an early
+breakfast, and has been out nearly an hour."
+
+The mob paused a moment in indecision, and then one of the foremost
+cried,--
+
+"Who'd suppose they'd own he was at home? He's hiding somewhere of
+course; let's pull him out."
+
+"Ah, pull him out--pull him out!" cried many voices. A rush was made
+into the hall and in a very few minutes its chambers were ransacked, and
+all its hidden places carefully searched, with the hope of discovering
+the hidden form of Sir Francis Varney.
+
+The servants felt that, with their inefficient strength, to oppose the
+proceedings of an assemblage which seemed to be unchecked by all sort of
+law or reason, would be madness; they therefore only looked on, with
+wonder and dismay, satisfied certainly in their own minds that Sir
+Francis would not be found, and indulging in much conjecture as to what
+would be the result of such violent and unexpected proceedings.
+
+Mr. Chillingworth hoped that time was being gained, and that some sort
+of indication of what was going on would reach the unhappy object of
+popular detestation sufficiently early to enable him to provide for his
+own safety.
+
+He knew he was breaking his own engagement to be present at the duel
+between Henry Bannerworth and Sir Francis Varney, and, as that thought
+recurred to him, he dreaded that his professional services might be
+required on one side or the other; for he knew, or fancied he knew, that
+mutual hatred dictated the contest; and he thought that if ever a duel
+had taken place which was likely to be attended with some disastrous
+result, that was surely the one.
+
+But how could he leave, watched and surrounded as he was by an
+infuriated multitude--how could he hope but that his footsteps would be
+dogged, or that the slightest attempt of his to convey a warning to Sir
+Francis Varney, would not be the means of bringing down upon his head
+the very danger he sought to shield him from.
+
+In this state of uncertainty, then, did our medical man remain, a prey
+to the bitterest reflections, and full of the direst apprehensions,
+without having the slightest power of himself to alter so disastrous a
+train of circumstances.
+
+Dissatisfied with their non-success, the crowd twice searched the house
+of Sir Francis Varney, from the attics to the basement; and then, and
+not till then, did they begin reluctantly to believe that the servants
+must have spoken the truth.
+
+"He's in the town somewhere," cried one. "Let's go back to the town."
+
+It is strange how suddenly any mob will obey any impulse, and this
+perfectly groundless supposition was sufficient to turn their steps back
+again in the direction whence they came, and they had actually, in a
+straggling sort of column, reached halfway towards the town, when they
+encountered a boy, whose professional pursuit consisted in tending sheep
+very early of a morning, and who at once informed them that he had seen
+Sir Francis Varney in the wood, half way between Bannerworth Hall and
+his own home.
+
+This event at once turned the whole tide again, and with renewed
+clamours, carrying Mr. Chillingworth along with them, they now rapidly
+neared the real spot, where, probably, had they turned a little earlier,
+they would have viewed the object of their suspicion and hatred.
+
+But, as we have already recorded, the advancing throng was seen by the
+parties on the ground, where the duel could scarcely have been said to
+have been fought; and then had Sir Francis Varney dashed into the wood,
+which was so opportunely at hand to afford him a shelter from his
+enemies, and from the intricacies of which--well acquainted with them as
+he doubtless was,--he had every chance of eluding their pursuit.
+
+The whole affair was a great surprise to Henry and his friends, when
+they saw such a string of people advancing, with such shouts and
+imprecations; they could not, for the life of them, imagine what could
+have excited such a turn out among the ordinarily industrious and quiet
+inhabitants of a town, remarkable rather for the quietude and steadiness
+of its population, than for any violent outbreaks of popular feeling.
+
+"What can Mr. Chillingworth be about," said Henry, "to bring such a mob
+here? has he taken leave of his senses?"
+
+"Nay," said Marchdale; "look again; he seems to be trying to keep them
+back, although ineffectually, for they will not be stayed."
+
+"D----e," said the admiral, "here's a gang of pirates; we shall be
+boarded and carried before we know where we are, Jack."
+
+"Ay ay, sir," said Jack.
+
+"And is that all you've got to say, you lubber, when you see your
+admiral in danger? You'd better go and make terms with the enemy at
+once."
+
+"Really, this is serious," said Henry; "they shout for Varney. Can Mr.
+Chillingworth have been so mad as to adopt this means of stopping the
+duel?"
+
+"Impossible," said Marchdale; "if that had been his intention, he could
+have done so quietly, through the medium of the civil authorities."
+
+"Hang me!" exclaimed the admiral, "if there are any civil authorities;
+they talk of smashing somebody. What do they say, Jack? I don't hear
+quite so well as I used."
+
+"You always was a little deaf," said Jack.
+
+"What?"
+
+"A little deaf, I say."
+
+"Why, you lubberly lying swab, how dare you say so?"
+
+"Because you was."
+
+"You slave-going scoundrel!"
+
+"For Heaven's sake, do not quarrel at such a time as this!" said Henry;
+"we shall be surrounded in a moment. Come, Mr. Marchdale, let you and I
+visit these people, and ascertain what it is that has so much excited
+their indignation."
+
+"Agreed," said Marchdale; and they both stepped forward at a rapid pace,
+to meet the advancing throng.
+
+The crowd which had now approached to within a short distance of the
+expectant little party, was of a most motley description, and its
+appearance, under many circumstances, would cause considerable
+risibility. Men and women were mixed indiscriminately together, and in
+the shouting, the latter, if such a thing were possible, exceeded the
+former, both in discordance and energy.
+
+Every individual composing that mob carried some weapon calculated for
+defence, such as flails, scythes, sickles, bludgeons, &c., and this mode
+of arming caused them to wear a most formidable appearance; while the
+passion that superstition had called up was strongly depicted in their
+inflamed features. Their fury, too, had been excited by their
+disappointment, and it was with concentrated rage that they now pressed
+onward.
+
+The calm and steady advance of Henry and Mr. Marchdale to meet the
+advancing throng, seemed to have the effect of retarding their progress
+a little, and they came to a parley at a hedge, which separated them
+from the meadow in which the duel had been fought.
+
+"You seem to be advancing towards us," said Henry. "Do you seek me or
+any of my friends; and if so, upon what errand? Mr. Chillingworth, for
+Heaven's sake, explain what is the cause of all this assault. You seem
+to be at the head of it."
+
+"Seem to be," said Mr. Chillingworth, "without being so. You are not
+sought, nor any of your friends?"
+
+"Who, then?"
+
+"Sir Francis Varney," was the immediate reply.
+
+"Indeed! and what has he done to excite popular indignation? of private
+wrong I can accuse him; but I desire no crowd to take up my cause, or to
+avenge my quarrels."
+
+"Mr. Bannerworth, it has become known, through my indiscretion, that Sir
+Francis Varney is suspected of being a vampyre."
+
+"Is this so?"
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the mob. "Down with the vampyre! hurrah! where is he?
+Down with him!"
+
+"Drive a stake through him," said a woman; "it's the only way, and the
+humanest. You've only to take a hedge stake and sharpen it a bit at one
+end, and char it a little in the fire so as there mayt'n't be no
+splinters to hurt, and then poke it through his stomach."
+
+The mob gave a great shout at this humane piece of advice, and it was
+some time before Henry could make himself heard at all, even to those
+who were nearest to him.
+
+When he did succeed in so doing, he cried, with a loud voice,--
+
+"Hear me, all of you. It is quite needless for me to inquire how you
+became possessed of the information that a dreadful suspicion hangs over
+the person of Sir Francis Varney; but if, in consequence of hearing such
+news, you fancy this public demonstration will be agreeable to me, or
+likely to relieve those who are nearest or dearest to me from the state
+of misery and apprehension into which they have fallen, you are much
+mistaken."
+
+"Hear him, hear him!" cried Mr. Marchdale; "he speaks both wisdom and
+truth."
+
+"If anything," pursued Henry, "could add to the annoyance of vexation
+and misery we have suffered, it would assuredly be the being made
+subjects of every-day gossip, and every-day clamour."
+
+"You hear him?" said Mr. Marchdale.
+
+"Yes, we does," said a man; "but we comes out to catch a vampyre, for
+all that."
+
+"Oh, to be sure," said the humane woman; "nobody's feelings is nothing
+to us. Are we to be woke up in the night with vampyres sucking our
+bloods while we've got a stake in the country?"
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted everybody. "Down with the vampyre! where is he?"
+
+"You are wrong. I assure you, you are all wrong," said Mr.
+Chillingworth, imploringly; "there is no vampyre here, you see. Sir
+Francis Varney has not only escaped, but he will take the law of all of
+you."
+
+This was an argument which appeared to stagger a few, but the bolder
+spirits pushed them on, and a suggestion to search the wood having been
+made by some one who was more cunning than his neighbours, that measure
+was at once proceeded with, and executed in a systematic manner, which
+made those who knew it to be the hiding-place of Sir Francis Varney
+tremble for his safety.
+
+It was with a strange mixture of feeling that Henry Bannerworth waited
+the result of the search for the man who but a few minutes before had
+been opposed to him in a contest of life or death.
+
+The destruction of Sir Francis Varney would certainly have been an
+effectual means of preventing him from continuing to be the incubus he
+then was upon the Bannerworth family; and yet the generous nature of
+Henry shrank with horror from seeing even such a creature as Varney
+sacrificed at the shrine of popular resentment, and murdered by an
+infuriated populace.
+
+He felt as great an interest in the escape of the vampyre as if some
+great advantage to himself had been contingent upon such an event; and,
+although he spoke not a word, while the echoes of the little wood were
+all awakened by the clamorous manner in which the mob searched for their
+victim, his feelings could be well read upon his countenance.
+
+The admiral, too, without possessing probably the fine feelings of Henry
+Bannerworth, took an unusually sympathetic interest in the fate of the
+vampyre; and, after placing himself in various attitudes of intense
+excitement, he exclaimed,--
+
+"D--n it, Jack, I do hope, after all, the vampyre will get the better of
+them. It's like a whole flotilla attacking one vessel--a lubberly
+proceeding at the best, and I'll be hanged if I like it. I should like
+to pour in a broadside into those fellows, just to let them see it
+wasn't a proper English mode of fighting. Shouldn't you, Jack?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, I should."
+
+"Shiver me, if I see an opportunity, if I don't let some of those
+rascals know what's what."
+
+Scarcely had these words escaped the lips of the old admiral than there
+arose a loud shout from the interior of the wood. It was a shout of
+success, and seemed at the very least to herald the capture of the
+unfortunate Varney.
+
+"By Heaven!" exclaimed Henry, "they have him."
+
+"God forbid!" said Mr. Marchdale; "this grows too serious."
+
+"Bear a hand, Jack," said the admiral: "we'll have a fight for it yet;
+they sha'n't murder even a vampyre in cold blood. Load the pistols and
+send a flying shot or two among the rascals, the moment they appear."
+
+"No, no," said Henry; "no more violence, at least there has been
+enough--there has been enough."
+
+Even as he spoke there came rushing from among the trees, at the corner
+of the wood, the figure of a man. There needed but one glance to assure
+them who it was. Sir Francis Varney had been seen, and was flying before
+those implacable foes who had sought his life.
+
+He had divested himself of his huge cloak, as well as of his low
+slouched hat, and, with a speed which nothing but the most absolute
+desperation could have enabled him to exert, he rushed onward, beating
+down before him every obstacle, and bounding over the meadows at a rate
+that, if he could have continued it for any length of time, would have
+set pursuit at defiance.
+
+"Bravo!" shouted the admiral, "a stern chase is a long chase, and I wish
+them joy of it--d----e, Jack, did you ever see anybody get along like
+that?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"You never did, you scoundrel."
+
+"Yes, I did."
+
+"When and where?"
+
+"When you ran away off the sound."
+
+The admiral turned nearly blue with anger, but Jack looked perfectly
+imperturbable, as he added,--
+
+"You know you ran away after the French frigates who wouldn't stay to
+fight you."
+
+"Ah! that indeed. There he goes, putting on every stitch of canvass,
+I'll be bound."
+
+"And there they come," said Jack, as he pointed to the corner of the
+wood, and some of the more active of the vampyre's pursuers showed
+themselves.
+
+It would appear as if the vampyre had been started from some
+hiding-place in the interior of the wood, and had then thought it
+expedient altogether to leave that retreat, and make his way to some
+more secure one across the open country, where there would be more
+obstacles to his discovery than perseverance could overcome. Probably,
+then, among the brushwood and trees, for a few moments he had been again
+lost sight of, until those who were closest upon his track had emerged
+from among the dense foliage, and saw him scouring across the country at
+such headlong speed. These were but few, and in their extreme anxiety
+themselves to capture Varney, whose precipate and terrified flight
+brought a firm conviction to their minds of his being a vampyre, they
+did not stop to get much of a reinforcement, but plunged on like
+greyhounds in his track.
+
+"Jack," said the admiral, "this won't do. Look at that great lubberly
+fellow with the queer smock-frock."
+
+"Never saw such a figure-head in my life," said Jack.
+
+"Stop him."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+The man was coming on at a prodigious rate, and Jack, with all the
+deliberation in the world, advanced to meet him; and when they got
+sufficiently close together, that in a few moments they must encounter
+each other, Jack made himself into as small a bundle as possible, and
+presented his shoulder to the advancing countryman in such a way, that
+he flew off it at a tangent, as if he had run against a brick wall, and
+after rolling head over heels for some distance, safely deposited
+himself in a ditch, where he disappeared completely for a few moments
+from all human observation.
+
+"Don't say I hit you," said Jack. "Curse yer, what did yer run against
+me for? Sarves you right. Lubbers as don't know how to steer, in course
+runs agin things."
+
+"Bravo," said the admiral; "there's another of them."
+
+The pursuers of Varney the vampyre, however, now came too thick and fast
+to be so easily disposed of, and as soon as his figure could be seen
+coursing over the meadows, and springing over road and ditch with an
+agility almost frightful to look upon, the whole rabble rout was in
+pursuit of him.
+
+By this time, the man who had fallen into the ditch had succeeded in
+making his appearance in the visible world again, and as he crawled up
+the bank, looking a thing of mire and mud, Jack walked up to him with
+all the carelessness in the world, and said to him,--
+
+"Any luck, old chap?"
+
+"Oh, murder!" said the man, "what do you mean? who are you? where am I?
+what's the matter? Old Muster Fowler, the fat crowner, will set upon me
+now."
+
+"Have you caught anything?" said Jack.
+
+"Caught anything?"
+
+"Yes; you've been in for eels, haven't you?"
+
+"D--n!"
+
+"Well, it is odd to me, as some people can't go a fishing without
+getting out of temper. Have it your own way; I won't interfere with
+you;" and away Jack walked.
+
+The man cleared the mud out of his eyes, as well as he could, and looked
+after him with a powerful suspicion that in Jack he saw the very cause
+of his mortal mishap: but, somehow or other, his immersion in the not
+over limpid stream had wonderfully cooled his courage, and casting one
+despairing look upon his begrimed apparel, and another at the last of
+the stragglers who were pursuing Sir Francis Varney across the fields,
+he thought it prudent to get home as fast he could, and get rid of the
+disagreeable results of an adventure which had turned out for him
+anything but auspicious or pleasant.
+
+Mr. Chillingworth, as though by a sort of impulse to be present in case
+Sir Francis Varney should really be run down and with a hope of saving
+him from personal violence, had followed the foremost of the rioters in
+the wood, found it now quite impossible for him to carry on such a chase
+as that which was being undertaken across the fields after Sir Francis
+Varney.
+
+His person was unfortunately but ill qualified for the continuance of
+such a pursuit, and, although with the greatest reluctance, he at last
+felt himself compelled to give it up.
+
+In making his way through the intricacies of the wood, he had been
+seriously incommoded by the thick undergrowth, and he had accidentally
+encountered several miry pools, with which he had involuntarily made a
+closer acquaintance than was at all conducive either to his personal
+appearance or comfort. The doctor's temper, though, generally speaking,
+one of the most even, was at last affected by his mishaps, and he could
+not restrain from an execration upon his want of prudence in letting his
+wife have a knowledge of a secret that was not his own, and the
+producing an unlooked for circumstance, the termination of which might
+be of a most disastrous nature.
+
+Tired, therefore, and nearly exhausted by the exertions he had already
+taken, he emerged now alone from the wood, and near the spot where stood
+Henry Bannerworth and his friends in consultation.
+
+The jaded look of the surgeon was quite sufficient indication of the
+trouble and turmoil he had gone through, and some expressions of
+sympathy for his condition were dropped by Henry, to whom he replied,--
+
+"Nay, my young friend, I deserve it all. I have nothing but my own
+indiscretion to thank for all the turmoil and tumult that has arisen
+this morning."
+
+"But to what possible cause can we attribute such an outrage?"
+
+"Reproach me as much as you will, I deserve it. A man may prate of his
+own secrets if he like, but he should be careful of those of other
+people. I trusted yours to another, and am properly punished."
+
+"Enough," said Henry; "we'll say no more of that, Mr. Chillingworth.
+What is done cannot be undone, and we had better spend our time in
+reflection of how to make the best of what is, than in useless
+lamentation over its causes. What is to be done?"
+
+"Nay, I know not. Have you fought the duel?"
+
+"Yes; and, as you perceive, harmlessly."
+
+"Thank Heaven for that."
+
+"Nay, I had my fire, which Sir Francis Varney refused to return; so the
+affair had just ended, when the sound of approaching tumult came upon
+our ears."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"What a strange mixture," exclaimed Marchdale, "of feelings and passions
+this Varney appears to be. At one moment acting with the apparent
+greatest malignity; and another, seeming to have awakened in his mind a
+romantic generosity which knows no bounds. I cannot understand him."
+
+"Nor I, indeed," said Henry; "but yet I somehow tremble for his fate,
+and I seem to feel that something ought to be done to save him from the
+fearful consequences of popular feeling. Let us hasten to the town, and
+procure what assistance we may: but a few persons, well organised and
+properly armed, will achieve wonders against a desultory and
+ill-appointed multitude. There may be a chance of saving him, yet, from
+the imminent danger which surrounds him."
+
+"That's proper," cried the admiral. "I don't like to see anybody run
+down. A fair fight's another thing. Yard arm and yard arm--stink pots
+and pipkins--broadside to broadside--and throw in your bodies, if you
+like, on the lee quarter; but don't do anything shabby. What do you
+think of it, Jack?"
+
+"Why, I means to say as how if Varney only keeps on sail as he's been
+doing, that the devil himself wouldn't catch him in a gale."
+
+"And yet," said Henry, "it is our duty to do the best we can. Let us at
+once to the town, and summons all the assistance in our power. Come
+on--come on!"
+
+His friends needed no further urging, but, at a brisk pace, they all
+proceeded by the nearest footpaths towards the town.
+
+It puzzled his pursuers to think in what possible direction Sir Francis
+Varney expected to find sustenance or succour, when they saw how
+curiously he took his flight across the meadows. Instead of
+endeavouring, by any circuitous path, to seek the shelter of his own
+house, or to throw himself upon the care of the authorities of the town,
+who must, to the extent of their power, have protected him, he struck
+across the fields, apparently without aim or purpose, seemingly intent
+upon nothing but to distance his pursuers in a long chase, which might
+possibly tire them, or it might not, according to their or his powers of
+endurance.
+
+We say this seemed to be the case, but it was not so in reality. Sir
+Francis Varney had a deeper purpose, and it was scarcely to be supposed
+that a man of his subtle genius, and, apparently, far-seeing and
+reflecting intellect, could have so far overlooked the many dangers of
+his position as not to be fully prepared for some such contingency as
+that which had just now occurred.
+
+Holding, as he did, so strange a place in society--living among men, and
+yet possessing so few attributes in common with humanity--he must all
+along have felt the possibility of drawing upon himself popular
+violence.
+
+He could not wholly rely upon the secrecy of the Bannerworth family,
+much as they might well be supposed to shrink from giving publicity to
+circumstances of so fearfully strange and perilous a nature as those
+which had occurred amongst them. The merest accident might, at any
+moment, make him the town's talk. The overhearing of a few chance words
+by some gossiping domestic--some ebullition of anger or annoyance by
+some member of the family--or a communication from some friend who had
+been treated with confidence--might, at any time, awaken around him some
+such a storm as that which now raged at his heels.
+
+Varney the vampire must have calculated this. He must have felt the
+possibility of such a state of things; and, as a matter of course,
+politicly provided himself with some place of refuge.
+
+After about twenty minutes of hard chasing across the fields, there
+could be no doubt of his intentions. He had such a place of refuge; and,
+strange a one as it might appear, he sped towards it in as direct a line
+as ever a well-sped arrow flew towards its mark.
+
+That place of refuge, to the surprise of every one, appeared to be the
+ancient ruin, of which we have before spoken, and which was so well
+known to every inhabitant of the county.
+
+Truly, it seemed like some act of mere desperation for Sir Francis
+Varney to hope there to hide himself. There remained within, of what had
+once been a stately pile, but a few grey crumbling walls, which the
+hunted have would have passed unheeded, knowing that not for one instant
+could he have baffled his pursuers by seeking so inefficient a refuge.
+
+And those who followed hard and fast upon the track of Sir Francis
+Varney felt so sure of their game, when they saw whither he was
+speeding, that they relaxed in their haste considerably, calling loudly
+to each other that the vampire was caught at last, for he could be
+easily surrounded among the old ruins, and dragged from amongst its
+moss-grown walls.
+
+In another moment, with a wild dash and a cry of exultation, he sprang
+out of sight, behind an angle, formed by what had been at one time one
+of the principal supports of the ancient structure.
+
+Then, as if there was still something so dangerous about him, that only
+by a great number of hands could he be hoped to be secured, the
+infuriated peasantry gathered in a dense circle around what they
+considered his temporary place of refuge, and as the sun, which had now
+climbed above the tree tops, and dispersed, in a great measure, many of
+the heavy clouds of morning, shone down upon the excited group, they
+might have been supposed there assembled to perform some superstitious
+rite, which time had hallowed as an association of the crumbling ruin
+around which they stood.
+
+By the time the whole of the stragglers, who had persisted in the chase,
+had come up, there might have been about fifty or sixty resolute men,
+each intent upon securing the person of one whom they felt, while in
+existence, would continue to be a terror to all the weaker and dearer
+portions of their domestic circles.
+
+There was a pause of several minutes. Those who had come the fleetest
+were gathering breath, and those who had come up last were looking to
+their more forward companions for some information as to what had
+occurred before their arrival.
+
+All was profoundly still within the ruin, and then suddenly, as if by
+common consent, there arose from every throat a loud shout of
+"Down with the vampyre! down with the vampyre!"
+
+The echoes of that shout died away, and then all was still as before,
+while a superstitious feeling crept over even the boldest. It would
+almost seem as if they had expected some kind of response from Sir
+Francis Varney to the shout of defiance with which they had just greeted
+him; but the very calmness, repose, and absolute quiet of the ruin, and
+all about it, alarmed them, and they looked the one at the other as if
+the adventure after all were not one of the pleasantest description, and
+might not fall out so happily as they had expected.
+
+Yet what danger could there be? there were they, more than half a
+hundred stout, strong men, to cope with one; they felt convinced that he
+was completely in their power; they knew the ruins could not hide him,
+and that five minutes time given to the task, would suffice to explore
+every nook and corner of them.
+
+And yet they hesitated, while an unknown terror shook their nerves, and
+seemingly from the very fact that they had run down their game
+successfully, they dreaded to secure the trophy of the chase.
+
+One bold spirit was wanting; and, if it was not a bold one that spoke at
+length, he might be complimented as being comparatively such. It was one
+who had not been foremost in the chase, perchance from want of physical
+power, who now stood forward, and exclaimed,--
+
+"What are you waiting for, now? You can have him when you like. If you
+want your wives and children to sleep quietly in their beds, you will
+secure the vampyre. Come on--we all know he's here--why do you hesitate?
+Do you expect me to go alone and drag him out by the ears?"
+
+Any voice would have sufficed to break the spell which bound them. This
+did so; and, with one accord, and yells of imprecation, they rushed
+forward and plunged among the old walls of the ruin.
+
+Less time than we have before remarked would have enabled any one to
+explore the tottering fabric sufficient to bring a conviction to their
+minds that, after all, there might have been some mistake about the
+matter, and Sir Francis Varney was not quite caught yet.
+
+It was astonishing how the fact of not finding him in a moment, again
+roused all their angry feelings against him, and dispelled every feeling
+of superstitious awe with which he had been surrounded; rage gave place
+to the sort of shuddering horror with which they had before contemplated
+his immediate destruction, when they had believed him to be virtually
+within their very grasp.
+
+Over and over again the ruins were searched--hastily and impatiently by
+some, carefully and deliberately by others, until there could be no
+doubt upon the mind of every one individual, that somehow or somewhere
+within the shadow of those walls, Sir Francis Varney had disappeared
+most mysteriously.
+
+Then it would have been a strange sight for any indifferent spectator to
+have seen how they shrunk, one by one, out of the shadow of those ruins;
+each seeming to be afraid that the vampyre, in some mysterious manner,
+would catch him if he happened to be the last within their sombre
+influence; and, when they had all collected in the bright, open space,
+some little distance beyond, they looked at each other and at the ruins,
+with dubious expressions of countenance, each, no doubt, wishing that
+each would suggest something of a consolatory or practicable character.
+
+"What's to be done, now?" said one.
+
+"Ah! that's it," said another, sententiously. "I'll be hanged if I
+know."
+
+"He's given us the slip," remarked a third.
+
+"But he can't have given us the slip," said one man, who was
+particularly famous for a dogmatical spirit of argumentation; "how is it
+possible? he must be here, and I say he is here."
+
+"Find him, then," cried several at once.
+
+"Oh! that's nothing to do with the argument; he's here, whether we find
+him or not."
+
+One very cunning fellow laid his finger on his nose, and beckoned to a
+comrade to retire some paces, where he delivered himself of the
+following very oracular sentiment:--
+
+"My good friend, you must know Sir Francis Varney is here or he isn't."
+
+"Agreed, agreed."
+
+"Well, if he isn't here it's no use troubling our heads any more about
+him; but, otherwise, it's quite another thing, and, upon the whole, I
+must say, that I rather think he is."
+
+All looked at him, for it was evident he was big with some suggestion.
+After a pause, he resumed,--
+
+"Now, my good friends, I propose that we all appear to give it up, and
+to go away; but that some one of us shall remain and hide among the
+ruins for some time, to watch, in case the vampyre makes his appearance
+from some hole or corner that we haven't found out."
+
+"Oh, capital!" said everybody.
+
+"Then you all agree to that?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"Very good; that's the only way to nick him. Now, we'll pretend to give
+it up; let's all of us talk loud about going home."
+
+They did all talk loud about going home; they swore that it was not
+worth the trouble of catching him, that they gave it up as a bad job;
+that he might go to the deuce in any way he liked, for all they cared;
+and then they all walked off in a body, when, the man who had made the
+suggestion, suddenly cried,--
+
+"Hilloa! hilloa!--stop! stop! you know one of us is to wait?"
+
+"Oh, ay; yes, yes, yes!" said everybody, and still they moved on.
+
+"But really, you know, what's the use of this? who's to wait?"
+
+That was, indeed, a knotty question, which induced a serious
+consultation, ending in their all, with one accord, pitching upon the
+author of the suggestion, as by far the best person to hide in the ruins
+and catch the vampyre.
+
+They then all set off at full speed; but the cunning fellow, who
+certainly had not the slightest idea of so practically carrying out his
+own suggestion, scampered off after them with a speed that soon brought
+him in the midst of the throng again, and so, with fear in their looks,
+and all the evidences of fatigue about them, they reached the town to
+spread fresh and more exaggerated accounts of the mysterious conduct of
+Varney the vampyre.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+VARNEY'S DANGER, AND HIS RESCUE.--THE PRISONER AGAIN, AND THE
+SUBTERRANEAN VAULT.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+We have before slightly mentioned to the reader, and not unadvisedly,
+the existence of a certain prisoner, confined in a gloomy dungeon, into
+whose sad and blackened recesses but few and faint glimmering rays of
+light ever penetrated; for, by a diabolical ingenuity, the narrow
+loophole which served for a window to that subterraneous abode was so
+constructed, that, let the sun be at what point it might, during its
+diurnal course, but a few reflected beams of light could ever find their
+way into that abode of sorrow.
+
+The prisoner--the same prisoner of whom we before spoke--is there.
+Despair is in his looks, and his temples are still bound with those
+cloths, which seemed now for many days to have been sopped in blood,
+which has become encrusted in their folds.
+
+He still lives, apparently incapable of movement. How he has lived so
+long seems to be a mystery, for one would think him scarcely in a state,
+even were nourishment placed to his lips, to enable him to swallow it.
+
+It may be, however, that the mind has as much to do with that apparent
+absolute prostration of all sort of physical energy as those bodily
+wounds which he has received at the hands of the enemies who have
+reduced him to his present painful and hopeless situation.
+
+Occasionally a low groan burst from his lips; it seems to come from the
+very bottom of his heart, and it sounds as if it would carry with it
+every remnant of vitality that was yet remaining to him.
+
+Then he moves restlessly, and repeats in hurried accents the names of
+some who are dear to him, and far away--some who may, perchance, be
+mourning him, but who know not, guess not, aught of his present
+sufferings.
+
+As he thus moves, the rustle of a chain among the straw on which he lies
+gives an indication, that even in that dungeon it has not been
+considered prudent to leave him master of his own actions, lest, by too
+vigorous an effort, he might escape from the thraldom in which he is
+held.
+
+The sound reaches his own ears, and for a few moments, in the deep
+impatience of his wounded spirit, he heaps malediction on the heads of
+those who have reduced him to his present state.
+
+But soon a better nature seems to come over him, and gentler words fall
+from his lips. He preaches patience to himself--he talks not of revenge,
+but of justice, and in accents of more hopefulness than he had before
+spoken, he calls upon Heaven to succour him in his deep distress.
+
+Then all is still, and the prisoner appears to have resigned himself
+once more to the calmness of expectation or of despair; but hark! his
+sense of hearing, rendered doubly acute by lying so long alone in nearly
+darkness, and in positive silence, detects sounds which, to ordinary
+mortal powers of perception, would have been by far too indistinct to
+produce any tangible effect upon the senses.
+
+It is the sound of feet--on, on they come; far overhead he hears them;
+they beat the green earth--that sweet, verdant sod, which he may never
+see again--with an impatient tread. Nearer and nearer still; and now
+they pause; he listens with all the intensity of one who listens for
+existence; some one comes; there is a lumbering noise--a hasty footstep;
+he hears some one labouring for breath--panting like a hunted hare; his
+dungeon door is opened, and there totters in a man, tall and gaunt; he
+reels like one intoxicated; fatigue has done more than the work of
+inebriation; he cannot save himself, and he sinks exhausted by the side
+of that lonely prisoner.
+
+The captive raises himself as far as his chains will allow him; he
+clutches the throat of his enervated visitor.
+
+"Villain, monster, vampyre!" he shrieks, "I have thee now;" and locked
+in a deadly embrace, they roll upon the damp earth, struggling for life
+together.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is mid-day at Bannerworth Hall, and Flora is looking from the
+casement anxiously expecting the arrival of her brothers. She had seen,
+from some of the topmost windows of the Hall, that the whole
+neighbourhood had been in a state of commotion, but little did she guess
+the cause of so much tumult, or that it in any way concerned her.
+
+She had seen the peasantry forsaking their work in the fields and the
+gardens, and apparently intent upon some object of absorbing interest;
+but she feared to leave the house, for she had promised Henry that she
+would not do so, lest the former pacific conduct of the vampyre should
+have been but a new snare, for the purpose of drawing her so far from
+her home as to lead her into some danger when she should be far from
+assistance.
+
+And yet more than once was she tempted to forget her promise, and to
+seek the open country, for fear that those she loved should be
+encountering some danger for her sake, which she would willingly either
+share with them or spare them.
+
+The solicitation, however, of her brother kept her comparatively quiet;
+and, moreover, since her last interview with Varney, in which, at all
+events, he had shown some feeling for the melancholy situation to which,
+he had reduced her, she had been more able to reason calmly, and to meet
+the suggestions of passion and of impulse with a sober judgment.
+
+About midday, then, she saw the domestic party returning--that party,
+which now consisted of her two brothers, the admiral, Jack Pringle, and
+Mr. Chillingworth. As for Mr. Marchdale, he had given them a polite
+adieu on the confines of the grounds of Bannerworth Hall, stating, that
+although he had felt it to be his duty to come forward and second Henry
+Bannerworth in the duel with the vampyre, yet that circumstance by no
+means obliterated from his memory the insults he had received from
+Admiral Bell, and, therefore, he declined going to Bannerworth Hall, and
+bade them a very good morning.
+
+To all this, Admiral Bell replied that he might go and be d----d, if he
+liked, and that he considered him a swab and a humbug, and appealed to
+Jack Pringle whether he, Jack, ever saw such a sanctified looking prig
+in his life.
+
+"Ay, ay," says Jack.
+
+This answer, of course, produced the usual contention, which lasted them
+until they got fairly in the house, where they swore at each other to an
+extent that was enough to make any one's hair stand on end, until Henry
+and Mr. Chillingworth interfered, and really begged that they would
+postpone the discussion until some more fitting opportunity.
+
+The whole of the circumstances were then related to Flora; who, while
+she blamed her brother much for fighting the duel with the vampyre,
+found in the conduct of that mysterious individual, as regarded the
+encounter, yet another reason for believing him to be strictly sincere
+in his desire to save her from the consequences of his future visits.
+
+Her desire to leave Bannerworth Hall consequently became more and more
+intense, and as the admiral really now considered himself the master of
+the house, they offered no amount of opposition to the subject, but
+merely said,--
+
+"My dear Flora, Admiral Bell shall decide in all these matters, now. We
+know that he is our sincere friend; and that whatever he says we ought
+to do, will be dictated by the best possible feelings towards us."
+
+"Then I appeal to you, sir," said Flora, turning to the admiral.
+
+"Very good," replied the old man; "then I say--"
+
+"Nay, admiral," interrupted Mr. Chillingworth; "you promised me, but a
+short time since, that you would come to no decision whatever upon this
+question, until you had heard some particulars which I have to relate to
+you, which, in my humble opinion, will sway your judgment."
+
+"And so I did," cried the admiral; "but I had forgotten all about it.
+Flora, my dear, I'll be with you in an hour or two. My friend, the
+doctor, here, has got some sow by the ear, and fancies it's the right
+one; however, I'll hear what he has got to say, first, before we come to
+a conclusion. So, come along, Mr. Chillingworth, and let's have it out
+at once."
+
+"Flora," said Henry, when the admiral had left the room, "I can see that
+you wish to leave the Hall."
+
+"I do, brother; but not to go far--I wish rather to hide from Varney
+than to make myself inaccessible by distance."
+
+"You still cling to this neighbourhood?"
+
+"I do, I do; and you know with what hope I cling to it."
+
+"Perfectly; you still think it possible that Charles Holland may be
+united to you."
+
+"I do, I do."
+
+"You believe his faith."
+
+"Oh, yes; as I believe in Heaven's mercy."
+
+"And I, Flora; I would not doubt him now for worlds; something even now
+seems to whisper to me that a brighter sun of happiness will yet dawn
+upon us, and that, when the mists which at present enshroud ourselves
+and our fortunes pass away, they will disclose a landscape full of
+beauty, the future of which shall know no pangs."
+
+"Yes, brother," exclaimed Flora, enthusiastically; "this, after all, may
+be but some trial, grievous while it lasts, but yet tending eventually
+only to make the future look more bright and beautiful. Heaven may yet
+have in store for us all some great happiness, which shall spring
+clearly and decidedly from out these misfortunes."
+
+"Be it so, and may we ever thus banish despair by such hopeful
+propositions. Lean on my arm, Flora; you are safe with me. Come,
+dearest, and taste the sweetness of the morning air."
+
+There was, indeed now, a hopefulness about the manner in which Henry
+Bannerworth spoke, such as Flora had not for some weary months had the
+pleasure of listening to, and she eagerly rose to accompany him into the
+garden, which was glowing with all the beauty of sunshine, for the day
+had turned out to be much finer than the early morning had at all
+promised it would be.
+
+"Flora," he said, when they had taken some turns to and fro in the
+garden, "notwithstanding all that has happened, there is no convincing
+Mr. Chillingworth that Sir Francis Varney is really what to us he
+appears."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"It is so. In the face of all evidence, he neither will believe in
+vampyres at all, nor that Varney is anything but some mortal man, like
+ourselves, in his thoughts, talents, feelings, and modes of life; and
+with no more power to do any one an injury than we have."
+
+"Oh, would that I could think so!"
+
+"And I; but, unhappily, we have by far too many, and too conclusive
+evidences to the contrary."
+
+"We have, indeed, brother."
+
+"And though, while we respect that strength of mind in our friend which
+will not allow him, even almost at the last extremity, to yield to what
+appear to be stern facts, we may not ourselves be so obdurate, but may
+feel that we know enough to be convinced."
+
+"You have no doubt, brother?"
+
+"Most reluctantly, I must confess, that I feel compelled to consider
+Varney as something more than mortal."
+
+"He must be so."
+
+"And now, sister, before we leave the place which has been a home to us
+from earliest life, let us for a few moments consider if there be any
+possible excuse for the notion of Mr. Chillingworth, to the effect that
+Sir Francis Varney wants possession of the house for some purpose still
+more inimical to our peace and prosperity than any he has yet
+attempted."
+
+"Has he such an opinion?"
+
+"He has."
+
+"'Tis very strange."
+
+"Yes, Flora; he seems to gather from all the circumstances, nothing but
+an overwhelming desire on the part of Sir Francis Varney to become the
+tenant of Bannerworth Hall."
+
+"He certainly wishes to possess it."
+
+"Yes; but can you, sister, in the exercise of any possible amount of
+fancy, imagine any motive for such an anxiety beyond what he alleges?"
+
+"Which is merely that he is fond of old houses."
+
+"Precisely so. That is the reason, and the only one, that can be got
+from him. Heaven only knows if it be the true one."
+
+"It may be, brother."
+
+"As you say, it may; but there's a doubt, nevertheless, Flora. I much
+rejoice that you have had an interview with this mysterious being, for
+you have certainty, since that time, been happier and more composed than
+I ever hoped to see you again."
+
+"I have indeed."
+
+"It is sufficiently perceivable."
+
+"Somehow, brother, since that interview, I have not had the same sort of
+dread of Sir Francis Varney which before made the very sound of his name
+a note of terror to me. His words, and all he said to me during that
+interview which took place so strangely between us, indeed how I know
+not, tended altogether rather to make him, to a certain extent, an
+object of my sympathies rather than my abhorrence."
+
+"That is very strange."
+
+"I own that it is strange, Henry; but when we come for but a brief
+moment to reflect upon the circumstances which have occurred, we shall,
+I think, be able to find some cause even to pity Varney the vampyre."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Thus, brother. It is said--and well may I who have been subject to an
+attack of such a nature, tremble to repeat the saying--that those who
+have been once subject to the visitations of a vampyre, are themselves
+in a way to become one of the dreadful and maddening fraternity."
+
+"I have heard so much, sister," replied Henry.
+
+"Yes; and therefore who knows but that Sir Francis Varney may, at one
+time, have been as innocent as we are ourselves of the terrible and
+fiendish propensity which now makes him a terror and a reproach to all
+who know him, or are in any way obnoxious to his attacks."
+
+"That is true."
+
+"There may have been a time--who shall say there was not?--when he, like
+me, would have shrunk, with a dread as great as any one could have
+experienced, from the contamination of the touch even of a vampyre."
+
+"I cannot, sister, deny the soundness of your reasoning," said Henry,
+with a sigh; "but I still no not see anything, even from a full
+conviction that Varney is unfortunate, which should induce us to
+tolerate him."
+
+"Nay, brother, I said not tolerate. What I mean is, that even with the
+horror and dread we must naturally feel at such a being, we may afford
+to mingle some amount of pity, which shall make us rather seek to shun
+him, than to cross his path with a resolution of doing him an injury."
+
+"I perceive well, sister, what you mean. Rather than remain here, and
+make an attempt to defy Sir Francis Varney, you would fly from him, and
+leave him undisputed master of the field."
+
+"I would--I would."
+
+"Heaven forbid that I or any one should thwart you. You know well,
+Flora, how dear you are to me; you know well that your happiness has
+ever been to us all a matter which has assumed the most important of
+shapes, as regarded our general domestic policy. It is not, therefore,
+likely now, dear sister, that we should thwart you in your wish to
+remove from here."
+
+"I know, Henry, all you would say," remarked Flora, as a tear started to
+her eyes. "I know well all you think, and, in your love for me, I
+likewise know well I rely for ever. You are attached to this place, as,
+indeed, we all are, by a thousand happy and pleasant associations; but
+listen to me further, Henry, I do not wish to wander far."
+
+"Not far, Flora?"
+
+"No. Do I not still cling to a hope that Charles may yet appear? and if
+he do so, it will assuredly be in this neighbourhood, which he knows is
+native and most dear to us all."
+
+"True."
+
+"Then do I wish to make some sort of parade, in the way of publicity, of
+our leaving the Hall."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"And yet not go far. In the neighbouring town, for example, surely we
+might find some means of living entirely free from remark or observation
+as to who or what we were."
+
+"That, sister, I doubt. If you seek for that species of solitude which
+you contemplate, it is only to be found in a desert."
+
+"A desert?"
+
+"Yes; or in a large city."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Ay, Flora; you may well believe me, that it is so. In a small community
+you can have no possible chance of evading an amount of scrutiny which
+would very soon pierce through any disguise you could by any possibility
+assume."
+
+"Then there is no resource. We must go far."
+
+"Nay, I will consider for you, Flora; and although, as a general
+principle, what I have said I know to be true, yet some more special
+circumstance may arise that may point a course that, while it enables
+us, for Charles Holland's sake, to remain in this immediate
+neighbourhood, yet will procure to us all the secrecy we may desire."
+
+"Dear--dear brother," said Flora, as she flung herself upon Henry's
+neck, "you speak cheeringly to me, and, what is more, you believe in
+Charles's faithfulness and truth."
+
+"As Heaven is my judge, I do."
+
+"A thousand, thousand thanks for such an assurance. I know him too well
+to doubt, for one moment, his faith. Oh, brother! could he--could
+Charles Holland, the soul of honour, the abode of every noble impulse
+that can adorn humanity--could he have written those letters? No, no!
+perish the thought!"
+
+"It has perished."
+
+"Thank God!"
+
+"I only, upon reflection, wonder how, misled for the moment by the
+concurrence of a number of circumstances, I could ever have suspected
+him."
+
+"It is like your generous nature, brother to say so; but you know as
+well as I, that there has been one here who has, far from feeling any
+sort of anxiety to think as well as possible of poor Charles Holland,
+has done all that in him lay to take the worst view of his mysterious
+disappearance, and induce us to do the like."
+
+"You allude to Mr. Marchdale?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Well, Flora, at the same time that I must admit you have cause for
+speaking of Mr. Marchdale as you do, yet when we come to consider all
+things, there may be found for him excuses."
+
+"May there?"
+
+"Yes, Flora; he is a man, as he himself says, past the meridian of life,
+and the world is a sad as well as a bad teacher, for it soon--too soon,
+alas! deprives us of our trusting confidence in human nature."
+
+"It may be so; but yet, he, knowing as he did so very little of Charles
+Holland, judged him hastily and harshly."
+
+"You rather ought to say, Flora, that he did not judge him generously."
+
+"Well, be it so."
+
+"And you must recollect, when you say so, that Marchdale did not love
+Charles Holland."
+
+"Nay, now," said Flora, while there flashed across her cheek, for a
+moment, a heightened colour, "you are commencing to jest with me, and,
+therefore, we will say no more. You know, dear Henry, all my hopes, my
+wishes, and my feelings, and I shall therefore leave my future destiny
+in your hands, to dispose of as you please. Look yonder!"
+
+"Where?"
+
+"There. Do you not see the admiral and Mr. Chillingworth walking among
+the trees?"
+
+"Yes, yes; I do now."
+
+"How very serious and intent they are upon the subject of their
+discourse. They seem quite lost to all surrounding objects. I could not
+have imagined any subject that would so completely have absorbed the
+attention of Admiral Bell."
+
+"Mr. Chillingworth had something to relate to him or to propose, of a
+nature which, perchance, has had the effect of enchaining all his
+attention--he called him from the room."
+
+"Yes; I saw that he did. But see, they come towards us, and now we
+shall, probably, hear what is the subject-matter of their discourse and
+consultation."
+
+"We shall."
+
+Admiral Bell had evidently seen Henry and his sister, for now, suddenly,
+as if not from having for the first moment observed them, and, in
+consequence, broken off their private discourse, but as if they arrived
+at some point in it which enabled them to come to a conclusion to be
+communicative, the admiral came towards the brother and sister.
+
+"Well," said the bluff old admiral, when they were sufficiently near to
+exchange words, "well, Miss Flora, you are looking a thousand times
+better than you were."
+
+"I thank you, admiral, I am much better."
+
+"Oh, to be sure you are; and you will be much better still, and no sort
+of mistake. Now, here's the doctor and I have both been agreeing upon
+what is best for you."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, to be sure. Have we not, doctor?"
+
+"We have, admiral."
+
+"Good; and what, now, Miss Flora, do you suppose it is?"
+
+"I really cannot say."
+
+"Why, it's change of air, to be sure. You must get away from here as
+quickly as you can, or there will be no peace for you."
+
+"Yes," added Mr. Chillingworth, advancing; "I am quite convinced that
+change of scene and change of place, and habits, and people, will tend
+more to your complete recovery than any other circumstances. In the most
+ordinary cases of indisposition we always find that the invalid recovers
+much sooner away from the scene of his indisposition, than by remaining
+in it, even though its general salubrity be much greater than the place
+to which he may be removed."
+
+"Good," said the admiral.
+
+"Then we are to understand," said Henry, with a smile, "that we are no
+longer to be your guests, Admiral Bell?"
+
+"Belay there!" cried the admiral; "who told you to understand any such
+thing, I should like to know?"
+
+"Well, but we shall look upon this house as yours, now; and, that being
+the case, if we remove from it, of course we cease to be your guests any
+longer."
+
+"That's all you know about it. Now, hark ye. You don't command the
+fleet, so don't pretend to know what the admiral is going to do. I have
+made money by knocking about some of the enemies of old England, and
+that's the most gratifying manner in the world of making money, so far
+as I am concerned."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"It is an honourable mode."
+
+"Of course it is. Well, I am going to--what the deuce do you call it?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"That's just what I want to know. Oh, I have it now. I am going to what
+the lawyers call invest it."
+
+"A prudent step, admiral, and one which it is to be hoped, before now,
+has occurred to you."
+
+"Perhaps it has and perhaps it hasn't; however, that's my business, and
+no one's else's. I am going to invest my spare cash in taking houses;
+so, as I don't care a straw where the houses may be situated, you can
+look out for one somewhere that will suit you, and I'll take it; so,
+after all, you will be my guests there just the same as you are here."
+
+"Admiral," said Henry, "it would be imposing upon a generosity as rare
+as it is noble, were we to allow you to do so much for us as you
+contemplate."
+
+"Very good."
+
+"We cannot--we dare not."
+
+"But I say you shall. So you have had your say, and I've had mine, after
+which, if you please, Master Henry Bannerworth, I shall take upon myself
+to consider the affair as altogether settled. You can commence
+operations as soon as you like. I know that Miss Flora, here--bless her
+sweet eyes--don't want to stay at Bannerworth Hall any longer than she
+can help it."
+
+"Indeed I was urging upon Henry to remove," said Flora; "but yet I
+cannot help feeling with him, admiral, that we are imposing upon your
+goodness."
+
+"Go on imposing, then."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Psha! Can't a man be imposed upon if he likes? D--n it, that's a poor
+privilege for an Englishman to be forced to make a row about. I tell you
+I like it. I will be imposed upon, so there's an end of that; and now
+let's come in and see what Mrs. Bannerworth has got ready for luncheon."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It can hardly be supposed that such a popular ferment as had been
+created in the country town, by the singular reports concerning Varney
+the Vampyre, should readily, and without abundant satisfaction, subside.
+
+An idea like that which had lent so powerful an impulse to the popular
+mind, was one far easier to set going than to deprecate or extinguish.
+The very circumstances which had occurred to foil the excited mob in
+their pursuit of Sir Francis Varney, were of a nature to increase the
+popular superstition concerning him, and to make him and his acts appear
+in still more dreadful colours.
+
+Mobs do not reason very closely and clearly; but the very fact of the
+frantic flight of Sir Francis Varney from the projected attack of the
+infuriated multitude, was seized hold of as proof positive of the
+reality of his vampyre-like existence.
+
+Then, again, had he not disappeared in the most mysterious manner? Had
+he not sought refuge where no human being would think of seeking refuge,
+namely, in that old, dilapidated ruin, where, when his pursuers were so
+close upon his track, he had succeeded in eluding their grasp with a
+facility which looked as if he had vanished into thin air, or as if the
+very earth had opened to receive him bodily within its cold embraces?
+
+It is not to be wondered at, that the few who fled so precipitately from
+the ruin, lost nothing of the wonderful story they had to tell, in the
+carrying it from that place to the town. When they reached their
+neighbours, they not only told what had really occurred, but they added
+to it all their own surmises, and the fanciful creation of all their own
+fears, so that before mid-day, and about the time when Henry Bannerworth
+was conversing so quietly in the gardens of the Hall with his beautiful
+sister, there was an amount of popular ferment in the town, of which
+they had no conception.
+
+All business was suspended, and many persons, now that once the idea had
+been started concerning the possibility that a vampyre might have been
+visiting some of the houses in the place, told how, in the dead of the
+night, they had heard strange noises. How children had shrieked from no
+apparent cause--doors opened and shut without human agency; and windows
+rattled that never had been known to rattle before.
+
+Some, too, went so far as to declare that they had been awakened out of
+their sleep by noises incidental to an effort made to enter their
+chambers; and others had seen dusky forms of gigantic proportions
+outside their windows, tampering with their fastenings, and only
+disappearing when the light of day mocked all attempts at concealment.
+
+These tales flew from mouth to mouth, and all listened to them with such
+an eager interest, that none thought it worth while to challenge their
+inconsistencies, or to express a doubt of their truth, because they had
+not been mentioned before.
+
+The only individual, and he was a remarkably clever man, who made the
+slightest remark upon the subject of a practical character, hazarded a
+suggestion that made confusion worse confounded.
+
+He knew something of vampyres. He had travelled abroad, and had heard of
+them in Germany, as well as in the east, and, to a crowd of wondering
+and aghast listeners, he said,--
+
+"You may depend upon it, my friends, this has been going on for some
+time; there have been several mysterious and sudden deaths in the town
+lately; people have wasted away and died nobody knew how or wherefore."
+
+"Yes--yes," said everybody.
+
+"There was Miles, the butcher; you know how fat he was, and then how fat
+he wasn't."
+
+A general assent was given to the proposition; and then, elevating one
+arm in an oratorical manner, the clever fellow continued,--
+
+"I have not a doubt that Miles, the butcher, and every one else who has
+died suddenly lately, have been victims of the vampyre; and what's more,
+they'll all be vampyres, and come and suck other people's blood, till at
+last the whole town will be a town of vampyres."
+
+"But what's to be done?" cried one, who trembled so excessively that he
+could scarcely stand under his apprehension.
+
+"There is but one plan--Sir Francis Varney must be found, and put out of
+the world in such a manner that he can't come back to it again; and all
+those who are dead that we have any suspicion of, should be taken up out
+of their graves and looked at, to see if they're rotting or not; if they
+are it's all right; but, if they look fresh and much, as usual, you may
+depend they're vampyres, and no mistake."
+
+This was a terrific suggestion thrown amongst a mob. To have caught Sir
+Francis Varney and immolated him at the shrine of popular fury, they
+would not have shrunk from; but a desecration of the graves of those
+whom they had known in life was a matter which, however much it had to
+recommend it, even the boldest stood aghast at, and felt some qualms of
+irresolution.
+
+There are many ideas, however, which, like the first plunge into a cold
+bath, are rather uncomfortable for the moment; but which, in a little
+time, we become so familiarized with, that they become stripped of their
+disagreeable concomitants, and appear quite pleasing and natural.
+
+So it was with this notion of exhuming the dead bodies of those
+townspeople who had recently died from what was called a decay of
+nature, and such other failures of vitality as bore not the tangible
+name of any understood disease.
+
+From mouth to mouth the awful suggestion spread like wildfire, until at
+last it grew into such a shape that it almost seemed to become a duty,
+at all events, to have up Miles the butcher, and see how he looked.
+
+There is, too, about human nature a natural craving curiosity concerning
+everything connected with the dead. There is not a man of education or
+of intellectual endowment who would not travel many miles to look upon
+the exhumation of the remains of some one famous in his time, whether
+for his vices, his virtues, his knowledge, his talents, or his heroism;
+and, if this feeling exist in the minds of the educated and refined in a
+sublimated shape, which lends to it grace and dignity, we may look for
+it among the vulgar and the ignorant, taking only a grosser and meaner
+form, in accordance with their habits of thought. The rude materials, of
+which the highest and noblest feelings of educated minds are formed,
+will be found amongst the most grovelling and base; and so this vulgar
+curiosity, which, combined with other feelings, prompted an ignorant and
+illiterate mob to exhume Miles, the once fat butcher, in a different
+form tempted the philosophic Hamlet to moralise upon the skull of
+Yorick.
+
+And it was wonderful to see how, when these people had made up their
+minds to carry out the singularly interesting, but, at the same,
+fearful, suggestion, they assumed to themselves a great virtue in so
+doing--told each other what an absolute necessity there was, for the
+public good, that it should be done; and then, with loud shouts and
+cries concerning the vampyre, they proceeded in a body to the village
+churchyard, where had been lain, with a hope of reposing in peace, the
+bones of their ancestors.
+
+A species of savage ferocity now appeared to have seized upon the crowd,
+and the people, in making up their minds to do something which was
+strikingly at variance with all their preconceived notions of right and
+wrong, appeared to feel that it was necessary, in order that they might
+be consistent, to cast off many of the decencies of life, and to become
+riotous and reckless.
+
+As they proceeded towards the graveyard, they amused themselves by
+breaking the windows of the tax-gatherers, and doing what passing
+mischief they could to the habitations of all who held any official
+situation or authority.
+
+This was something like a proclamation of war against those who might
+think it their duty to interfere with the lawless proceedings of an
+ignorant multitude. A public-house or two, likewise, _en route_, was
+sacked of some of its inebriating contents, so that, what with the
+madness of intoxication, and the general excitement consequent upon the
+very nature of the business which took them to the churchyard, a more
+wild and infuriated multitude than that which paused at two iron gates
+which led into the sanctuary of that church could not be imagined.
+
+Those who have never seen a mob placed in such a situation as to have
+cast off all moral restraint whatever, at the same time that it feels
+there is no physical power to cope with it, can form no notion of the
+mass of terrible passions which lie slumbering under what, in ordinary
+cases, have appeared harmless bosoms, but which now run riot, and
+overcame every principle of restraint. It is a melancholy fact, but,
+nevertheless, a fact, despite its melancholy, that, even in a civilised
+country like this, with a generally well-educated population, nothing
+but a well-organised physical force keeps down, from the commission of
+the most outrageous offences, hundreds and thousands of persons.
+
+We have said that the mob paused at the iron gates of the churchyard,
+but it was more a pause of surprise than one of vacillation, because
+they saw that those iron gates were closed, which had not been the case
+within the memory of the oldest among them.
+
+At the first building of the church, and the enclosure of its graveyard,
+two pairs of these massive gates had been presented by some munificent
+patron; but, after a time, they hung idly upon their hinges, ornamental
+certainly, but useless, while a couple of turnstiles, to keep cattle
+from straying within the sacred precincts, did duty instead, and
+established, without trouble, the regular thoroughfare, which long habit
+had dictated as necessary, through the place of sepulture.
+
+But now those gates were closed, and for once were doing duty. Heaven
+only knows how they had been moved upon their rusty and time-worn
+hinges. The mob, however, was checked for the moment, and it was clear
+that the ecclesiastical authorities were resolved to attempt something
+to prevent the desecration of the tombs.
+
+Those gates were sufficiently strong to resist the first vigorous shake
+which was given to them by some of the foremost among the crowd, and
+then one fellow started the idea that they might be opened from the
+inside, and volunteered to clamber over the wall to do so.
+
+Hoisted up upon the shoulders of several, he grasped the top of the
+wall, and raised his head above its level, and then something of a
+mysterious nature rose up from the inside, and dealt him such a whack
+between the eyes, that down he went sprawling among his coadjutors.
+
+Now, nobody had seen how this injury had been inflicted, and the policy
+of those in the garrison should have been certainly to keep up the
+mystery, and leave the invaders in ignorance of what sort of person it
+was that had so foiled them. Man, however, is prone to indulge in vain
+glorification, and the secret was exploded by the triumphant waving of
+the long staff of the beadle, with the gilt knob at the end of it, just
+over the parapet of the wall, in token of victory.
+
+"It's Waggles! it's Waggles!" cried everybody "it's Waggles, the
+beadle!"
+
+"Yes," said a voice from within, "it's Waggles, the beadle; and he
+thinks as he had yer there rather; try it again. The church isn't in
+danger; oh, no. What do you think of this?"
+
+The staff was flourished more vigorously than ever, and in the secure
+position that Waggles occupied it seemed not only impossible to attack
+him, but that he possessed wonderful powers of resistance, for the staff
+was long and the knob was heavy.
+
+It was a boy who hit upon the ingenious expedient of throwing up a great
+stone, so that it just fell inside the wall, and hit Waggles a great
+blow on the head.
+
+The staff was flourished more vigorously than ever, and the mob, in the
+ecstasy at the fun which was going on, almost forgot the errand which
+had brought them.
+
+Perhaps after all the affair might have passed off jestingly, had not
+there been some really mischievous persons among the throng who were
+determined that such should not be the case, and they incited the
+multitude to commence an attack upon the gates, which in a few moments
+must have produced their entire demolition.
+
+Suddenly, however, the boldest drew back, and there was a pause, as the
+well-known form of the clergyman appeared advancing from the church
+door, attired in full canonicals.
+
+"There's Mr. Leigh," said several; "how unlucky he should be here."
+
+"What is this?" said the clergyman, approaching the gates. "Can I
+believe my eyes when I see before me those who compose the worshippers
+at this church armed, and attempting to enter for the purpose of
+violence to this sacred place! Oh! let me beseech you, lose not a
+moment, but return to your homes, and repent of that which you have
+already done. It is not yet too late; listen, I pray you, to the voice
+of one with whom you have so often joined in prayer to the throne of the
+Almighty, who is now looking upon your actions."
+
+This appeal was heard respectfully, but it was evidently very far from
+suiting the feelings and the wishes of those to whom it was addressed;
+the presence of the clergyman was evidently an unexpected circumstance,
+and the more especially too as he appeared in that costume which they
+had been accustomed to regard with a reverence almost amounting to
+veneration. He saw the favourable effect he had produced, and anxious to
+follow it up, he added,--
+
+"Let this little ebullition of feeling pass away, my friends; and,
+believe me, when I assure you upon my sacred word, that whatever ground
+there may be for complaint or subject for inquiry, shall be fully and
+fairly met; and that the greatest exertions shall be made to restore
+peace and tranquillity to all of you."
+
+"It's all about the vampyre!" cried one fellow--"Mr. Leigh, how should
+you like a vampyre in the pulpit?"
+
+"Hush, hush! can it be possible that you know so little of the works of
+that great Being whom you all pretend to adore, as to believe that he
+would create any class of beings of a nature such as those you ascribe
+to that terrific word! Oh, let me pray of you to get rid of these
+superstitions--alike disgraceful to yourselves and afflicting to me."
+
+The clergyman had the satisfaction of seeing the crowd rapidly thinning
+from before the gates, and he believed his exhortations were having all
+the effect he wished. It was not until he heard a loud shout behind him,
+and, upon hastily turning, saw that the churchyard had been scaled at
+another place by some fifty or sixty persons, that his heart sunk within
+him, and he began to feel that what he had dreaded would surely come to
+pass.
+
+Even then he might have done something in the way of pacific exertion,
+but for the interference of Waggles, the beadle, who spoilt everything.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+THE OPEN GRAVES.--THE DEAD BODIES.--A SCENE OF TERROR.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+We have said Waggles spoilt everything, and so he did, for before Mr.
+Leigh could utter a word more, or advance two steps towards the rioters,
+Waggles charged them staff in hand, and there soon ensued a riot of a
+most formidable description.
+
+A kind of desperation seemed to have seized the beadle, and certainly,
+by his sudden and unexpected attack, he achieved wonders. When, however,
+a dozen hands got hold of the staff, and it was wrenched from him, and
+he was knocked down, and half-a-dozen people rolled over him, Waggles
+was not near the man he had been, and he would have been very well
+content to have lain quiet where he was; this, however, he was not
+permitted to do, for two or three, who had felt what a weighty
+instrument of warfare the parochial staff was, lifted him bodily from
+the ground, and canted him over the wall, without much regard to whether
+he fell on a hard or a soft place on the other side.
+
+This feat accomplished, no further attention was paid to Mr. Leigh, who,
+finding that his exhortations were quite unheeded, retired into the
+church with an appearance of deep affliction about him, and locked
+himself in the vestry.
+
+The crowd now had entire possession--without even the sort of control
+that an exhortation assumed over them--of the burying-ground, and soon
+in a dense mass were these desperate and excited people collected round
+the well-known spot where lay the mortal remains of Miles, the butcher.
+
+"Silence!" cried a loud voice, and every one obeyed the mandate, looking
+towards the speaker, who was a tall, gaunt-looking man, attired in a
+suit of faded black, and who now pressed forward to the front of the
+throng.
+
+"Oh!" cried one, "it's Fletcher, the ranter. What does he do here?"
+
+"Hear him! hear him!" cried others; "he won't stop us."
+
+"Yes, hear him," cried the tall man, waving his arms about like the
+sails of a windmill. "Yes, hear him. Sons of darkness, you're all
+vampyres, and are continually sucking the life-blood from each other. No
+wonder that the evil one has power over you all. You're as men who walk
+in the darkness when the sunlight invites you, and you listen to the
+words of humanity when those of a diviner origin are offered to your
+acceptance. But there shall be miracles in the land, and even in this
+place, set apart with a pretended piety that is in itself most damnable,
+you shall find an evidence of the true light; and the proof that those
+who will follow me the true path to glory shall be found here within
+this grave. Dig up Miles, the butcher!"
+
+"Hear, hear, hear, hurra!" said every body. "Mr. Fletcher's not such a
+fool, after all. He means well."
+
+"Yes, you sinners," said the ranter, "and if you find Miles, the
+butcher, decaying--even as men are expected to decay whose mortal
+tabernacles are placed within the bowels of the earth--you shall gather
+from that a great omen, and a sign that if you follow me you seek the
+Lord; but I you find him looking fresh and healthy, as if the warm blood
+was still within his veins, you shall take that likewise as a
+signification that what I say to you shall be as the Gospel, and that by
+coming to the chapel of the Little Boozlehum, ye shall achieve a great
+salvation."
+
+"Very good," said a brawny fellow, advancing with a spade in his hand;
+"you get out of the way, and I'll soon have him up. Here goes, like blue
+blazes!"
+
+The first shovelful of earth he took up, he cast over his head into the
+air, so that it fell in a shower among the mob, which of course raised a
+shout of indignation; and, as he continued so to dispose of the
+superfluous earth, a general row seemed likely to ensue. Mr. Fletcher
+opened his mouth to make a remark, and, as that feature of his face was
+rather a capacious one, a descending lump of mould, of a clayey
+consistency, fell into it, and got so wedged among his teeth, that in
+the process of extracting it he nearly brought some of those essential
+portions of his anatomy with it.
+
+This was a state of things that could not last long, and he who had been
+so liberal with his spadesful of mould was speedily disarmed, and yet he
+was a popular favourite, and had done the thing so good-humouredly, that
+nobody touched him. Six or eight others, who had brought spades and
+pickaxes, now pushed forward to the work, and in an incredibly short
+space of time the grave of Miles, the butcher, seemed to be very nearly
+excavated.
+
+Work of any kind or nature whatever, is speedily executed when done with
+a wish to get through it; and never, perhaps, within the memory of man,
+was a grave opened in that churchyard with such a wonderful celerity.
+The excitement of the crowd grew intense--every available spot from
+which a view of the grave could be got, was occupied; for the last few
+minutes scarcely a remark had been uttered, and when, at last, the spade
+of one of those who were digging struck upon something that sounded like
+wood, you might have heard a pin drop, and each one there present drew
+his breath more shortly than before.
+
+"There he is," said the man, whose spade struck upon the coffin.
+
+Those few words broke the spell, and there was a general murmur, while
+every individual present seemed to shift his position in his anxiety to
+obtain a better view of what was about to ensue.
+
+The coffin now having been once found, there seemed to be an increased
+impetus given to the work; the earth was thrown out with a rapidity that
+seemed almost the quick result of the working of some machine; and those
+closest to the grave's brink crouched down, and, intent as they were
+upon the progress of events, heeded not the damp earth that fell upon
+them, nor the frail brittle and humid remains of humanity that
+occasionally rolled to their feet.
+
+It was, indeed, a scene of intense excitement--a scene which only wanted
+a few prominent features in its foreground of a more intellectual and
+higher cast than composed the mob, to make it a fit theme for a painter
+of the highest talent.
+
+And now the last few shovelfuls of earth that hid the top of the coffin
+were cast from the grave, and that narrow house which contained the
+mortal remains of him who was so well known, while in life, to almost
+every one then present, was brought to the gaze of eyes which never had
+seemed likely to have looked upon him again.
+
+The cry was now for ropes, with which to raise the cumbrous mass; but
+these were not to be had, no one thought of providing himself with such
+appliances, so that by main strength, only, could the coffin be raised
+to the brink.
+
+The difficulty of doing this was immense, for there was nothing tangible
+to stand upon; and even when the mould from the sides was sufficiently
+cleared away, that the handles of the coffin could be laid hold of, they
+came away immediately in the grasp of those who did so.
+
+But the more trouble that presented itself to the accomplishment of the
+designs of the mob, the more intent that body seemed upon carrying out
+to the full extent their original designs.
+
+Finding it quite impossible by bodily strength to raise the coffin of
+the butcher from the position in which it had got imbedded by excessive
+rains, a boy was hastily despatched to the village for ropes, and never
+did boy run with such speed before, for all his own curiosity was
+excited in the issue of an adventure, that to his young imagination was
+appallingly interesting.
+
+As impatient as mobs usually are, they had not time, in this case, for
+the exercise of that quality of mind before the boy came back with the
+necessary means of exerting quite a different species of power against
+the butcher's coffin.
+
+Strong ropes were slid under the inert mass, and twenty hands at once
+plied the task of raising that receptacle of the dead from what had been
+presumed to be its last resting-place. The ropes strained and creaked,
+and many thought that they would burst asunder sooner than raise the
+heavy coffin of the defunct butcher.
+
+It is singular what reasons people find for backing their opinion.
+
+"You may depend he's a vampyre," said one, "or it wouldn't be so
+difficult to get him out of the grave."
+
+"Oh, there can be no mistake about that," said one; "when did a natural
+Christian's coffin stick in the mud in that way?"
+
+"Ah, to be sure," said another; "I knew no good would come of his goings
+on; he never was a decent sort of man like his neighbours, and many
+queer things have been said of him that I have no doubt are true enough,
+if we did but know the rights of them."
+
+"Ah, but," said a young lad, thrusting his head between the two who were
+talking, "if he is a vampyre, how does he get out of his coffin of a
+night with all that weight of mould a top of him?"
+
+One of the men considered for a moment, and then finding no rational
+answer occur to him, he gave the boy a box on the ear, saying,--
+
+"I should like to know what business that is of yours? Boys, now-a-days,
+ain't like the boys in my time; they think nothing now of putting their
+spokes in grown-up people's wheels, just as if their opinions were of
+any consequence."
+
+Now, by a vigorous effort, those who were tugging at the ropes succeeded
+in moving the coffin a little, and that first step was all the
+difficulty, for it was loosened from the adhesive soil in which it lay,
+and now came up with considerable facility.
+
+There was a half shout of satisfaction at this result, while some of the
+congregation turned pale, and trembled at the prospect of the sight
+which was about to present itself; the coffin was dragged from the
+grave's brink fairly among the long rank grass that flourished in the
+churchyard, and then they all looked at it for a time, and the men who
+had been most earnest in raising it wiped the perspiration from their
+brows, and seemed to shrink from the task of opening that receptacle of
+the dead now that it was fairly in their power so to do.
+
+Each man looked anxiously in his neighbour's face, and several audibly
+wondered why somebody else didn't open the coffin.
+
+"There's no harm in it," said one; "if he's a vampyre, we ought to know
+it; and, if he ain't, we can't do any hurt to a dead man."
+
+"Oughtn't we to have the service for the dead?" said one.
+
+"Yes," said the impertinent boy who had before received the knock on the
+head, "I think we ought to have that read backwards."
+
+This ingenious idea was recompensed by a great many kicks and cuffs,
+which ought to have been sufficient to have warned him of the great
+danger of being a little before his age in wit.
+
+"Where's the use of shirking the job?" cried he who had been so active
+in shoveling the mud upon the multitude; "why, you cowardly sneaking set
+of humbugs, you're half afraid, now."
+
+"Afraid--afraid!" cried everybody: "who's afraid."
+
+"Ah, who's afraid?" said a little man, advancing, and assuming an heroic
+attitude; "I always notice, if anybody's afraid, it's some big fellow,
+with more bones than brains."
+
+At this moment, the man to whom this reproach was more particularly
+levelled, raised a horrible shout of terror, and cried out, in frantic
+accents,--
+
+"He's a-coming--he's a-coming!"
+
+The little man fell at once into the grave, while the mob, with one
+accord, turned tail, and fled in all directions, leaving him alone with
+the coffin. Such a fighting, and kicking, and scrambling ensued to get
+over the wall of the grave-yard, that this great fellow, who had caused
+all the mischief, burst into such peals of laughter that the majority of
+the people became aware that it was a joke, and came creeping back,
+looking as sheepish as possible.
+
+Some got up very faint sorts of laugh, and said "very good," and swore
+they saw what big Dick meant from the first, and only ran to make the
+others run.
+
+"Very good," said Dick, "I'm glad you enjoyed it, that's all. My eye,
+what a scampering there was among you. Where's my little friend, who was
+so infernally cunning about bones and brains?"
+
+With some difficulty the little man was extricated from the grave, and
+then, oh, for the consistency of a mob! they all laughed at him; those
+very people who, heedless of all the amenities of existence, had been
+trampling upon each other, and roaring with terror, actually had the
+impudence to laugh at him, and call him a cowardly little rascal, and
+say it served him right.
+
+But such is popularity!
+
+"Well, if nobody won't open the coffin," said big Dick, "I will, so here
+goes. I knowed the old fellow when he was alive, and many a time he's
+d----d me and I've d----d him, so I ain't a-going to be afraid of him
+now he's dead. We was very intimate, you see, 'cos we was the two
+heaviest men in the parish; there's a reason for everything."
+
+"Ah, Dick's the fellow to do it," cried a number of persons; "there's
+nobody like Dick for opening a coffin; he's the man as don't care for
+nothing."
+
+"Ah, you snivelling curs," said Dick, "I hate you. If it warn't for my
+own satisfaction, and all for to prove that my old friend, the butcher,
+as weighed seventeen stone, and stood six feet two and-a-half on his own
+sole, I'd see you all jolly well--"
+
+"D----d first," said the boy; "open the lid, Dick, let's have a look."
+
+"Ah, you're a rum un," said Dick, "arter my own heart. I sometimes
+thinks as you must be a nevy, or some sort of relation of mine.
+Howsomdever, here goes. Who'd a thought that I should ever had a look at
+old fat and thunder again?--that's what I used to call him; and then he
+used to request me to go down below, where I needn't turn round to light
+my blessed pipe."
+
+"Hell--we know," said the boy; "why don't you open the lid, Dick?"
+
+"I'm a going," said Dick; "kim up."
+
+He introduced the corner of a shovel between the lid and the coffin, and
+giving it a sudden wrench, he loosened it all down one side.
+
+A shudder pervaded the multitude, and, popularly speaking, you might
+have heard a pin drop in that crowded churchyard at that eventful
+moment.
+
+Dick then proceeded to the other side, and executed the same manoeuvre.
+
+"Now for it," he said; "we shall see him in a moment, and we'll think we
+seed him still."
+
+"What a lark!" said the boy.
+
+"You hold yer jaw, will yer? Who axed you for a remark, blow yer? What
+do you mean by squatting down there, like a cock-sparrow, with a pain in
+his tail, hanging yer head, too, right over the coffin? Did you never
+hear of what they call a fluvifium coming from the dead, yer ignorant
+beast, as is enough to send nobody to blazes in a minute? Get out of the
+way of the cold meat, will yer?"
+
+"A what, do you say, Dick?"
+
+"Request information from the extreme point of my elbow."
+
+Dick threw down the spade, and laying hold of the coffin-lid with both
+hands, he lifted it off, and flung it on one side.
+
+There was a visible movement and an exclamation among the multitude.
+Some were pushed down, in the eager desire of those behind to obtain a
+sight of the ghastly remains of the butcher; those at a distance were
+frantic, and the excitement was momentarily increasing.
+
+They might all have spared themselves the trouble, for the coffin was
+empty--here was no dead butcher, nor any evidence of one ever having
+been there, not even the grave-clothes; the only thing at all in the
+receptacle of the dead was a brick.
+
+Dick's astonishment was so intense that his eyes and mouth kept opening
+together to such an extent, that it seemed doubtful when they would
+reach their extreme point of elongation. He then took up the brick and
+looked at it curiously, and turned it over and over, examined the ends
+and the sides with a critical eye, and at length he said,--
+
+"Well, I'm blowed, here's a transmogrification; he's consolidified
+himself into a blessed brick--my eye, here's a curiosity."
+
+"But you don't mean to say that's the butcher, Dick?" said the boy.
+
+Dick reached over, and gave him a tap on the head with the brick.
+
+"There!" he said, "that's what I calls occular demonstration. Do you
+believe it now, you blessed infidel? What's more natural? He was an
+out-and-out brick while he was alive; and he's turned to a brick now
+he's dead."
+
+"Give it to me, Dick," said the boy; "I should like to have that brick,
+just for the fun of the thing."
+
+"I'll see you turned into a pantile first. I sha'n't part with this
+here, it looks so blessed sensible; it's a gaining on me every minute as
+a most remarkable likeness, d----d if it ain't."
+
+By this time the bewilderment of the mob had subsided; now that there
+was no dead butcher to look upon, they fancied themselves most
+grievously injured; and, somehow or other, Dick, notwithstanding all his
+exertions in their service, was looked upon in the light of a showman,
+who had promised some startling exhibition and then had disappointed his
+auditors.
+
+The first intimation he had of popular vengeance was a stone thrown at
+him, but Dick's eye happened to be upon the fellow who threw it, and
+collaring him in a moment, he dealt him a cuff on the side of the head,
+which confused his faculties for a week.
+
+"Hark ye," he then cried, with a loud voice, "don't interfere with me;
+you know it won't go down. There's something wrong here; and, as one of
+yourselves, I'm as much interested in finding out what it is as any of
+you can possibly be. There seems to be some truth in this vampyre
+business; our old friend, the butcher, you see, is not in his grave;
+where is he then?"
+
+The mob looked at each other, and none attempted to answer the question.
+
+"Why, of course, he's a vampyre," said Dick, "and you may all of you
+expect to see him, in turn, come into your bed-room windows with a
+burst, and lay hold of you like a million and a half of leeches rolled
+into one."
+
+There was a general expression of horror, and then Dick continued,--
+
+"You'd better all of you go home; I shall have no hand in pulling up any
+more of the coffins--this is a dose for me. Of course you can do what
+you like."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Pull them all up!" cried a voice; "pull them all up! Let's see how many
+vampyres there are in the churchyard."
+
+"Well, it's no business of mine," said Dick; "but I wouldn't, if I was
+you."
+
+"You may depend," said one, "that Dick knows something about it, or he
+wouldn't take it so easy."
+
+"Ah! down with him," said the man who had received the box on the ears;
+"he's perhaps a vampyre himself."
+
+The mob made a demonstration towards him, but Dick stood his ground, and
+they paused again.
+
+"Now, you're a cowardly set," he said; "cause you're disappointed, you
+want to come upon me. Now, I'll just show what a little thing will
+frighten you all again, and I warn beforehand it will, so you sha'n't
+say you didn't know it, and were taken by surprise."
+
+The mob looked at him, wondering what he was going to do.
+
+"Once! twice! thrice!" he said, and then he flung the brick up into the
+air an immense height, and shouted "heads," in a loud tone.
+
+A general dispersion of the crowd ensued, and the brick fell in the
+centre of a very large circle indeed.
+
+"There you are again," said Dick; "why, what a nice act you are!"
+
+"What fun!" said the boy. "It's a famous coffin, this, Dick," and he
+laid himself down in the butcher's last resting-place. "I never was in a
+coffin before--it's snug enough."
+
+"Ah, you're a rum 'un," said Dick; "you're such a inquiring genius, you
+is; you'll get your head into some hole one day, and not be able to get
+it out again, and then I shall see you a kicking. Hush! lay still--don't
+say anything."
+
+"Good again," said the boy; "what shall I do?"
+
+"Give a sort of a howl and a squeak, when they've all come back again."
+
+"Won't I!" said the boy; "pop on the lid."
+
+"There you are," said Dick; "d----d if I don't adopt you, and bring you
+up to the science of nothing."
+
+"Now, listen to me, good people all," added Dick; "I have really got
+something to say to you."
+
+At this intimation the people slowly gathered again round the grave.
+
+"Listen," said Dick, solemnly; "it strikes me there's some tremendous do
+going on."
+
+"Yes, there is," said several who were foremost.
+
+"It won't be long before you'll all of you be most d--nably astonished;
+but let me beg of all you not to accuse me of having anything to do with
+it, provided I tell you all I know."
+
+"No, Dick; we won't--we won't--we won't."
+
+"Good; then, listen. I don't know anything, but I'll tell you what I
+think, and that's as good; I don't think that this brick is the butcher;
+but I think, that when you least expect it--hush! come a little closer."
+
+"Yes, yes; we are closer."
+
+"Well, then, I say, when you all least expect it, and when you ain't
+dreaming of such a thing, you'll hear something of my fat friend as is
+dead and gone, that will astonish you all."
+
+Dick paused, and he gave the coffin a slight kick, as intimation to the
+boy that he might as well be doing his part in the drama, upon which
+that ingenious young gentleman set up such a howl, that even Dick
+jumped, so unearthly did it sound within the confines of that receptacle
+of the dead.
+
+But if the effect upon him was great, what must it have been upon those
+whom it took completely unawares? For a moment or two they seemed
+completely paralysed, and then they frightened the boy, for the shout of
+terror that rose from so many throats at once was positively alarming.
+
+This jest of Dick's was final, for, before three minutes had elapsed,
+the churchyard was clear of all human occupants save himself and the
+boy, who had played his part so well in the coffin.
+
+"Get out," said Dick, "it's all right--we've done 'em at last; and now
+you may depend upon it they won't be in a hurry to come here again. You
+keep your own counsel, or else somebody will serve you out for this. I
+don't think you're altogether averse to a bit of fun, and if you keep
+yourself quiet, you'll have the satisfaction of hearing what's said
+about this affair in every pot-house in the village, and no mistake."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+THE PREPARATIONS FOR LEAVING BANNERWORTH HALL, AND THE MYSTERIOUS
+CONDUCT OF THE ADMIRAL AND MR. CHILLINGWORTH.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It seemed now, that, by the concurrence of all parties, Bannerworth Hall
+was to be abandoned; and, notwithstanding Henry was loth--as he had,
+indeed, from the first shown himself--to leave the ancient abode of his
+race, yet, as not only Flora, but the admiral and his friend Mr.
+Chillingworth seemed to be of opinion that it would be a prudent course
+to adopt, he felt that it would not become him to oppose the measure.
+
+He, however, now made his consent to depend wholly upon the full and
+free acquiescence of every member of the family.
+
+"If," he said, "there be any among us who will say to me 'Continue to
+keep open the house in which we have passed so many happy hours, and let
+the ancient home of our race still afford a shelter to us,' I shall feel
+myself bound to do so; but if both my mother and my brother agree to a
+departure from it, and that its hearth shall be left cold and desolate,
+be it so. I will not stand in the way of any unanimous wish or
+arrangement."
+
+"We may consider that, then, as settled," said the admiral, "for I have
+spoken to your brother, and he is of our opinion. Therefore, my boy, we
+may all be off as soon as we can conveniently get under weigh."
+
+"But my mother?
+
+"Oh, there, I don't know. You must speak to her yourself. I never, if I
+can help it, interfere with the women folks."
+
+"If she consent, then I am willing."
+
+"Will you ask her?"
+
+"I will not ask her to leave, because I know, then, what answer she
+would at once give; but she shall hear the proposition, and I will leave
+her to decide upon it, unbiased in her judgment by any stated opinion of
+mine upon the matter."
+
+"Good. That'll do; and the proper way to put it, too. There's no mistake
+about that, I can tell you."
+
+Henry, although he went through the ceremony of consulting his mother,
+had no sort of doubt before he did so that she was sufficiently aware of
+the feelings and wishes of Flora to be prepared to yield a ready assent
+to the proposition of leaving the Hall.
+
+Moreover, Mr. Marchdale had, from the first, been an advocate of such a
+course of proceeding, and Henry well knew how strong an influence he had
+over Mrs. Bannerworth's mind, in consequence of the respect in which she
+held him as an old and valued friend.
+
+He was, therefore, prepared for what his mother said, which was,--
+
+"My dear Henry, you know that the wishes of my children, since they have
+been grown up and capable of coming to a judgment for themselves, have
+ever been laws to me. If you, among you all, agree to leave this place,
+do so."
+
+"But will you leave it freely, mother?"
+
+"Most freely I go with you all; what is it that has made this house and
+all its appurtenances pleasant in my eyes, but the presence in it of
+those who are so dear to me? If you all leave it, you take with you the
+only charms it ever possessed; so it becomes in itself as nothing. I am
+quite ready to accompany you all anywhere, so that we do but keep
+together."
+
+"Then, mother, we may consider that as settled."
+
+"As you please."
+
+"'It's scarcely as I please. I must confess that I would fain have clung
+with a kind of superstitious reverence to this ancient abiding-place of
+my race, but it may not be so. Those, perchance, who are more
+practically able to come to correct conclusions, in consequence of their
+feelings not being sufficiently interested to lead them astray, have
+decided otherwise; and, therefore, I am content to leave."
+
+"Do not grieve at it, Henry. There has hung a cloud of misfortune over
+us all since the garden of this house became the scene of an event which
+we can none of us remember but with terror and shuddering."
+
+"Two generations of our family must live and die before the remembrance
+of that circumstance can be obliterated. But we will think of it no
+more."
+
+There can no doubt but that the dreadful circumstance to which both Mrs.
+Bannerworth and Henry alluded, was the suicide of the father of the
+family in the gardens which before has been hinted at in the course of
+this narration, as being a circumstance which had created a great
+sensation at the time, and cast a great gloom for many months over the
+family.
+
+The reader will, doubtless, too, recollect that, at his last moments,
+this unhappy individual was said to have uttered some incoherent words
+about some hidden money, and that the rapid hand of death alone seemed
+to prevent him from being explicit upon that subject, and left it merely
+a matter of conjecture.
+
+As years had rolled on, this affair, even as a subject of speculation,
+had ceased to occupy the minds of any of the Bannerworth family, and
+several of their friends, among whom was Mr. Marchdale, were decidedly
+of opinion that the apparently pointed and mysterious words uttered,
+were but the disordered wanderings of an intellect already hovering on
+the confines of eternity.
+
+Indeed, far from any money, of any amount, being a disturbance to the
+last moments of the dissolute man, whose vices and extravagances had
+brought his family, to such ruin, it was pretty generally believed that
+he had committed suicide simply from a conviction of the impossibility
+of raising any more supplies of cash, to enable him to carry on the
+career which he had pursued for so long.
+
+But to resume.
+
+Henry at once communicated to the admiral what his mother had said, and
+then the whole question regarding the removal being settled in the
+affirmative, nothing remained to be done but to set about it as quickly
+as possible.
+
+The Bannerworths lived sufficiently distant from the town to be out of
+earshot of the disturbances which were then taking place; and so
+completely isolated were they from all sort of society, that they had no
+notion of the popular disturbance which Varney the vampyre had given
+rise to.
+
+It was not until the following morning that Mr. Chillingworth, who had
+been home in the meantime, brought word of what had taken place, and
+that great commotion was still in the town, and that the civil
+authorities, finding themselves by far too weak to contend against the
+popular will, had sent for assistance to a garrison town, some twenty
+miles distant.
+
+It was a great grief to the Bannerworth family to hear these tidings,
+not that they were in any way, except as victims, accessory to creating
+the disturbance about the vampyre, but it seemed to promise a kind of
+notoriety which they might well shrink from, and which they were just
+the people to view with dislike.
+
+View the matter how we like, however, it is not to be considered as at
+all probable that the Bannerworth family would remain long in ignorance
+of what a great sensation they had created unwittingly in the
+neighbourhood.
+
+The very reasons which had induced their servants to leave their
+establishment, and prefer throwing themselves completely out of place,
+rather than remain in so ill-omened a house, were sure to be bruited
+abroad far and wide.
+
+And that, perhaps, when they came to consider of it, would suffice to
+form another good and substantial reason for leaving the Hall, and
+seeking a refuge in obscurity from the extremely troublesome sort of
+popularity incidental to their peculiar situation.
+
+Mr. Chillingworth felt uncommonly chary of telling them all that had
+taken place; although he was well aware that the proceedings of the
+riotous mob had not terminated with the little disappointment at the old
+ruin, to which they had so effectually chased Varney the vampyre, but to
+lose him so singularly when he got there.
+
+No doubt he possessed the admiral with the uproar that was going on in
+the town, for the latter did hint a little of it to Henry Bannerworth.
+
+"Hilloa!" he said to Henry, as he saw him walking in the garden; "it
+strikes me if you and your ship's crew continue in these latitudes,
+you'll get as notorious as the Flying Dutchman in the southern ocean."
+
+"How do you mean?" said Henry.
+
+"Why, it's a sure going proverb to say, that a nod's as good as a wink;
+but, the fact is, it's getting rather too well known to be pleasant,
+that a vampyre has struck up rather a close acquaintance with your
+family. I understand there's a precious row in the town."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; bother the particulars, for I don't know them; but, hark ye, by
+to-morrow I'll have found a place for you to go to, so pack up the
+sticks, get all your stores ready to clear out, and make yourself scarce
+from this place."
+
+"I understand you," said Henry; "We have become the subject of popular
+rumour; I've only to beg of you, admiral, that you'll say nothing of
+this to Flora; she has already suffered enough, Heaven knows; do not let
+her have the additional infliction of thinking that her name is made
+familiar in every pothouse in the town."
+
+"Leave me alone for that," said the admiral. "Do you think I'm an ass?"
+
+"Ay, ay," said Jack Pringle, who came in at that moment, and thought the
+question was addressed to him.
+
+"Who spoke to you, you bad-looking horse-marine?"
+
+"Me a horse-marine! didn't you ask a plain question of a fellow, and get
+a plain answer?"
+
+"Why, you son of a bad looking gun, what do you mean by that? I tell you
+what it is, Jack; I've let you come sneaking too often on the
+quarter-deck, and now you come poking your fun at your officers, you
+rascal!"
+
+"I poking fun!" said Jack; "couldn't think of such a thing. I should
+just as soon think of you making a joke as me."
+
+"Now, I tell you what it is, I shall just strike you off the ship's
+books, and you shall just go and cruise by yourself; I've done with
+you."
+
+"Go and tell that to the marines, if you like," said Jack. "I ain't done
+with you yet, for a jolly long watch. Why, what do you suppose would
+become of you, you great babby, without me? Ain't I always a conveying
+you from place to place, and steering you through all sorts of
+difficulties?"
+
+"D---n your impudence!"
+
+"Well, then, d---n yours."
+
+"Shiver my timbers!"
+
+"Ay, you may do what you like with your own timbers."
+
+"And you won't leave me?"
+
+"Sartingly not."
+
+"Come here, then?"
+
+Jack might have expected a gratuity, for he advanced with alacrity.
+
+"There," said the admiral, as he laid his stick across his shoulders;
+"that's your last month's wages; don't spend it all at once."
+
+"Well, I'm d----d!" said Jack; "who'd have thought of that?--he's a
+turning rumgumtious, and no mistake. Howsomdever, I must turn it over in
+my mind, and be even with him, somehow--I owes him one for that. I say,
+admiral."
+
+"What now, you lubber?"
+
+"Nothing; turn that over in your mind;" and away Jack walked, not quite
+satisfied, but feeling, at least, that he had made a demonstration of
+attack.
+
+As for the admiral, he considered that the thump he had given Jack with
+the stick, and it was no gentle one, was a decided balancing of accounts
+up to that period, and as he remained likewise master of the field, he
+was upon the whole very well satisfied.
+
+These last few words which had been spoken to Henry by Admiral Bell,
+more than any others, induced him to hasten his departure from
+Bannerworth Hall; he had walked away when the altercation between Jack
+Pringle and the admiral began, for he had seen sufficient of those wordy
+conflicts between those originals to be quite satisfied that neither of
+them meant what he said of a discouraging character towards the other,
+and that far from there being any unfriendly feeling contingent upon
+those little affairs, they were only a species of friendly sparring,
+which both parties enjoyed extremely.
+
+He went direct to Flora, and he said to her,--
+
+"Since we are all agreed upon the necessity, or, at all events, upon the
+expediency of a departure from the Hall, I think, sister, the sooner we
+carry out that determination the better and the pleasanter for us all it
+will be. Do you think you could remove so hastily as to-morrow?"
+
+"To-morrow! That is soon indeed."
+
+"I grant you that it is so; but Admiral Bell assures me that he will
+have everything in readiness, and a place provided for us to go to by
+then."
+
+"Would it be possible to remove from a house like this so very quickly?"
+
+"Yes, sister. If you look around you, you will see that a great portion
+of the comforts you enjoy in this mansion belong to it as a part of its
+very structure, and are not removable at pleasure; what we really have
+to take away is very little. The urgent want of money during our
+father's lifetime induced him, as you may recollect even, at various
+times to part with much that was ornamental, as well as useful, which
+was in the Hall. You will recollect that we seldom returned from those
+little continental tours which to us were so delightful, without finding
+some old familiar objects gone, which, upon inquiry, we found had been
+turned into money, to meet some more than usually pressing demand."
+
+"That is true, brother; I recollect well."
+
+"So that, upon the whole, sister, there is little to remove."
+
+"Well, well, be it so. I will prepare our mother for this sudden step.
+Believe me, my heart goes with it; and as a force of vengeful
+circumstances have induced us to remove from this home, which was once
+so full of pleasant recollections, it is certainly better, as you say,
+that the act should be at once consummated, than left hanging in terror
+over our minds."
+
+"Then I'll consider that as settled," said Henry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+THE REMOVAL FROM THE HALL.--THE NIGHT WATCH, AND THE ALARM.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Mrs. Bannerworth's consent having been already given to the removal, she
+said at once, when appealed to, that she was quite ready to go at any
+time her children thought expedient.
+
+Upon this, Henry sought the admiral, and told him as much, at the same
+time adding,--
+
+"My sister feared that we should have considerable trouble in the
+removal, but I have convinced her that such will not be the case, as we
+are by no means overburdened with cumbrous property."
+
+"Cumbrous property," said the admiral, "why, what do you mean? I beg
+leave to say, that when I took the house, I took the table and chairs
+with it. D--n it, what good do you suppose an empty house is to me?"
+
+"The tables and chairs!"
+
+"Yes. I took the house just as it stands. Don't try and bamboozle me out
+of it. I tell you, you've nothing to move but yourselves and immediate
+personal effects."
+
+"I was not aware, admiral, that that was your plan."
+
+"Well, then, now you are, listen to me. I've circumvented the enemy too
+often not to know how to get up a plot. Jack and I have managed it all.
+To-morrow evening, after dark, and before the moon's got high enough to
+throw any light, you and your brother, and Miss Flora and your mother,
+will come out of the house, and Jack and I will lead you where you're to
+go to. There's plenty of furniture where you're a-going, and so you will
+get off free, without anybody knowing anything about it."
+
+"Well, admiral, I've said it before, and it is the unanimous opinion of
+us all, that everything should be left to you. You have proved yourself
+too good a friend to us for us to hesitate at all in obeying your
+commands. Arrange everything, I pray you, according to your wishes and
+feelings, and you will find there shall be no cavilling on our parts."
+
+"That's right; there's nothing like giving a command to some one person.
+There's no good done without. Now I'll manage it all. Mind you, seven
+o'clock to-morrow evening everything is to be ready, and you will all be
+prepared to leave the Hall."
+
+"It shall be so."
+
+"Who's that giving such a thundering ring at the gate?"
+
+"Nay, I know not. We have few visitors and no servants, so I must e'en
+be my own gate porter."
+
+Henry walked to the gate, and having opened it, a servant in a handsome
+livery stepped a pace or two into the garden.
+
+"Well," said Henry.
+
+"Is Mr. Henry Bannerworth within, or Admiral Bell?"
+
+"Both," cried the admiral. "I'm Admiral Bell, and this is Mr. Henry
+Bannerworth. What do you want with us, you d----d gingerbread-looking
+flunkey?"
+
+"Sir, my master desires his compliments--his very best compliments--and
+he wants to know how you are after your flurry."
+
+"What?"
+
+"After your--a--a--flurry and excitement."
+
+"Who is your master?" said Henry.
+
+"Sir Francis Varney."
+
+"The devil!" said the admiral; "if that don't beat all the impudence I
+ever came near. Our flurry! Ah! I like that fellow. Just go and tell
+him--"
+
+"No, no," said Henry, interposing, "send back no message. Say to your
+master, fellow, that Mr. Henry Bannerworth feels that not only has he no
+claim to Sir Francis Varney's courtesy, but that he would rather be
+without it."
+
+"Oh, ha!" said the footman, adjusting his collar; "very good. This seems
+a d----d, old-fashioned, outlandish place of yours. Any ale?"
+
+"Now, shiver my hulks!" said the admiral.
+
+"Hush! hush!" said Henry; "who knows but there may be a design in this?
+We have no ale."
+
+"Oh, ah! dem!--dry as dust, by God! What does the old commodore say? Any
+message, my ancient Greek?"
+
+"No, thank you," said the admiral; "bless you, nothing. What did you
+give for that waistcoat, d--n you? Ha! ha! you're a clever fellow."
+
+"Ah! the old gentleman's ill. However, I'll take back his compliments,
+and that he's much obliged at Sir Francis's condescension. At the same
+time, I suppose may place in my eye what I may get out of either of you,
+without hindering me seeing my way back. Ha! ha! Adieu--adieu."
+
+"Bravo!" said the admiral; "that's it--go it--now for it. D--n it, it is
+a _do!_"
+
+The admiral's calmness during the latter part of the dialogue arose from
+the fact that over the flunkey's shoulder, and at some little distance
+off, he saw Jack Pringle taking off his jacket, and rolling up his
+sleeves in that deliberate sort of way that seemed to imply a
+determination of setting about some species of work that combined the
+pleasant with the useful.
+
+Jack executed many nods to and winks at the livery-servant, and jerked
+his thumb likewise in the direction of a pump near at hand, in a manner
+that spoke as plainly as possible, that John was to be pumped upon.
+
+And now the conference was ended, and Sir Francis's messenger turned to
+go; but Jack Pringle bothered him completely, for he danced round him in
+such a singular manner, that, turn which way he would, there stood Jack
+Pringle, in some grotesque attitude, intercepting him; and so he edged
+him on, till he got him to the pump.
+
+"Jack," said the admiral.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"Don't pump on that fellow now."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir; give us a hand."
+
+Jack laid hold of him by the two ears, and holding him under the pump,
+kicked his shins until he completely gathered himself beneath the spout.
+It was in vain that he shouted "Murder! help! fire! thieves!" Jack was
+inexorable, and the admiral pumped.
+
+Jack turned the fellow's head about in a very scientific manner, so as
+to give him a fair dose of hydropathic treatment, and in a few minutes,
+never was human being more thoroughly saturated with moisture than was
+Sir Francis Varney's servant. He had left off hallooing for aid, for he
+found that whenever he did so, Jack held his mouth under the spout,
+which was decidedly unpleasant; so, with a patience that looked like
+heroic fortitude, he was compelled to wait until the admiral was tired
+of pumping.
+
+"Very good," at length he said. "Now, Jack, for fear this fellow catcher
+cold, be so good as to get a horsewhip, and see him off the premises
+with it."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack. "And I say, old fellow, you can take back all
+our blessed compliments now, and say you've been flurried a little
+yourself; and if so be as you came here as dry as dust, d----e, you go
+back as wet as a mop. Won't it do to kick him out, sir?"
+
+"Very well--as you please, Jack."
+
+"Then here goes;" and Jack proceeded to kick the shivering animal from
+the garden with a vehemence that soon convinced him of the necessity of
+getting out of it as quickly as possible.
+
+How it was that Sir Francis Varney, after the fearful race he had had,
+got home again across the fields, free from all danger, and back to his
+own house, from whence he sent so cool and insolent a message, they
+could not conceive.
+
+But such must certainly be the fact; somehow or another, he had escaped
+all danger, and, with a calm insolence peculiar to the man, he had no
+doubt adopted the present mode of signifying as much to the
+Bannerworths.
+
+The insolence of his servant was, no doubt, a matter of pre-arrangement
+with that individual, however he might have set about it con amore. As
+for the termination of the adventure, that, of course, had not been at
+all calculated upon; but, like most tools of other people's insolence or
+ambition, the insolence of the underling had received both his own
+punishment and his master's.
+
+We know quite enough of Sir Francis Varney to feel assured that he would
+rather consider it as a good jest than otherwise of his footman, so that
+with the suffering he endured at the Bannerworths', and the want of
+sympathy he was likely to find at home, that individual had certainly
+nothing to congratulate himself upon but the melancholy reminiscence of
+his own cleverness.
+
+But were the mob satisfied with what had occurred in the churchyard?
+They were not, and that night was to witness the perpetration of a
+melancholy outrage, such as the history of the time presents no parallel
+to.
+
+The finding of a brick in the coffin of the butcher, instead of the body
+of that individual, soon spread as a piece of startling intelligence all
+over the place; and the obvious deduction that was drawn from the
+circumstance, seemed to be that the deceased butcher was unquestionably
+a vampyre, and out upon some expedition at the time when his coffin was
+searched.
+
+How he had originally got out of that receptacle for the dead was
+certainly a mystery; but the story was none the worse for that. Indeed,
+an ingenious individual found a solution for that part of the business,
+for, as he said, nothing was more natural, when anybody died who was
+capable of becoming a vampyre, than for other vampyres who knew it to
+dig him up, and lay him out in the cold beams of the moonlight, until he
+acquired the same sort of vitality they themselves possessed, and joined
+their horrible fraternity.
+
+In lieu of a better explanation--and, after all, it was no bad one--this
+theory was generally received, and, with a shuddering horror, people
+asked themselves, if the whole of the churchyard were excavated, how
+many coffins would be found tenantless by the dead which had been
+supposed, by simple-minded people, to inhabit them.
+
+The presence, however, of a body of dragoons, towards evening,
+effectually prevented any renewed attack upon the sacred precincts of
+the churchyard, and it was a strange and startling thing to see that
+country town under military surveillance, and sentinels posted at its
+principal buildings.
+
+This measure smothered the vengeance of the crowd, and insured, for a
+time, the safety of Sir Francis Varney; for no considerable body of
+persons could assemble for the purpose of attacking his house again,
+without being followed; so such a step was not attempted.
+
+It had so happened, however, that on that very day, the funeral of a
+young man was to have taken place, who had put up for a time at that
+same inn where Admiral Bell was first introduced to the reader. He had
+become seriously ill, and, after a few days of indisposition, which had
+puzzled the country practitioners, breathed his last.
+
+He was to have been buried in the village churchyard on the very day of
+the riot and confusion incidental to the exhumation of the coffin of the
+butcher, and probably from that circumstance we may deduce the presence
+of the clergyman in canonicals at the period of the riot.
+
+When it was found that so disorderly a mob possessed the churchyard, the
+idea of burying the stranger on that day was abandoned; but still all
+would have gone on quietly as regarded him, had it not been for the
+folly of one of the chamber-maids at the tavern.
+
+This woman, with all the love of gossip incidental to her class, had,
+from the first, entered so fully into all the particulars concerning
+vampyres, that she fairly might be considered to be a little deranged on
+that head. Her imagination had been so worked upon, that she was in an
+unfit state to think of anything else, and if ever upon anybody a stern
+and revolting superstition was calculated to produce direful effects, it
+was upon this woman.
+
+The town was tolerably quiet; the presence of the soldiery had
+frightened some and amused others, and no doubt the night would have
+passed off serenely, had she not suddenly rushed into the street, and,
+with bewildered accents and frantic gestures shouted,--
+
+"A vampyre--a vampyre--a vampyre!"
+
+These words soon collected a crowd around her, and then, with screaming
+accents, which would have been quite enough to convince any reflecting
+person that she had actually gone distracted upon that point, she
+cried,--
+
+"Come into the house--come into the house! Look upon the dead body, that
+should have been in its grave; it's fresher now than it was the day on
+which it died, and there's a colour in its cheeks! A vampyre--a
+vampyre--a vampyre! Heaven save us from a vampyre!"
+
+The strange, infuriated, maniacal manner in which these words were
+uttered, produced an astonishingly exciting effect among the mob.
+Several women screamed, and some few fainted. The torch was laid again
+to the altar of popular feeling, and the fierce flame of superstition
+burnt brightly and fiercely.
+
+Some twenty or thirty persons, with shouts and exclamations, rushed into
+the inn, while the woman who had created the disturbance still continued
+to rave, tearing her hair, and shrieking at intervals, until she fell
+exhausted upon the pavement.
+
+Soon, from a hundred throats, rose the dreadful cry of "A vampyre--a
+vampyre!" The alarm was given throughout the whole town; the bugles of
+the military sounded; there was a clash of arms--the shrieks of women;
+altogether, the premonitory symptoms of such a riot as was not likely to
+be quelled without bloodshed and considerable disaster.
+
+It is truly astonishing the effect which one weak or vicious-minded
+person can produce upon a multitude.
+
+Here was a woman whose opinion would have been accounted valueless upon
+the most common-place subject, and whose word would not have passed for
+twopence, setting a whole town by the ears by force of nothing but her
+sheer brutal ignorance.
+
+It is a notorious physiological fact, that after four or five days, or
+even a week, the bodies of many persons assume an appearance of
+freshness, such as might have been looked for in vain immediately after
+death.
+
+It is one of the most insidious processes of that decay which appears to
+regret with its
+
+     "----------- offensive fingers, To mar the lines where beauty
+     lingers."
+
+But what did the chamber-maid know of physiology? Probably, she would
+have asked if it was anything good to eat; and so, of course, having her
+head full of vampyres, she must needs produce so lamentable a scene of
+confusion, the results of which we almost sicken at detailing.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+THE STAKE AND THE DEAD BODY.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The mob seemed from the first to have an impression that, as regarded
+the military force, no very serious results would arise from that
+quarter, for it was not to be supposed that, on an occasion which could
+not possibly arouse any ill blood on the part of the soldiery, or on
+which they could have the least personal feeling, they would like to get
+a bad name, which would stick to them for years to come.
+
+It was no political riot, on which men might be supposed, in consequence
+of differing in opinion, to have their passions inflamed; so that,
+although the call of the civil authorities for military aid had been
+acceded to, yet it was hoped, and, indeed, almost understood by the
+officers, that their operations would lie confined more to a
+demonstration of power, than anything else.
+
+Besides, some of the men had got talking to the townspeople, and had
+heard all about the vampyre story, and not being of the most refined or
+educated class themselves, they felt rather interested than otherwise in
+the affair.
+
+Under these circumstances, then, we are inclined to think, that the
+disorderly mob of that inn had not so wholesome a fear as it was most
+certainly intended they should have of the redcoats. Then, again, they
+were not attacking the churchyard, which, in the first case, was the
+main point in dispute, and about which the authorities had felt so very
+sore, inasmuch as they felt that, if once the common people found out
+that the sanctity of such places could be outraged with impunity, they
+would lose their reverence for the church; that is to say, for the host
+of persons who live well and get fat in this country by the trade of
+religion.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Consequently, this churchyard was the main point of defence, and it was
+zealously looked to when it need not have been done so, while the
+public-house where there really reigned mischief was half unguarded.
+
+There are always in all communities, whether large or small, a number of
+persons who really have, or fancy they have, something to gain by
+disturbance. These people, of course, care not for what pretext the
+public peace is violated; so long as there is a row, and something like
+an excuse for running into other people's houses, they are satisfied.
+
+To get into a public-house under such circumstances is an unexpected
+treat; and thus, when the mob rushed into the inn with such symptoms of
+fury and excitement, there went with the leaders of the disturbance a
+number of persons who never thought of getting further than the bar,
+where they attacked the spirit-taps with an alacrity which showed how
+great was their love for ardent compounds.
+
+Leaving these persons behind, however, we will follow those who, with a
+real superstition, and a furious interest in the affair of the vampyre,
+made their way towards the upper chamber, determining to satisfy
+themselves if there were truth in the statement so alarmingly made by
+the woman who had created such an emotion.
+
+It is astonishing what people will do in crowds, in comparison with the
+acts that they would be able to commit individually. There is usually a
+calmness, a sanctity, a sublimity about death, which irresistibly
+induces a respect for its presence, alike from the educated or from the
+illiterate; and let the object of the fell-destroyer's presence be whom
+it may, the very consciousness that death has claimed it for its own,
+invests it with a halo of respect, that, in life, the individual could
+never aspire to probably.
+
+Let us precede these furious rioters for a few moments, and look upon
+the chamber of the dead--that chamber, which for a whole week, had been
+looked upon with a kind of shuddering terror--that chamber which had
+been darkened by having its sources of light closed, as if it were a
+kind of disrespect to the dead to allow the pleasant sunshine to fall
+upon the faded form.
+
+And every inhabitant of that house, upon ascending and descending its
+intricate and ancient staircases, had walked with a quiet and subdued
+step past that one particular door.
+
+Even the tones of voice in which they spoke to each other, while they
+knew that that sad remnant of mortality was in the house, was quiet and
+subdued, as if the repose of death was but a mortal sleep, and could be
+broken by rude sounds.
+
+Ay, even some of these very persons, who now with loud and boisterous
+clamour, had rushed into the place, had visited the house and talked in
+whispers; but then they were alone, and men will do in throngs acts
+which, individually, they would shrink from with compunction or
+cowardice, call it which we will.
+
+The chamber of death is upon the second story of the house. It is a back
+room, the windows of which command a view of that half garden, half
+farm-yard, which we find generally belonging to country inns.
+
+But now the shutters were closed, with the exception of one small
+opening, that, in daylight, would have admitted a straggling ray of
+light to fall upon the corpse. Now, however, that the sombre shades of
+evening had wrapped everything in gloom, the room appeared in total
+darkness, so that the most of those adventurers who had ventured into
+the place shrunk back until lights were procured from the lower part of
+the house, with which to enter the room.
+
+A dim oil lamp in a niche sufficiently lighted the staircase, and, by
+the friendly aid of its glimmering beams, they had found their way up to
+the landing tolerably well, and had not thought of the necessity of
+having lights with which to enter the apartments, until they found them
+in utter darkness.
+
+These requisites, however, were speedily procured from the kitchen of
+the inn. Indeed, anything that was wanted was laid hold of without the
+least word of remark to the people of the place, as if might, from that
+evening forthwith, was understood to constitute right, in that town.
+
+Up to this point no one had taken a very prominent part in the attack
+upon the inn if attack it could be called; but now the man whom chance,
+or his own nimbleness, made the first of the throng, assumed to himself
+a sort of control over his companions and, turning to them, he said,--
+
+"Hark ye, my friends; we'll do everything quietly and properly; so I
+think we'd better three or four of us go in at once, arm-in-arm."
+
+"Psha!" cried one who had just arrived with a light; "it's your
+cowardice that speaks. I'll go in first; let those follow me who like,
+and those who are afraid may remain where they are."
+
+He at once dashed into the room, and this immediately broke the spell of
+fear which was beginning to creep over the others in consequence of the
+timid suggestion of the man who, up to that moment, had been first and
+foremost in the enterprise.
+
+In an instant the chamber was half filled with persons, four or five of
+whom carried lights; so that, as it was not of very large dimensions, it
+was sufficiently illuminated for every object in it to be clearly
+visible.
+
+There was the bed, smooth and unruffled, as if waiting for some expected
+guest; while close by its side a coffin, supported upon tressles, over
+which a sheet was partially thrown, contained the sad remains of him who
+little expected in life that, after death, he should be stigmatised as
+an example of one of the ghastliest superstitions that ever found a home
+in the human imagination.
+
+It was evident that some one had been in the room; and that this was the
+woman whose excited fancy had led her to look upon the face of the
+corpse there could be no doubt, for the sheet was drawn aside just
+sufficiently to discover the countenance.
+
+The fact was that the stranger was unknown at the inn, or probably ere
+this the coffin lid would have been screwed on; but it was hoped, up to
+the last moment, as advertisements had been put into the county papers,
+that some one would come forward to identify and claim him.
+
+Such, however, had not been the case, and so his funeral had been
+determined upon.
+
+The presence of so many persons at once effectually prevented any
+individual from exhibiting, even if he felt any superstitious fears
+about approaching the coffin; and so, with one accord, they surrounded
+it, and looked upon the face of the dead.
+
+There was nothing repulsive in that countenance. The fact was that
+decomposition had sufficiently advanced to induce a relaxation of the
+muscles, and a softening of the fibres, so that an appearance of
+calmness and repose had crept over the face which it did not wear
+immediately after death.
+
+It happened, too, that the face was full of flesh--for the death had
+been sudden, and there had not been that wasting away of the muscles and
+integuments which makes the skin cling, as it were, to the bone, when
+the ravages of long disease have exhausted the physical frame.
+
+There was, unquestionably, a plumpness, a freshness, and a sort of
+vitality about the countenance that was remarkable.
+
+For a few moments there was a death-like stillness in the apartment, and
+then one voice broke the silence by exclaiming,--
+
+"He's a vampyre, and has come here to die. Well he knows he'd be taken
+up by Sir Francis Varney, and become one of the crew."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried several voices at once; "a vampyre! a vampyre!"
+
+"Hold a moment," cried one; "let us find somebody in the house who has
+seen him some days ago, and then we can ascertain if there's any
+difference in his looks."
+
+This suggestion was agreed to, and a couple of stout men ran down
+stairs, and returned in a few moments with a trembling waiter, whom they
+had caught in the passage, and forced to accompany them.
+
+This man seemed to think that he was to be made a dreadful example of in
+some sort of way; and, as he was dragged into the room, he trembled, and
+looked as pale as death.
+
+"What have I done, gentlemen?" he said; "I ain't a vampyre. Don't be
+driving a stake through me. I assure you, gentlemen, I'm only a waiter,
+and have been for a matter of five-and-twenty years."
+
+"You'll be done no harm to," said one of his captors; "you've only got
+to answer a question that will be put to you."
+
+"Oh, well, certainly, gentlemen; anything you please. Coming--coming, as
+I always say; give your orders, the waiter's in the room."
+
+"Look upon the fare of that corpse."
+
+"Certainly, certainly--directly."
+
+"Have you ever seen it before?"
+
+"Seen it before! Lord bless you! yes, a dozen of times. I seed him afore
+he died, and I seed him arter; and when the undertaker's men came, I
+came up with them and I seed 'em put him in his coffin. You see I kept
+an eye on 'em, gentlemen, 'cos knows well enough what they is. A cousin
+of mine was in the trade, and he assures me as one of 'em always brings
+a tooth-drawing concern in his pocket, and looks in the mouth of the
+blessed corpse to see if there's a blessed tooth worth pulling out."
+
+"Hold your tongue," said one; "we want none of your nonsense. Do you see
+any difference now in the face of the corpse to what it was some days
+since?"
+
+"Well, I don't know; somehow, it don't look so rum."
+
+"Does it look fresher?"
+
+"Well, somehow or another, now you mention it, it's very odd, but it
+does."
+
+"Enough," cried the man who had questioned him, with considerable
+excitement of manner. "Neighbours, are we to have our wives and our
+children scared to death by vampyres?"
+
+"No--no!" cried everybody.
+
+"Is not this, then, one of that dreadful order of beings?"
+
+"Yes--yes; what's to be done?"
+
+"Drive a stake through the body, and so prevent the possibility of
+anything in the shape of a restoration."
+
+This was a terrific proposition; and even those who felt most strongly
+upon the subject, and had their fears most awakened, shrank from
+carrying it into effect. Others, again, applauded it, although they
+determined, in their own minds, to keep far enough off from the
+execution of the job, which they hoped would devolve upon others, so
+that they might have all the security of feeling that such a process had
+been gone through with the supposed vampyre, without being in any way
+committed by the dreadful act.
+
+Nothing was easier than to procure a stake from the garden in the rear
+of the premises; but it was one thing to have the means at hand of
+carrying into effect so dreadful a proposition, and another actually to
+do it.
+
+For the credit of human nature, we regret that even then, when
+civilisation and popular education had by no means made such rapid
+strides as in our times they have, such a proposition should be
+entertained for a moment: but so it was; and just as an alarm was given
+that a party of the soldiers had reached the inn and had taken
+possession of the doorway with a determination to arrest the rioters, a
+strong hedge-stake had been procured, and everything was in readiness
+for the perpetration of the horrible deed.
+
+Even then those in the room, for they were tolerably sober, would have
+revolted, probably, from the execution of so fearful an act; but the
+entrance of a party of the military into the lower portion of the
+tavern, induced those who had been making free with the strong liquors
+below, to make a rush up-stairs to their companions with the hope of
+escaping detection of the petty larceny, if they got into trouble on
+account of the riot.
+
+These persons, infuriated by drink, were capable of anything, and to
+them, accordingly, the more sober parties gladly surrendered the
+disagreeable job of rendering the supposed vampyre perfectly innoxious,
+by driving a hedge-stake through his body--a proceeding which, it was
+currently believed, inflicted so much physical injury to the frame, as
+to render his resuscitation out of the question.
+
+The cries of alarm from below, joined now to the shouts of those mad
+rioters, produced a scene of dreadful confusion.
+
+We cannot, for we revolt at the office, describe particularly the
+dreadful outrage which was committed upon the corpse; suffice it that
+two or three, maddened by drink, and incited by the others, plunged the
+hedge-stake through the body, and there left it, a sickening and
+horrible spectacle to any one who might cast his eyes upon it.
+
+With such violence had the frightful and inhuman deed been committed,
+that the bottom of the coffin was perforated by the stake so that the
+corpse was actually nailed to its last earthly tenement.
+
+Some asserted, that at that moment an audible groan came from the dead
+man, and that this arose from the extinguishment of that remnant of life
+which remained in him, on account of his being a vampyre, and which
+would have been brought into full existence, if the body had been placed
+in the rays of the moon, when at its full, according to the popular
+superstition upon that subject.
+
+Others, again, were quite ready to swear that at the moment the stake
+was used there was a visible convulsion of all the limbs, and that the
+countenance, before so placid and so calm, became immediately distorted,
+as if with agony.
+
+But we have done with these horrible surmises; the dreadful deed has
+been committed, and wild, ungovernable superstition has had, for a time,
+its sway over the ignorant and debased.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+THE MOB'S ARRIVAL AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.--THE ATTEMPT TO GAIN
+ADMISSION.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The soldiery had been sent for from their principal station near the
+churchyard, and had advanced with some degree of reluctance to quell
+what they considered as nothing better nor worse than a drunken brawl at
+a public-house, which they really considered they ought not to be called
+to interfere with.
+
+When, however, the party reached the spot, and heard what a confusion
+there was, and saw in what numbers the rioters were assembling, it
+became evident to them that the case was of a more serious complexion
+than they had at first imagined, and consequently they felt that their
+professional dignity was not so much compromised with their interference
+with the lawless proceedings.
+
+Some of the constabulary of the town were there, and to them the
+soldiers promised they would hand what prisoners they took, at the same
+time that they made a distinct condition that they were not to be
+troubled with their custody, nor in any way further annoyed in the
+business beyond taking care that they did not absolutely escape, after
+being once secured.
+
+This was all that the civil authorities of the town required, and, in
+fact, they hoped that, after making prisoners of a few of the
+ringleaders of the riotous proceedings, the rest would disperse, and
+prevent the necessity of capturing them.
+
+Be it known, however, that both military and civil authorities were
+completely ignorant of the dreadful outrage against all common decency,
+which had been committed within the public-house.
+
+The door was well guarded, and the question now was how the rioters were
+to be made to come down stairs, and be captured; and this was likely to
+remain a question, so long as no means were adopted to make them
+descend. So that, after a time, it was agreed that a couple of troopers
+should march up stairs with a constable, to enable him to secure any one
+who seemed a principal in the riot.
+
+But this only had the effect of driving those who were in the
+second-floor, and saw the approach of the two soldiers, whom they
+thought were backed by the whole of their comrades, up a narrow
+staircase, to a third-floor, rather consisting of lofts than of actual
+rooms; but still, for the time, it was a refuge; and owing to the
+extreme narrowness of the approach to it, which consisted of nearly a
+perpendicular staircase, with any degree of tact or method, it might
+have been admirably defended.
+
+In the hurry and scramble, all the lights were left behind; and when the
+two soldiers and constables entered the room where the corpse had lain,
+they became, for the first time, aware of what a horrible purpose had
+been carried out by the infuriated mob.
+
+The sight was one of perfect horror, and hardened to scenes which might
+strike other people as being somewhat of the terrific as these soldiers
+might be supposed to be by their very profession, they actually sickened
+at the sight which the mutilated corpse presented, and turned aside with
+horror.
+
+These feelings soon gave way to anger and animosity against the crowd
+who could be guilty of such an atrocious outrage; and, for the first
+time, a strong and interested vengeance against the mob pervaded the
+breasts of those who were brought to act against it.
+
+One of the soldiers ran down stairs to the door, and reported the scene
+which was to be seen above. A determination was instantly come to, to
+capture as many as possible of those who had been concerned in so
+diabolical an outrage, and leaving a guard of five men at the door, the
+remainder of the party ascended the staircase, determined upon storming
+the last refuge of the rioters, and dragging them to justice.
+
+The report, however, of these proceedings that were taking place at the
+inn, spread quickly over the whole town; and soon as large a mob of the
+disorderly and the idle as the place could at all afford was assembled
+outside the inn.
+
+This mob appeared, for a time, inertly to watch the proceedings. It
+seemed rather a hazardous thing to interfere with the soldiers, whose
+carbines look formidable and troublesome weapons.
+
+With true mob courage, therefore, they left the minority of their
+comrades, who were within the house, to their fate; and after a
+whispered conference from one to the other, they suddenly turned in a
+body, and began to make for the outskirts of the town.
+
+They then separated, as if by common consent, and straggled out into the
+open country by twos and threes, consolidating again into a mass when
+they had got some distance off, and clear of any exertions that could be
+made by the soldiery to stay them.
+
+The cry then rose of "Down with Sir Francis Varney--slay him--burn his
+house--death to all vampyres!" and, at a rapid pace, they proceeded in
+the direction of his mansion.
+
+We will leave this mob, however, for the present, and turn our attention
+to those who are at the inn, and are certainly in a position of some
+jeopardy. Their numbers were not great, and they were unarmed;
+certainly, their best chance would have been to have surrendered at
+discretion; but that was a measure which, if the sober ones had felt
+inclined to, those who were infuriated and half maddened with drink
+would not have acceded to on any account.
+
+A furious resistance was, therefore, fairly to be expected; and what
+means the soldiery were likely to use for the purpose of storming this
+last retreat was a matter of rather anxious conjecture.
+
+In the case of a regular enemy, there would not, perhaps, have been much
+difficulty; but here the capture of certain persons, and not their
+destruction, was the object; and how that was to be accomplished by fair
+means, certainly was a question which nobody felt very competent to
+solve.
+
+Determination, however, will do wonders; and although the rioters
+numbered over forty, notwithstanding all their desertions, and not above
+seventeen or eighteen soldiers marched into the inn, we shall perceive
+that they succeeded in accomplishing their object without any
+manoeuvring at all.
+
+The space in which the rioters were confined was low, narrow, and
+inconvenient, as well as dark, for the lights on the staircase cast up
+that height but very insufficient rays.
+
+Weapons of defence they found but very few, and yet there were some
+which, to do them but common credit, they used as effectually as
+possible.
+
+These attics, or lofts, were used as lumber-rooms, and had been so for
+years, so that there was a collection of old boxes, broken pieces of
+furniture, and other matters, which will, in defiance of everything and
+everybody, collect in a house.
+
+These were formidable means of defence, if not of offence, down a very
+narrow staircase, had they been used with judgment.
+
+Some of the rioters, who were only just drunk enough to be fool-hardy,
+collected a few of these articles at the top of the staircase, and swore
+they would smash anybody who should attempt to come up to them, a threat
+easier uttered than executed.
+
+And besides, after all, if their position had been ever so impregnable,
+they must come down eventually, or be starved out.
+
+But the soldiers were not at liberty to adopt so slow a process of
+overcoming their enemy, and up the second-floor staircase they went,
+with a determination of making short work of the business.
+
+They paused a moment, by word of command, on the landing, and then,
+after this slight pause, the word was given to advance.
+
+Now when men will advance, in spite of anything and everything, it is no
+easy matter to stop them, and he who was foremost among the military
+would as soon thought of hesitating to ascend the narrow staircase
+before him, when ordered so to do, as paying the national debt. On he
+went, and down came a great chest, which, falling against his feet,
+knocked him down as he attempted to scramble over it.
+
+"Fire," said the officer; and it appeared that he had made some
+arrangements as to how the order was to be obeyed, for the second man
+fired his carbine, and then scrambled over his prostrate comrade; after
+which he stooped, and the third fired his carbine likewise, and then
+hurried forward in the same manner.
+
+At the first sound of the fire arms the rioters were taken completely by
+surprise; they had not had the least notion of affairs getting to such a
+length. The smell of the powder, the loud report, and the sensation of
+positive danger that accompanied these phenomena, alarmed them most
+terrifically; so that, in point of fact, with the exception of the empty
+chest that was thrown down in the way of the first soldier, no further
+idea of defence seemed in any way to find a place in the hearts of the
+besieged.
+
+They scrambled one over the other in their eagerness to get as far as
+possible from immediate danger, which, of course, they conceived existed
+in the most imminent degree the nearest to the door.
+
+Such was the state of terror into which they were thrown, that each one
+at the moment believed himself shot, and the soldiers had overcome all
+the real difficulties in getting possession of what might thus be called
+the citadel of the inn, before those men who had been so valorous a
+short time since recovered from the tremendous fright into which they
+had been thrown.
+
+We need hardly say that the carbines were loaded, but with blank
+cartridges, for there was neither a disposition nor a necessity for
+taking the lives of these misguided people.
+
+If was the suddenness and the steadiness of the attack that had done all
+the mischief to their cause; and now, ere they recovered from the
+surprise of having their position so completely taken by storm, they
+were handed down stairs, one by one, from soldier to soldier, and into
+the custody of the civil authorities.
+
+In order to secure the safe keeping of large a body of prisoners, the
+constables, who were in a great minority, placed handcuffs upon some of
+the most capable of resistance; so what with those who were thus
+secured, and those who were terrified into submission, there was not a
+man of all the lot who had taken refuge in the attics of the
+public-house but was a prisoner.
+
+At the sound of fire-arms, the women who were outside the inn had, of
+course, raised a most prodigious clamour.
+
+They believed directly that every bullet must have done some most
+serious mischief to the townspeople, and it was only upon one of the
+soldiers, a non-commissioned officer, who was below, assuring them of
+the innoxious nature of the proceeding which restored anything like
+equanimity.
+
+"Silence!" he cried: "what are you howling about? Do you fancy that
+we've nothing better to do than to shoot a parcel of fellows that are
+not worth the bullets that would be lodged in their confounded
+carcases?"
+
+"But we heard the gun," said a woman.
+
+"Of course you did; it's the powder that makes the noise, not the
+bullet. You'll see them all brought out safe wind and limb."
+
+This assurance satisfied the women to a certain extent, and such had
+been their fear that they should have had to look upon the spectacle of
+death, or of grievous wounds, that they were comparatively quite
+satisfied when they saw husbands, fathers, and brothers, only in the
+custody of the town officers.
+
+And very sheepish some of the fellows looked, when they were handed down
+and handcuffed, and the more especially when they had been routed only
+by a few blank cartridges--that sixpenny worth of powder had defeated
+them.
+
+They were marched off to the town gaol, guarded by the military, who now
+probably fancied that their night's work was over, and that the most
+turbulent and troublesome spirits in the town had been secured.
+
+Such, however, was not the case, for no sooner had comparative order
+been restored, than common observation pointed to a dull red glare in
+the southern sky.
+
+In a few more minutes there came in stragglers from the open country,
+shouting "Fire! fire!" with all their might.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+THE MOB'S ARRIVAL AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.--THE ATTEMPT TO GAIN
+ADMISSION.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+All eyes were directed towards that southern sky which each moment was
+becoming more and more illuminated by the lurid appearance bespeaking a
+conflagration, which if it was not extensive, at all events was raging
+fiercely.
+
+There came, too upon the wind, which set from that direction, strange
+sounds, resembling shouts of triumph, combined occasionally with sharper
+cries, indicative of alarm.
+
+With so much system and so quietly had this attack been made upon the
+house of Sir Francis Varney--for the consequences of it now exhibited
+themselves most unequivocally--that no one who had not actually
+accompanied the expedition was in the least aware that it had been at
+all undertaken, or that anything of the kind was on the tapis.
+
+Now, however, it could be no longer kept a secret, and as the infuriated
+mob, who had sought this flagrant means of giving vent to their anger,
+saw the flames from the blazing house rising high in the heavens, they
+felt convinced that further secrecy was out of the question.
+
+Accordingly, in such cries and shouts as--but for caution's sake--they
+would have indulged in from the very first, they now gave utterance to
+their feelings as regarded the man whose destruction was aimed at.
+
+"Death to the vampyre!--death to the vampyre!" was the principal shout,
+and it was uttered in tones which sounded like those of rage and
+disappointment.
+
+But it is necessary, now that we have disposed of the smaller number of
+rioters who committed so serious an outrage at the inn, that we should,
+with some degree of method, follow the proceedings of the larger number,
+who went from the town towards Sir Francis Varney's.
+
+These persons either had information of a very positive nature, or a
+very strong suspicion that, notwithstanding the mysterious and most
+unaccountable disappearance of the vampyre in the old ruin, he would now
+be found, as usual, at his own residence.
+
+Perhaps one of his own servants may have thus played the traitor to him;
+but however it was, there certainly was an air of confidence about some
+of the leaders of the tumultuous assemblage that induced a general
+belief that this time, at least, the vampyre would not escape popular
+vengeance for being what he was.
+
+We have before noticed that these people went out of the town at
+different points, and did not assemble into one mass until they were at
+a sufficient distance off to be free from all fear of observation.
+
+Then some of the less observant and cautious of them began to indulge in
+shouts of rage and defiance; but those who placed themselves foremost
+succeeded in procuring a halt, and one said,--
+
+"Good friends all, if we make any noise, it can only have one effect,
+and that is, to warn Sir Francis Varney, and enable him to escape. If,
+therefore, we cannot go on quietly, I propose that we return to our
+homes, for we shall accomplish nothing."
+
+This advice was sufficiently and evidently reasonable to meet with no
+dissension; a death-like stillness ensued, only broken by some two or
+three voices saying, in subdued tones,--
+
+"That's right--that's right. Nobody speak."
+
+"Come on, then," said he who had given such judicious counsel; and the
+dark mass of men moved towards Sir Francis Varney's house, as quietly as
+it was possible for such an assemblage to proceed.
+
+Indeed, saving the sound of the footsteps, nothing could be heard of
+them at all; and that regular tramp, tramp, would have puzzled any one
+listening to it from any distance to know in which direction it was
+proceeding.
+
+In this way they went on until Sir Francis Varney's house was reached,
+and then a whispered word to halt was given, and all eyes were bent upon
+the building.
+
+From but one window out of the numerous ones with which the front of the
+mansion was studded did there shine the least light, and from that there
+came rather an uncommonly bright reflection, probably arising from a
+reading lamp placed close to the window.
+
+A general impression, they knew not why exactly, seemed to pervade
+everybody, that in the room from whence streamed that bright light was
+Sir Francis Varney.
+
+"The vampyre's room!" said several. "The vampyre's room! That is it!"
+
+"Yes," said he who had a kind of moral control over his comrades; "I
+have no doubt but he is there."
+
+"What's to be done?" asked several.
+
+"Make no noise whatever, but stand aside, so as not to be seen from the
+door when it is opened."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"I will knock for admittance, and, the moment it is answered, I will
+place this stick in such a manner within, that the door cannot be closed
+again. Upon my saying 'Advance,' you will make a rush forward, and we
+shall have possession immediately of the house."
+
+All this was agreed to. The mob slunk close to the walls of the house,
+and out of immediate observation from the hall door, or from any of the
+windows, and then the leader advanced, and knocked loudly for admission.
+
+The silence was now of the most complete character that could be
+imagined. Those who came there so bent upon vengeance were thoroughly
+convinced of the necessity of extreme caution, to save themselves even
+yet from being completely foiled.
+
+They had abundant faith, from experience, of the resources in the way of
+escape of Sir Francis Varney, and not one among them was there who
+considered that there was any chance of capturing him, except by
+surprise, and when once they got hold of him, they determined he should
+not easily slip through their fingers.
+
+The knock for admission produced no effect; and, after waiting three or
+four minutes, it was very provoking to find such a wonderful amount of
+caution and cunning completely thrown away.
+
+"Try again," whispered one.
+
+"Well, have patience; I am going to try again."
+
+The man had the ponderous old-fashioned knocker in his hand, and was
+about to make another appeal to Sir Francis Varney's door, when a
+strange voice said,--
+
+"Perhaps you may as well say at once what you want, instead of knocking
+there to no purpose."
+
+He gave a start, for the voice seemed to come from the very door itself.
+
+Yet it sounded decidedly human; and, upon a closer inspection, it was
+seen that a little wicket-gate, not larger than a man's face, had been
+opened from within.
+
+This was terribly provoking. Here was an extent of caution on the part
+of the garrison quite unexpected. What was to be done?
+
+"Well?" said the man who appeared at the little opening.
+
+"Oh," said he who had knocked; "I--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I--that is to say--ahem! Is Sir Francis Varney within?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I say, is Sir Francis Varney within?"
+
+"Well; you have said it!"
+
+"Ah, but you have not answered it."
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, is he at home?"
+
+"I decline saying; so you had better, all of you, go back to the town
+again, for we are well provided with all material to resist any attack
+you may be fools enough to make."
+
+As he spoke, the servant shut the little square door with a bang that
+made his questioner jump again. Here was a dilemma!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+THE ATTACK UPON THE VAMPYRE'S HOUSE.--THE STORY OF THE ATTACK.--THE
+FORCING OF THE DOORS, AND THE STRUGGLE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A council of war was now called among the belligerents, who were
+somewhat taken aback by the steady refusal of the servant to admit them,
+and their apparent determination to resist all endeavours on the part of
+the mob to get into and obtain possession of the house. It argued that
+they were prepared to resist all attempts, and it would cost some few
+lives to get into the vampyre's house. This passed through the minds of
+many as they retired behind the angle of the wall where the council was
+to be held.
+
+Here they looked in each others' face, as if to gather from that the
+general tone of the feelings of their companions; but here they saw
+nothing that intimated the least idea of going back as they came.
+
+"It's all very well, mates, to take care of ourselves, you know," began
+one tall, brawny fellow; "but, if we bean't to be sucked to death by a
+vampyre, why we must have the life out of him."
+
+"Ay, so we must."
+
+"Jack Hodge is right; we must kill him, and there's no sin in it, for he
+has no right to it; he's robbed some poor fellow of his life to prolong
+his own."
+
+"Ay, ay, that's the way he does; bring him out, I say, then see what we
+will do with him."
+
+"Yes, catch him first," said one, "and then we can dispose of him
+afterwards, I say, neighbours, don't you think it would be as well to
+catch him first?"
+
+"Haven't we come on purpose?"
+
+"Yes, but do it."
+
+"Ain't we trying it?"
+
+"You will presently, when we come to get into the house."
+
+"Well, what's to be done?" said one; "here we are in a fix, I think, and
+I can't see our way out very clearly."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"I wish we could get in."
+
+"But how is a question I don't very well see," said a large specimen of
+humanity.
+
+"The best thing that can be done will be to go round and look over the
+whole house, and then we may come upon some part where it is far easier
+to get in at than by the front door."
+
+"But it won't do for us all to go round that way," said one; "a small
+party only should go, else they will have all their people stationed at
+one point, and if we can divide them, we shall beat them because they
+have not enough to defend more than one point at a time; now we are
+numerous enough to make several attacks."
+
+"Oh! that's the way to bother them all round; they'll give in, and then
+the place is our own."
+
+"No, no," said the big countryman, "I like to make a good rush and drive
+all afore us; you know what ye have to do then, and you do it, ye know."
+
+"If you can."
+
+"Ay, to be sure, if we can, as you say; but can't we? that's what I want
+to know."
+
+"To be sure we can."
+
+"Then we'll do it, mate--that's my mind; we'll do it. Come on, and let's
+have another look at the street-door."
+
+The big countryman left the main body, and resolutely walked up to the
+main avenue, and approached the door, accompanied by about a dozen or
+less of the mob. When they came to the door, they commenced knocking and
+kicking most violently, and assailing it with all kinds of things they
+could lay their hands upon.
+
+They continued at this violent exercise for some time--perhaps for five
+minutes, when the little square hole in the door was again opened, and a
+voice was heard to say,--
+
+"You had better cease that kind of annoyance."
+
+"We want to get in."
+
+"It will cost you more lives to do so than you can afford to spare. We
+are well armed, and are prepared to resist any effort you can make."
+
+"Oh! it's all very well; but, an you won't open, why we'll make you;
+that's all about it."
+
+This was said as the big countryman and his companions were leaving the
+avenue towards the rest of the body.
+
+"Then, take this, as an earnest of what is to follow," said the man, and
+he discharged the contents of a blunderbuss through the small opening,
+and its report sounded to the rest of the mob like the report of a
+field-piece.
+
+Fortunately for the party retiring the man couldn't take any aim, else
+it is questionable how many of the party would have got off unwounded.
+As it was, several of them found stray slugs were lodged in various
+parts of their persons, and accelerated their retreat from the house of
+the vampyre.
+
+"What luck?" inquired one of the mob to the others, as they came back;
+"I'm afraid you had all the honour."
+
+"Ay, ay, we have, and all the lead too," replied a man, as he placed his
+hand upon a sore part of his person, which bled in consequence of a
+wound.
+
+"Well, what's to be done?"
+
+"Danged if I know," said one.
+
+"Give it up," said another.
+
+"No, no; have him out. I'll never give in while I can use a stick. They
+are in earnest, and so are we. Don't let us be frightened because they
+have a gun or two--they can't have many; and besides, if they have, we
+are too many for them. Besides, we shall all die in our beds."
+
+"Hurrah! down with the vampyre!"
+
+"So say I, lads. I don't want to be sucked to death when I'm a-bed.
+Better die like a man than such a dog's death as that, and you have no
+revenge then."
+
+"No, no; he has the better of us then. We'll have him out--we'll burn
+him--that's the way we'll do it."
+
+"Ay, so we will; only let us get in."
+
+At that moment a chosen party returned who had been round the house to
+make a reconnaissance.
+
+"Well, well," inquired the mob, "what can be done now--where can we get
+in?"
+
+"In several places."
+
+"All right; come along then; the place is our own."
+
+"Stop a minute; they are armed at all points, and we must make an attack
+on all points, else we may fail. A party must go round to the
+front-door, and attempt to beat it in; there are plenty of poles and
+things that could be used for such a purpose."
+
+"There is, besides, a garden-door, that opens into the house--a kind of
+parlour; a kitchen-door; a window in the flower-garden, and an entrance
+into a store-room; this place appears strong, and is therefore
+unguarded."
+
+"The very point to make an attack."
+
+"Not quite."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because it can easily be defended, and rendered useless to us. We must
+make an attack upon all places but that, and, while they are being at
+those points, we can then enter at that place, and then you will find
+them desert the other places when they see us inside."
+
+"Hurrah! down with the vampyre!" said the mob, as they listened to this
+advice, and appreciated the plan.
+
+"Down with the vampyre!"
+
+"Now, then, lads, divide, and make the attack; never mind their guns,
+they have but very few, and if you rush in upon them, you will soon have
+the guns yourselves."
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the mob.
+
+The mob now moved away in different bodies, each strong enough to carry
+the house. They seized upon a variety of poles and stones, and then made
+for the various doors and windows that were pointed out by those who had
+made the discovery. Each one of those who had formed the party of
+observation, formed a leader to the others, and at once proceeded to the
+post assigned him.
+
+The attack was so sudden and so simultaneous that the servants were
+unprepared; and though they ran to the doors, and fired away, still they
+did but little good, for the doors were soon forced open by the enraged
+rioters, who proceeded in a much more systematic operation, using long
+heavy pieces of timber which were carried on the shoulders of several
+men, and driven with the force of battering-rams--which, in fact, they
+were--against the door.
+
+Bang went the battering-ram, crash went the door, and the whole party
+rushed headlong in, carried forward by their own momentum and fell
+prostrate, engine and all, into the passage.
+
+"Now, then, we have them," exclaimed the servants, who began to belabour
+the whole party with blows, with every weapon they could secure.
+
+Loudly did the fallen men shout for assistance, and but for their
+fellows who came rushing in behind, they would have had but a sorry time
+of it.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the mob; "the house is our own."
+
+"Not yet," shouted the servants.
+
+"We'll try," said the mob; and they rushed forward to drive the servants
+back, but they met with a stout resistance, and as some of them had
+choppers and swords, there were a few wounds given, and presently bang
+went the blunderbuss.
+
+Two or three of the mob reeled and fell.
+
+This produced a momentary panic, and the servants then had the whole of
+the victory to themselves, and were about to charge, and clear the
+passage of their enemies, when a shout behind attracted their attention.
+
+That shout was caused by an entrance being gained in another quarter,
+whence the servants were flying, and all was disorder.
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the mob.
+
+The servants retreated to the stairs, and here united, they made a
+stand, and resolved to resist the whole force of the rioters, and they
+succeeded in doing so, too, for some minutes. Blows were given and taken
+of a desperate character.
+
+Somehow, there were no deadly blows received by the servants; they were
+being forced and beaten, but they lost no life; this may be accounted
+for by the fact that the mob used no more deadly weapons than sticks.
+
+The servants of Sir Francis Varney, on the contrary, were mostly armed
+with deadly weapons, which, however, they did not use unnecessarily.
+They stood upon the hall steps--the grand staircase, with long poles or
+sticks, about the size of quarter-staves, and with these they belaboured
+those below most unmercifully.
+
+Certainly, the mob were by no means cowards, for the struggle to close
+with their enemies was as great as ever, and as firm as could well be.
+Indeed, they rushed on with a desperation truly characteristic of John
+Bull, and defied the heaviest blows; for as fast as one was stricken
+down another occupied his place, and they insensibly pressed their close
+and compact front upon the servants, who were becoming fatigued and
+harassed.
+
+"Fire, again," exclaimed a voice from among the servants.
+
+The mob made no retrogade movement, but still continued to press
+onwards, and in another moment a loud report rang through the house, and
+a smoke hung over the heads of the mob.
+
+A long groan or two escaped some of the men who had been wounded, and a
+still louder from those who had not been wounded, and a cry arose of,--
+
+"Down with the vampyre--pull down--destroy and burn the whole
+place--down with them all."
+
+A rush succeeded, and a few more discharges took place, when a shout
+above attracted the attention of both parties engaged in this fierce
+struggle. They paused by mutual consent, to look and see what was the
+cause of that shout.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+THE INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE MOB AND SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.--THE MYSTERIOUS
+DISAPPEARANCE.--THE WINE CELLARS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The shout that had so discomposed the parties who were thus engaged in a
+terrific struggle came from a party above.
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" they shouted a number of times, in a wild strain of
+delight. "Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!"
+
+The fact was, a party of the mob had clambered up a verandah, and
+entered some of the rooms upstairs, whence they emerged just above the
+landing near the spot where the servants were resisting in a mass the
+efforts of the mob.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the mob below.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the mob above.
+
+There was a momentary pause, and the servants divided themselves into
+two bodies, and one turned to face those above, and the other those who
+were below.
+
+A simultaneous shout was given by both parties of the mob, and a sudden
+rush was made by both bodies, and the servants of Sir Francis Varney
+were broken in an instant. They were instantly separated, and knocked
+about a good bit, but they were left to shift for themselves, the mob
+had a more important object in view.
+
+"Down with the vampyre!" they shouted.
+
+"Down with the vampyre!" shouted they, and they rushed helter skelter
+through the rooms, until they came to one where the door was partially
+open, and they could see some person very leisurely seated.
+
+"Here he is," they cried.
+
+"Who? who?"
+
+"The vampire."
+
+"Down with him! kill him! burn him!"
+
+"Hurrah! down with the vampire!"
+
+These sounds were shouted out by a score of voices, and they rushed
+headlong into the room.
+
+But here their violence and headlong precipitancy were suddenly
+restrained by the imposing and quiet appearance of the individual who
+was there seated.
+
+The mob entered the room, and there was a sight, that if it did not
+astonish them, at least, it caused them to pause before the individual
+who was seated there.
+
+The room was well filled with furniture, and there was a curtain drawn
+across the room, and about the middle of it there was a table, behind
+which sat Sir Francis Varney himself, looking all smiles and courtesy.
+
+"Well, dang my smock-frock!" said one, "who'd ha' thought of this? He
+don't seem to care much about it."
+
+"Well, I'm d----d!" said another; "he seems pretty easy, at all events.
+What is he going to do?"
+
+"Gentlemen," said Sir Francis Varney, rising, with the blandest smiles,
+"pray, gentlemen, permit me to inquire the cause of this condescension
+on your part. The visit is kind."
+
+The mob looked at Sir Francis, and then at each other, and then at Sir
+Francis again; but nobody spoke. They were awed by this gentlemanly and
+collected behaviour.
+
+"If you honour me with this visit from pure affection and neighbourly
+good-will, I thank you."
+
+"Down with the vampyre!" said one, who was concealed behind the rest,
+and not so much overawed, as he had not seen Sir Francis.
+
+Sir Francis Varney rose to his full height; a light gleamed across his
+features; they were strongly defined then. His long front teeth, too,
+showed most strongly when he smiled, as he did now, and said, in a bland
+voice,--
+
+"Gentlemen, I am at your service. Permit me to say you are welcome to
+all I can do for you. I fear the interview will be somewhat inconvenient
+and unpleasant to you. As for myself, I am entirely at your service."
+
+As Sir Francis spoke, he bowed, and folded his hands together, and
+stepped forwards; but, instead of coming onwards to them, he walked
+behind the curtain, and was immediately hid from their view.
+
+"Down with the vampyre!" shouted one.
+
+"Down with the vampyre!" rang through the apartment; and the mob now,
+not awed by the coolness and courtesy of Sir Francis, rushed forward,
+and, overturning the table, tore down the curtain to the floor; but, to
+their amazement, there was no Sir Francis Varney present.
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"Where is the vampyre?"
+
+"Where has he gone?"
+
+These were cries that escaped every one's lips; and yet no one could
+give an answer to them.
+
+There Sir Francis Varney was not. They were completely thunderstricken.
+They could not find out where he had gone to. There was no possible
+means of escape, that they could perceive. There was not an odd corner,
+or even anything that could, by any possibility, give even a suspicion
+that even a temporary concealment could take place.
+
+They looked over every inch of flooring and of wainscoting; not the
+remotest trace could be discovered.
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"I don't know," said one--"I can't see where he could have gone. There
+ain't a hole as big as a keyhole."
+
+"My eye!" said one; "I shouldn't be at all surprised, if he were to blow
+up the whole house."
+
+"You don't say go!"
+
+"I never heard as how vampyres could do so much as that. They ain't the
+sort of people," said another.
+
+"But if they can do one thing, they can do another."
+
+"That's very true."
+
+"And what's more, I never heard as how a vampyre could make himself into
+nothing before; yet he has done so."
+
+"He may be in this room now."
+
+"He may."
+
+"My eyes! what precious long teeth he had!"
+
+"Yes; and had he fixed one on 'em in to your arm, he would have drawn
+every drop of blood out of your body; you may depend upon that," said an
+old man.
+
+"He was very tall."
+
+"Yes; too tall to be any good."
+
+"I shouldn't like him to have laid hold of me, though, tall as he is;
+and then he would have lifted me up high enough to break my neck, when
+he let me fall."
+
+The mob routed about the room, tore everything out of its place, and as
+the object of their search seemed to be far enough beyond their reach,
+their courage rose in proportion, and they shouted and screamed with a
+proportionate increase of noise and bustle; and at length they ran about
+mad with rage and vexation, doing all the mischief that was in their
+power to inflict.
+
+Then they became mischievous, and tore the furniture from its place, and
+broke it in pieces, and then amused themselves with breaking it up,
+throwing pieces at the pier-glasses, in which they made dreadful holes;
+and when that was gone, they broke up the frames.
+
+Every hole and corner of the house was searched, but there was no Sir
+Francis Varney to be found.
+
+"The cellars, the cellars!" shouted a voice.
+
+"The cellars, the cellars!" re-echoed nearly every pair of lips in the
+whole place; in another moment, there was crushing and crowding to get
+down into the cellars.
+
+"Hurray!" said one, as he knocked off the neck of the bottle that first
+came to hand.
+
+"Here's luck to vampyre-hunting! Success to our chase!"
+
+"So say I, neighbour; but is that your manners to drink before your
+betters?"
+
+So saying, the speaker knocked the other's elbow, while he was in the
+act of lifting the wine to his mouth; and thus he upset it over his face
+and eyes.
+
+"D--n it!" cried the man; "how it makes my eyes smart! Dang thee! if I
+could see, I'd ring thy neck!"
+
+"Success to vampyre-hunting!" said one.
+
+"May we be lucky yet!" said another.
+
+"I wouldn't be luckier than this," said another, as he, too, emptied a
+bottle. "We couldn't desire better entertainment, where the reckoning is
+all paid."
+
+"Excellent!"
+
+"Very good!"
+
+"Capital wine this!"
+
+"I say, Huggins!"
+
+"Well," said Huggins.
+
+"What are you drinking?"
+
+"Wine."
+
+"What wine?"
+
+"Danged if I know," was the reply. "It's wine, I suppose; for I know it
+ain't beer nor spirits; so it must be wine."
+
+"Are you sure it ain't bottled men's blood?"
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"Bottled blood, man! Who knows what a vampyre drinks? It may be his
+wine. He may feast upon that before he goes to bed of a night, drink
+anybody's health, and make himself cheerful on bottled blood!"
+
+"Oh, danged! I'm so sick; I wish I hadn't taken the stuff. It may be as
+you say, neighbour, and then we be cannibals."
+
+"Or vampyres."
+
+"There's a pretty thing to think of."
+
+By this time some were drunk, some were partially so, and the remainder
+were crowding into the cellars to get their share of the wine.
+
+The servants had now slunk away; they were no longer noticed by the
+rioters, who, having nobody to oppose them, no longer thought of
+anything, save the searching after the vampyre, and the destruction of
+the property. Several hours had been spent in this manner, and yet they
+could not find the object of their search.
+
+There was not a room, or cupboard, or a cellar, that was capable of
+containing a cat, that they did not search, besides a part of the
+rioters keeping a very strict watch on the outside of the house and all
+about the grounds, to prevent the possibility of the escape of the
+vampyre.
+
+There was a general cessation of active hostilities at that moment; a
+reaction after the violent excitement and exertion they had made to get
+in. Then the escape of their victim, and the mysterious manner in which
+he got away, was also a cause of the reaction, and the rioters looked in
+each others' countenances inquiringly.
+
+Above all, the discovery of the wine-cellar tended to withdraw them from
+violent measures; but this could not last long, there must be an end to
+such a scene, for there never was a large body of men assembled for an
+evil purpose, who ever were, for any length of time, peaceable.
+
+To prevent the more alarming effects of drunkenness, some few of the
+rioters, after having taken some small portion of the wine, became, from
+the peculiar flavour it possessed, imbued with the idea that it was
+really blood, and forthwith commenced an instant attack upon the wine
+and liquors, and they were soon mingling in one stream throughout the
+cellars.
+
+This destruction was loudly declaimed against by a large portion of the
+rioters, who were drinking; but before they could make any efforts to
+save the liquor, the work of destruction had not only been begun, but
+was ended, and the consequence was, the cellars were very soon evacuated
+by the mob.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+
+THE DESTRUCTION OF SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S HOUSE BY FIRE.--THE ARRIVAL OF
+THE MILITARY, AND A SECOND MOB.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Thus many moments had not elapsed ere the feelings of the rioters became
+directed into a different channel from that in which it had so lately
+flowed. When urged about the house and grounds for the vampyre, they
+became impatient and angry at not finding him. Many believed that he was
+yet about the house, while many were of opinion that he had flown away
+by some mysterious means only possessed by vampyres and such like
+people.
+
+"Fire the house, and burn him out," said one.
+
+"Fire the house!"
+
+"Burn the den!" now arose in shouts from all present, and then the mob
+were again animated by the love of mischief that seemed to be the
+strongest feelings that animated them.
+
+"Burn him out--burn him out!" were the only words that could be heard
+from any of the mob. The words ran through the house like wildfire,
+nobody thought of anything else, and all were seen running about in
+confusion.
+
+There was no want of good will on the part of the mob to the
+undertaking; far from it, and they proceeded in the work _con amore_.
+They worked together with right good will, and the result was soon seen
+by the heaps of combustible materials that were collected in a short
+time from all parts of the house.
+
+All the old dry wood furniture that could be found was piled up in a
+heap, and to these were added a number of faggots, and also some
+shavings that were found in the cellar.
+
+"All right!" exclaimed one man, in exultation.
+
+"Yes," replied a second; "all right--all right! Set light to it, and he
+will be smoked out if not burned."
+
+"Let us be sure that all are out of the house," suggested one of the
+bystanders.
+
+"Ay, ay," shouted several; "give them all a chance. Search through the
+house and give them a warning."
+
+"Very well; give me the light, and then when I come back I will set
+light to the fire at once, and then I shall know all is empty, and so
+will you too."
+
+This was at once agreed to by all, with acclamations, and the light
+being handed to the man, he ascended the stairs, crying out in a loud
+voice,--
+
+"Come out--come out! the house is on fire!"
+
+"Fire! fire! fire!" shouted the mob as a chorus, every now and then at
+intervals.
+
+In about ten minutes more, there came a cry of "all right; the house is
+empty," from up the stairs, and the man descended in haste to the hall.
+
+"Make haste, lads, and fire away, for I see the red coats are leaving
+the town."
+
+"Hurra! hurra!" shouted the infuriated mob. "Fire--fire--fire the house!
+Burn out the vampyre! Burn down the house--burn him out, and see if he
+can stand fire."
+
+Amidst all this tumult there came a sudden blaze upon all around, for
+the pile had been fired.
+
+"Hurra!" shouted the mob--"hurra!" and they danced like maniacs round
+the fire; looking, in fact, like so many wild Indians, dancing round
+their roasting victims, or some demons at an infernal feast.
+
+The torch had been put to twenty different places, and the flames united
+into one, and suddenly shot up with a velocity, and roared with a sound
+that caused many who were present to make a precipitate retreat from the
+hall.
+
+This soon became a necessary measure of self-preservation, and it
+required no urging to induce them to quit a place that was burning
+rapidly and even furiously.
+
+"Get the poles and firewood--get faggots," shouted some of the mob, and,
+lo, it was done almost by magic. They brought the faggots and wood piled
+up for winter use, and laid them near all the doors, and especially the
+main entrance. Nay, every gate or door belonging to the outhouses was
+brought forward and placed upon the fire, which now began to reach the
+upper stories.
+
+"Hurra--fire! Hurra--fire!"
+
+And a loud shout of triumph came from the mob as they viewed the
+progress of the flames, as they came roaring and tearing through the
+house doors and the windows.
+
+Each new victory of the element was a signal to the mob for a cheer; and
+a hearty cheer, too, came from them.
+
+"Where is the vampyre now?" exclaimed one.
+
+"Ha! where is he?" said another.
+
+"If he be there," said the man, pointing to the flames, "I reckon he's
+got a warm berth of it, and, at the same time, very little water to boil
+in his kettle."
+
+"Ha, ha! what a funny old man is Bob Mason; he's always poking fun; he'd
+joke if his wife were dying."
+
+"There is many a true word spoken in jest," suggested another; "and, to
+my mind, Bob Mason wouldn't be very much grieved if his wife were to
+die."
+
+"Die?" said Bob; "she and I have lived and quarrelled daily a matter of
+five-and-thirty years, and, if that ain't enough to make a man sick of
+being married, and of his wife, hand me, that's all. I say I am tired."
+
+This was said with much apparent sincerity, and several laughed at the
+old man's heartiness.
+
+"It's all very well," said the old man; "it's all very well to laugh
+about matters you don't understand, but I know it isn't a joke--not a
+bit on it. I tells you what it is, neighbour, I never made but one grand
+mistake in all my life."
+
+"And what was that?"
+
+"To tie myself to a woman."
+
+"Why, you'd get married to-morrow if your wife were to die to-day," said
+one.
+
+"If I did, I hope I may marry a vampyre. I should have something then to
+think about. I should know what's o'clock. But, as for my old woman,
+lord, lord, I wish Sir Francis Varney had had her for life. I'll warrant
+when the next natural term of his existence came round again, he
+wouldn't be in no hurry to renew it; if he did, I should say that
+vampyres had the happy lot of managing women, which I haven't got."
+
+"No, nor anybody else."
+
+A loud shout now attracted their attention, and, upon looking in the
+quarter whence it came, they descried a large body of people coming
+towards them; from one end of the mob could be seen a long string of red
+coats.
+
+"The red coats!" shouted one.
+
+"The military!" shouted another.
+
+It was plain the military who had been placed in the town to quell
+disturbances, had been made acquainted with the proceedings at Sir
+Francis Varney's house, and were now marching to relieve the place, and
+to save the property.
+
+They were, as we have stated, accompanied by a vast concourse of people,
+who came out to see what they were going to see, and seeing the flames
+at Sir Francis Varney's house, they determined to come all the way, and
+be present.
+
+The military, seeing the disturbance in the distance, and the flames
+issuing from the windows, made the best of their way towards the scene
+of tumult with what speed they could make.
+
+"Here they come," said one.
+
+"Yes, just in time to see what is done."
+
+"Yes, they can go back and say we have burned the vampyre's house
+down--hurra!"
+
+"Hurra!" shouted the mob, in prolonged accents, and it reached the ears
+of the military.
+
+The officer urged the men onwards, and they responded to his words, by
+exerting themselves to step out a little faster.
+
+"Oh, they should have been here before this; it's no use, now, they are
+too late."
+
+"Yes, they are too late."
+
+"I wonder if the vampyre can breathe through the smoke, and live in
+fire," said one.
+
+"I should think he must be able to do so, if he can stand shooting, as
+we know he can--you can't kill a vampyre; but yet he must be consumed,
+if the fire actually touches him, but not unless he can bear almost
+anything."
+
+"So he can."
+
+"Hurra!" shouted the mob, as a tall flame shot through the top windows
+of the house.
+
+The fire had got the ascendant now, and no hopes could be entertained,
+however extravagant, of saving the smallest article that had been left
+in the mansion.
+
+"Hurra!" shouted the mob with the military, who came up with them.
+
+"Hurra!" shouted the others in reply.
+
+"Quick march!" said the officer; and then, in a loud, commanding tone,
+he shouted, "Clear the way, there! clear the way."
+
+"Ay, there's room enough for you," said old Mason; "what are you making
+so much noise about?"
+
+There was a general laugh at the officer, who took no notice of the
+words, but ordered his men up before the burning pile, which was now an
+immense mass of flame.
+
+The mob who had accompanied the military now mingled with the mob that
+had set the house of Sir Francis Varney on fire ere the military had
+come up with them.
+
+"Halt!" cried out the officer; and the men, obedient to the word of
+command, halted, and drew up in a double line before the house.
+
+There were then some words of command issued, and some more given to
+some of the subalterns, and a party of men, under the command of a
+sergeant, was sent off from the main body, to make a circuit of the
+house and grounds.
+
+The officer gazed for some moments upon the burning pile without
+speaking; and then, turning to the next in command, he said in low
+tones, as he looked upon the mob,--
+
+"We have come too late."
+
+"Yes, much."
+
+"The house is now nearly gutted."
+
+"It is."
+
+"And those who came crowding along with us are inextricably mingled with
+the others who have been the cause of all this mischief: there's no
+distinguishing them one from another."
+
+"And if you did, you could not say who had done it, and who had not; you
+could prove nothing."
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"I shall not attempt to take prisoners, unless any act is perpetrated
+beyond what has been done."
+
+"It is a singular affair."
+
+"Very."
+
+"This Sir Francis Varney is represented to be a courteous, gentlemanly
+man," said the officer.
+
+"No doubt about it, but he's beset by a parcel of people who do not mind
+cutting a throat if they can get an opportunity of doing so."
+
+"And I expect they will."
+
+"Yes, when there is a popular excitement against any man, he had better
+leave this part at once and altogether. It is dangerous to tamper with
+popular prejudices; no man who has any value for his life ought to do
+so. It is a sheer act of suicide."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV.
+
+THE BURNING OF VARNEY'S HOUSE.--A NIGHT SCENE.--POPULAR SUPERSTITION.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The officer ceased to speak, and then the party whom he had sent round
+the house and grounds returned, and gained the main body orderly enough,
+and the sergeant went forward to make his report to his superior
+officer.
+
+After the usual salutation, he waited for the inquiry to be put to him
+as to what he had seen.
+
+"Well, Scott, what have you done?"
+
+"I went round the premises, sir, according to your instructions, but saw
+no one either in the vicinity of the house, or in the grounds around
+it."
+
+"No strangers, eh?"
+
+"No, sir, none."
+
+"You saw nothing at all likely to lead to any knowledge as to who it was
+that has caused this catastrophe?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Have you learnt anything among the people who are the perpetrators of
+this fire?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Well, then, that will do, unless there is anything else that you can
+think of."
+
+"Nothing further, sir, unless it is that I heard some of them say that
+Sir Francis Varney has perished in the flames."
+
+"Good heavens!"
+
+"So I heard, sir."
+
+"That must be impossible, and yet why should it be so? Go back, Scott,
+and bring me some person who can give me some information upon this
+point."
+
+The sergeant departed toward the people, who looked at him without any
+distrust, for he came single-handed, though they thought he came with
+the intention of learning what they knew of each other, and so stroll
+about with the intention of getting up accusations against them. But
+this was not the case, the officer didn't like the work well enough;
+he'd rather have been elsewhere.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+At length the sergeant came to one man, whom he accosted, and said to
+him,--
+
+"Do you know anything of yonder fire?"
+
+"Yes: I do know it is a fire."
+
+"Yes, and so do I."
+
+"My friend," said the sergeant, "when a soldier asks a question he does
+not expect an uncivil answer."
+
+"But a soldier may ask a question that may have an uncivil end to it."
+
+"He may; but it is easy to say so."
+
+"I do say so, then, now."
+
+"Then I'll not trouble you any more."
+
+The sergeant moved on a pace or two more, and then, turning to the mob,
+he said,--
+
+"Is there any one among you who can tell me anything concerning the fate
+of Sir Francis Varney?"
+
+"Burnt!"
+
+"Did you see him burnt?"
+
+"No; but I saw him."
+
+"In the flames?"
+
+"No; before the house was on fire."
+
+"In the house?"
+
+"Yes; and he has not been seen to leave it since, and we conclude he
+must have been burned."
+
+"Will you come and say as much to my commanding officer? It is all I
+want."
+
+"Shall I be detained?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then I will go," said the man, and he hobbled out of the crowd towards
+the sergeant. "I will go and see the officer, and tell him what I know,
+and that is very little, and can prejudice no one."
+
+"Hurrah!" said the crowd, when they heard this latter assertion; for, at
+first, they began to be in some alarm lest there should be something
+wrong about this, and some of them get identified as being active in the
+fray.
+
+The sergeant led the man back to the spot, where the officer stood a
+little way in advance of his men.
+
+"Well, Scott," he said, "what have we here?"
+
+"A man who has volunteered a statement, sir."
+
+"Oh! Well, my man, can you say anything concerning all this disturbance
+that we have here?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Then what did you come here for?"
+
+"I understood the sergeant to want some one who could speak of Sir
+Francis Varney."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I saw him."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"In the house."
+
+"Exactly; but have you not seen him out of it?"
+
+"Not since; nor any one else, I believe."
+
+"Where was he?"
+
+"Upstairs, where he suddenly disappeared, and nobody can tell where he
+may have gone to. But he has not been seen out of the house since, and
+they say he could not have gone bodily out if they had not seen him."
+
+"He must have been burnt," said the officer, musingly; "he could not
+escape, one would imagine, without being seen by some one out of such a
+mob."
+
+"Oh, dear no, for I am told they placed a watch at every hole, window,
+or door however high, and they saw nothing of him--not even fly out!"
+
+"Fly out! I'm speaking of a man!"
+
+"And I of a vampire!" said the man carelessly.
+
+"A vampyre! Pooh, pooh!"
+
+"Oh no! Sir Francis Varney is a vampyre! There can be no sort of doubt
+about it. You have only to look at him, and you will soon be satisfied
+of that. See his great sharp teeth in front, and ask yourself what they
+are for, and you will soon find the answer. They are to make holes with
+in the bodies of his victims, through which he can suck their blood!"
+
+The officer looked at the man in astonishment for a few moments, as if
+he doubted his own ears, and then he said,--
+
+"Are you serious?"
+
+"I am ready to swear to it."
+
+"Well, I have heard a great deal about popular superstition, and thought
+I had seen something of it; but this is decidedly the worst case that
+ever I saw or heard of. You had better go home, my man, than, by your
+presence, countenance such a gross absurdity."
+
+"For all that," said the man, "Sir Francis Varney is a vampyre--a
+blood-sucker--a human blood-sucker!"
+
+"Get away with you," said the officer, "and do not repeat such folly
+before any one."
+
+The man almost jumped when he heard the tone in which this was spoken,
+for the officer was both angry and contemptuous, when he heard the words
+of the man.
+
+"These people," he added, turning to the sergeant, "are ignorant in the
+extreme. One would think we had got into the country of vampires,
+instead of a civilised community."
+
+The day was going down now; the last rays of the setting sun glimmered
+upwards, and still shone upon the tree-tops. The darkness of night was
+still fast closing around them. The mob stood a motley mass of human
+beings, wedged together, dark and sombre, gazing upon the mischief that
+had been done--the work of their hands. The military stood at ease
+before the burning pile, and by their order and regularity, presented a
+contrast to the mob, as strongly by their bright gleaming arms, as by
+their dress and order.
+
+The flames now enveloped the whole mansion. There was not a window or a
+door from which the fiery element did not burst forth in clouds, and
+forked flames came rushing forth with a velocity truly wonderful.
+
+The red glare of the flames fell upon all objects around for some
+distance--the more especially so, as the sun had sunk, and a bank of
+clouds rose from beneath the horizon and excluded all his rays; there
+was no twilight, and there was, as yet, no moon.
+
+The country side was enveloped in darkness, and the burning house could
+be seen for miles around, and formed a rallying-point to all men's eyes.
+
+The engines that were within reach came tearing across the country, and
+came to the fire; but they were of no avail. There was no supply of
+water, save from the ornamental ponds. These they could only get at by
+means that were tedious and unsatisfactory, considering the emergency of
+the case.
+
+The house was a lone one, and it was being entirely consumed before they
+arrived, and therefore there was not the remotest chance of saving the
+least article. Had they ever such a supply of water, nothing could have
+been effected by it.
+
+Thus the men stood idly by, passing their remarks upon the fire and the
+mob.
+
+Those who stood around, and within the influence of the red glare of the
+flames, looked like so many demons in the infernal regions, watching the
+progress of lighting the fire, which we are told by good Christians is
+the doom of the unfortunate in spirit, and the woefully unlucky in
+circumstances.
+
+It was a strange sight that; and there were many persons who would,
+without doubt, have rather been snug by their own fire-side than they
+would have remained there but it happened that no one felt inclined to
+express his inclination to his neighbour, and, consequently, no one said
+anything on the subject.
+
+None would venture to go alone across the fields, where the spirit of
+the vampyre might, for all they knew to the contrary, be waiting to
+pounce upon them, and worry them.
+
+No, no; no man would have quitted that mob to go back alone to the
+village; they would sooner have stood there all night through. That was
+an alternative that none of the number would very willingly accept.
+
+The hours passed away, and the house that had been that morning a noble
+and well-furnished mansion, was now a smouldering heap of ruins. The
+flames had become somewhat subdued, and there was now more smoke than
+flames.
+
+The fire had exhausted itself. There was now no more material that could
+serve it for fuel, and the flames began to become gradually enough
+subdued.
+
+Suddenly there was a rush, and then a bright flame shot upward for an
+instant, so bright and so strong, that it threw a flash of light over
+the country for miles; but it was only momentary, and it subsided.
+
+The roof, which had been built strong enough to resist almost anything,
+after being burning for a considerable time, suddenly gave way, and came
+in with a tremendous crash, and then all was for a moment darkness.
+
+After this the fire might be said to be subdued, it having burned itself
+out; and the flames that could now be seen were but the result of so
+much charred wood, that would probably smoulder away for a day or two,
+if left to itself to do so. A dense mass of smoke arose from the ruins,
+and blackened the atmosphere around, and told the spectators the work
+was done.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV.
+
+THE RETURN OF THE MOB AND MILITARY TO THE TOWN.--THE MADNESS OF THE
+MOB.--THE GROCER'S REVENGE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+On the termination of the conflagration, or, rather, the fall of the
+roof, with the loss of grandeur in the spectacle, men's minds began to
+be free from the excitement that chained them to the spot, watching the
+progress of that element which has been truly described as a very good
+servant, but a very bad master; and of the truth of this every one must
+be well satisfied.
+
+There was now remaining little more than the livid glare of the hot and
+burning embers; and this did not extend far, for the walls were too
+strongly built to fall in from their own weight; they were strong and
+stout, and intercepted the little light the ashes would have given out.
+
+The mob now began to feel fatigued and chilly. It had been standing and
+walking about many hours, and the approach of exhaustion could not be
+put off much longer, especially as there was no longer any great
+excitement to carry it off.
+
+The officer, seeing that nothing was to be done, collected his men
+together, and they were soon seen in motion. He had been ordered to stop
+any tumult that he might have seen, and to save any property. But there
+was nothing to do now; all the property that could have been saved was
+now destroyed, and the mob were beginning to disperse, and creep towards
+their own houses.
+
+The order was then given for the men to take close order, and keep
+together, and the word to march was given, which the men obeyed with
+alacrity, for they had no good-will in stopping there the whole of the
+night.
+
+The return to the village of both the mob and the military was not
+without its vicissitudes; accidents of all kinds were rife amongst them;
+the military, however, taking the open paths, soon diminished the
+distance, and that, too, with little or no accidents, save such as might
+have been expected from the state of the fields, after they had been so
+much trodden down of late.
+
+Not so the townspeople or the peasantry; for, by way of keeping up their
+spirits, and amusing themselves on their way home, they commenced
+larking, as they called it, which often meant the execution of practical
+jokes, and these sometimes were of a serious nature.
+
+The night was dark at that hour, especially so when there was a number
+of persons traversing about, so that little or nothing could be seen.
+
+The mistakes and blunders that were made were numerous. In one place
+there were a number of people penetrating a path that led only to a
+hedge and deep ditch; indeed it was a brook very deep and muddy.
+
+Here they came to a stop and endeavoured to ascertain its width, but the
+little reflected light they had was deceptive, and it did not appear so
+broad as it was.
+
+"Oh, I can jump it," exclaimed one.
+
+"And so can I," said another. "I have done so before, and why should I
+not do so now."
+
+This was unanswerable, and as there were many present, at least a dozen
+were eager to jump.
+
+"If thee can do it, I know I can," said a brawny countryman; "so I'll do
+it at once.
+
+"The sooner the better," shouted some one behind, "or you'll have no
+room for a run, here's a lot of 'em coming up; push over as quickly as
+you can."
+
+Thus urged, the jumpers at once made a rush to the edge of the ditch,
+and many jumped, and many more, from the prevailing darkness, did not
+see exactly where the ditch was, and taking one or two steps too many,
+found themselves up above the waist in muddy water.
+
+Nor were those who jumped much better off, for nearly all jumped short
+or fell backwards into the stream, and were dragged out in a terrible
+state.
+
+"Oh, lord! oh, lord!" exclaimed one poor fellow, dripping wet and
+shivering with cold, "I shall die! oh, the rheumatiz, there'll be a
+pretty winter for me: I'm half dead."
+
+"Hold your noise," said another, "and help me to get the mud out of my
+eye; I can't see."
+
+"Never mind," added a third, "considering how you jump, I don't think
+you want to see."
+
+"This comes a hunting vampyres."
+
+"Oh, it's all a judgment; who knows but he may be in the air: it is
+nothing to laugh at as I shouldn't be surprised if he were: only think
+how precious pleasant."
+
+"However pleasant it may be to you," remarked one, "it's profitable to a
+good many."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Why, see the numbers, of things that will be spoiled, coats torn, hats
+crushed, heads broken, and shoes burst. Oh, it's an ill-wind that blows
+nobody any good."
+
+"So it is, but you may benefit anybody you like, so you don't do it at
+my expence."
+
+In one part of a field where there were some stiles and gates, a big
+countryman caught a fat shopkeeper with the arms of the stile a terrible
+poke in the stomach; while the breath was knocked out of the poor man's
+stomach, and he was gasping with agony, the fellow set to laughing, and
+said to his companions, who were of the same class--
+
+"I say, Jim, look at the grocer, he hasn't got any wind to spare, I'd
+run him for a wager, see how he gapes like a fish out of water."
+
+The poor shopkeeper felt indeed like a fish out of water, and as he
+afterwards declared he felt just as if he had had a red hot clock weight
+thrust into the midst of his stomach and there left to cool.
+
+However, the grocer would be revenged upon his tormentor, who had now
+lost sight of him, but the fat man, after a time, recovering his wind,
+and the pain in his stomach becoming less intense, he gathered himself
+up.
+
+"My name ain't Jones," he muttered, "if I don't be one to his one for
+that; I'll do something that shall make him remember what it is to
+insult a respectable tradesman. I'll never forgive such an insult. It is
+dark, and that's why it is he has dared to do this."
+
+Filled with dire thoughts and a spirit of revenge, he looked from side
+to side to see with what he could effect his object, but could espy
+nothing.
+
+"It's shameful," he muttered; "what would I give for a little retort.
+I'd plaster his ugly countenance."
+
+As he spoke, he placed his hands on some pales to rest himself, when he
+found that they stuck to them, the pales had that day been newly
+pitched.
+
+A bright idea now struck him.
+
+"If I could only get a handful of this stuff," he thought, "I should be
+able to serve him out for serving me out. I will, cost what it may; I'm
+resolved upon that. I'll not have my wind knocked out, and my inside set
+on fire for nothing. No, no; I'll be revenged on him."
+
+With this view he felt over the pales, and found that he could scrape
+off a little only, but not with his hands; indeed, it only plastered
+them; he, therefore, marched about for something to scrape it off with.
+
+"Ah; I have a knife, a large pocket knife, that will do, that is the
+sort of thing I want."
+
+He immediately commenced feeling for it, but had scarcely got his hand
+into his pocket when he found there would be a great difficulty in
+either pushing it in further or withdrawing it altogether, for the pitch
+made it difficult to do either, and his pocket stuck to his hands like a
+glove.
+
+"D--n it," said the grocer, "who would have thought of that? here's a
+pretty go, curse that fellow, he is the cause of all this; I'll be
+revenged upon him, if it's a year hence."
+
+The enraged grocer drew his hand out, but was unable to effect his
+object in withdrawing the knife also; but he saw something shining, he
+stooped to pick it up, exclaiming as he did so, in a gratified tone of
+voice,
+
+"Ah, here's something that will do better."
+
+As he made a grasp at it, he found he had inserted his hand into
+something soft.
+
+"God bless me! what now?"
+
+He pulled his hand hastily away, and found that it stuck slightly, and
+then he saw what it was.
+
+"Ay, ay, the very thing. Surely it must have been placed here on purpose
+by the people."
+
+The fact was, he had placed his hand into a pot of pitch that had been
+left by the people who had been at work at pitching the pales, but had
+been attracted by the fire at Sir Francis Varney's, and to see which
+they had left their work, and the pitch was left on a smouldering peat
+fire, so that when Mr. Jones, the grocer, accidentally put his hand into
+it he found it just warm.
+
+When he made this discovery he dabbed his hand again into the pitch-pot,
+exclaiming,--
+
+"In for a penny, in for a pound."
+
+And he endeavoured to secure as large a handful of the slippery and
+sticky stuff as he could, and this done he set off to come up with the
+big countryman who had done him so much indignity and made his stomach
+uncomfortable.
+
+He soon came up with him, for the man had stopped rather behind, and was
+larking, as it is called, with some men, to whom he was a companion.
+
+He had slipped down a bank, and was partially sitting down on the soft
+mud. In his bustle, the little grocer came down with a slide, close to
+the big countryman.
+
+"Ah--ah! my little grocer," said the countryman, holding out his hand to
+catch him, and drawing him towards himself. "You will come and sit down
+by the side of your old friend."
+
+As he spoke, he endeavoured to pull Mr. Jones down, too; but that
+individual only replied by fetching the countryman a swinging smack
+across the face with the handful of pitch.
+
+"There, take that; and now we are quits; we shall be old friends after
+this, eh? Are you satisfied? You'll remember me, I'll warrant."
+
+As the grocer spoke, he rubbed his hands over the face of the fallen
+man, and then rushed from the spot with all the haste he could make.
+
+The countryman sat a moment or two confounded, cursing, and swearing,
+and spluttering, vowing vengeance, believing that it was mud only that
+had been plastered over his face; but when he put his hands up, and
+found out what it was, he roared and bellowed like a town-bull.
+
+He cried out to his companions that his eyes were pitched: but they only
+laughed at him, thinking he was having some foolish lark with them.
+
+It was next day before he got home, for he wandered about all night: and
+it took him a week to wash the pitch off by means of grease; and ever
+afterwards he recollected the pitching of his face; nor did he ever
+forget the grocer.
+
+Thus it was the whole party returned a long while after dark across the
+fields, with all the various accidents that were likely to befal such an
+assemblage of people.
+
+The vampyre hunting cost many of them dear, for clothes were injured on
+all sides: hats lost, and shoes missing in a manner that put some of the
+rioters to much inconvenience. Soon afterwards, the military retired to
+their quarters; and the townspeople at length became tranquil and
+nothing more was heard or done that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI.
+
+THE DEPARTURE OF THE BANNERWORTHS FROM THE HALL.--THE NEW ABODE.--JACK
+PRINGLE, PILOT.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+During that very evening, on which the house of Sir Francis Varney was
+fired by the mob, another scene, and one of different character, was
+enacted at Bannerworth Hall, where the owners of that ancient place were
+departing from it.
+
+It was towards the latter part of the day, that Flora Bannerworth, Mrs.
+Bannerworth, and Henry Bannerworth, were preparing themselves to depart
+from the house of their ancestors. The intended proprietor was, as we
+have already been made acquainted with, the old admiral, who had taken
+the place somewhat mysteriously, considering the way in which he usually
+did business.
+
+The admiral was walking up and down the lawn before the house, and
+looking up at the windows every now and then; and turning to Jack
+Pringle, he said,--
+
+"Jack, you dog."
+
+"Ay--ay, sir."
+
+"Mind you convoy these women into the right port; do you hear? and no
+mistaking the bearings; do you hear?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"These crafts want care; and you are pilot, commander, and all; so mind
+and keep your weather eye open."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir. I knows the craft well enough, and I knows the roads, too;
+there'll be no end of foundering against the breakers to find where they
+lie."
+
+"No, no, Jack; you needn't do that; but mind your bearings. Jack, mind
+your bearings."
+
+"Never fear; I know 'em, well enough; my eyes ain't laid up in ordinary
+yet."
+
+"Eh? What do you mean by that, you dog, eh?"
+
+"Nothing; only I can see without helps to read, or glasses either; so I
+know one place from another."
+
+There was now some one moving within; and the admiral, followed by Jack
+Pringle, entered the Hall. Henry Bannerworth was there. They were all
+ready to go when the coach came for them, which the admiral had ordered
+for them.
+
+"Jack, you lubber; where are you?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, here am I."
+
+"Go, and station yourself up in some place where you can keep a good
+look-out for the coach, and come and report when you see it."
+
+"Ay--ay, sir," said Jack, and away he went from the room, and stationed
+himself up in one of the trees, that commanded a good view of the main
+road for some distance.
+
+"Admiral Bell," said Henry, "here we are, trusting implicitly to you;
+and in doing so, I am sure I am doing right."
+
+"You will see that," said the admiral. "All's fair and honest as yet;
+and what is to come, will speak for itself."
+
+"I hope you won't suffer from any of these nocturnal visits," said
+Henry.
+
+"I don't much care about them; but old Admiral Bell don't strike his
+colours to an enemy, however ugly he may look. No, no; it must be a
+better craft than his own that'll take him; and one who won't run away,
+but that will grapple yard-arm and yard-arm, you know."
+
+"Why, admiral, you must have seen many dangers in your time, and be used
+to all kinds of disturbances and conflicts. You have had a life of
+experience."
+
+"Yes; and experience has come pretty thick sometimes, I can tell you,
+when it comes in the shape of Frenchmen's broadsides."
+
+"I dare say, then, it must be rather awkward."
+
+"Death by the law," said the admiral, "to stop one of them with your
+head, I assure you. I dare not make the attempt myself, though I have
+often seen it done."
+
+"I dare say; but here are Flora and my mother."
+
+As he spoke, Flora and her mother entered the apartment.
+
+"Well, admiral, we are all ready; and, though I may feel somewhat sorry
+at leaving the old Hall, yet it arises from attachment to the place, and
+not any disinclination to be beyond the reach of these dreadful alarms."
+
+"And I, too, shall be by no means sorry," said Flora; "I am sure it is
+some gratification to know we leave a friend here, rather than some
+others, who would have had the place, if they could have got it, by any
+means."
+
+"Ah, that's true enough, Miss Flora," said the admiral; "but we'll run
+the enemy down yet, depend upon it. But once away, you will be free from
+these terrors; and now, as you have promised, do not let yourselves be
+seen any where at all."
+
+"You have our promises, admiral; and they shall be religiously kept, I
+can assure you."
+
+"Boat, ahoy--ahoy!" shouted Jack.
+
+"What boat?" said the admiral, surprised; and then he muttered,
+"Confound you for a lubber! Didn't I tell you to mind your bearings, you
+dog-fish you?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir--and so I did."
+
+"You did."
+
+"Yes, here they are. Squint over the larboard bulk-heads, as they call
+walls, and then atween the two trees on the starboard side of the
+course, then straight ahead for a few hundred fathoms, when you come to
+a funnel as is smoking like the crater of Mount Vesuvius, and then in a
+line with that on the top of the hill, comes our boat."
+
+"Well," said the admiral, "that'll do. Now go open the gates, and keep a
+bright look out, and if you see anybody near your watch, why douse their
+glim."
+
+"Ay--ay, sir," said Jack, and he disappeared.
+
+"Rather a lucid description," said Henry, as he thought of Jack's report
+to the admiral.
+
+"Oh, it's a seaman's report. I know what he means; it's quicker and
+plainer than the land lingo, to my ears, and Jack can't talk any other,
+you see."
+
+By this time the coach came into the yard, and the whole party descended
+into the court-yard, where they came to take leave of the old place.
+
+"Farewell, admiral."
+
+"Good bye," said the admiral. "I hope the place you are going to will be
+such as please you--I hope it will."
+
+"I am sure we shall endeavour to be pleased with it, and I am pretty
+sure we shall."
+
+"Good bye."
+
+"Farewell, Admiral Bell," said Henry.
+
+"You remember your promises?"
+
+"I do. Good bye, Mr. Chillingworth."
+
+"Good bye," said Mr. Chillingworth, who came up to bid them farewell; "a
+pleasant journey, and may you all be the happier for it."
+
+"You do not come with us?"
+
+"No; I have some business of importance to attend to, else I should have
+the greatest pleasure in doing so. But good bye; we shall not be long
+apart, I dare say."
+
+"I hope not," said Henry.
+
+The door of the carriage was shut by the admiral, who looked round,
+saying,--
+
+"Jack--Jack Pringle, where are you, you dog?"
+
+"Here am I," said Jack.
+
+"Where have you been to?"
+
+"Only been for pigtail," said Jack. "I forgot it, and couldn't set sail
+without it."
+
+"You dog you; didn't I tell you to mind your bearings?"
+
+"So I will," said Jack, "fore and aft--fore and aft, admiral."
+
+"You had better," said the admiral, who, however, relaxed into a broad
+grin, which he concealed from Jack Pringle.
+
+Jack mounted the coach-box, and away it went, just as it was getting
+dark. The old admiral had locked up all the rooms in the presence of
+Henry Bannerworth; and when the coach had gone out of sight, Mr.
+Chillingworth came back to the Hall, where he joined the admiral.
+
+"Well," he said, "they are gone, Admiral Bell, and we are alone; we have
+a clear stage and no favour."
+
+"The two things of all others I most desire. Now, they will be strangers
+where they are going to, and that will be something gained. I will
+endeavour to do some thing if I get yard-arm and yard-arm with these
+pirates. I'll make 'em feel the weight of true metal; I'll board
+'em--d----e, I'll do everything."
+
+"Everything that can be done."
+
+"Ay--ay."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The coach in which the family of the Bannerworths were carried away
+continued its course without any let or hindrance, and they met no one
+on their road during the whole drive. The fact was, nearly everybody was
+at the conflagration at Sir Francis Varney's house.
+
+Flora knew not which way they were going, and, after a time, all trace
+of the road was lost. Darkness set in, and they all sat in silence in
+the coach.
+
+At length, after some time had been spent thus, Flora Bannerworth turned
+to Jack Pringle, and said,--
+
+"Are we near, or have we much further to go?"
+
+"Not very much, ma'am," said Jack. "All's right, however--ship in the
+direct course, and no breakers ahead--no lookout necessary; however
+there's a land-lubber aloft to keep a look out."
+
+As this was not very intelligible, and Jack seemed to have his own
+reasons for silence, they asked him no further questions; but in about
+three-quarters of an hour, during which time the coach had been driving
+through the trees, they came to a standstill by a sudden pull of the
+check-string from Jack, who said,--
+
+"Hilloa!--take in sails, and drop anchor."
+
+"Is this the place?"
+
+"Yes, here we are," said Jack; "we're in port now, at all events;" and
+he began to sing,--
+
+    "The trials and the dangers of the voyage is past,"
+
+when the coach door opened, and they all got out and looked about them
+where they were.
+
+"Up the garden if you please, ma'am--as quick as you can; the night air
+is very cold."
+
+Flora and her mother and brother took the hint, which was meant by Jack
+to mean that they were not to be seen outside. They at once entered a
+pretty garden, and then they came to a very neat and picturesque
+cottage. They had no time to look up at it, as the door was immediately
+opened by an elderly female, who was intended to wait upon them.
+
+Soon after, Jack Pringle and the coachman entered the passage with the
+small amount of luggage which they had brought with them. This was
+deposited in the passage, and then Jack went out again, and, after a few
+minutes, there was the sound of wheels, which intimated that the coach
+had driven off.
+
+Jack, however, returned in a few minutes afterwards, having secured the
+wicket-gate at the end of the garden, and then entered the house,
+shutting the door carefully after him.
+
+Flora and her mother looked over the apartments in which they were shown
+with some surprise. It was, in everything, such as they could wish;
+indeed, though it could not be termed handsomely or extravagantly
+furnished, or that the things were new, yet, there was all that
+convenience and comfort could require, and some little of the luxuries.
+
+"Well," said Flora, "this is very thoughtful of the admiral. The place
+will really be charming, and the garden, too, delightful."
+
+"Mustn't be made use of just now," said Jack, "if you please, ma'am;
+them's the orders at present."
+
+"Very well," said Flora, smiling. "I suppose, Mr. Pringle, we must obey
+them."
+
+"Jack Pringle, if you please," said Jack. "My commands only temporary. I
+ain't got a commission."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII.
+
+THE LONELY WATCH, AND THE ADVENTURE IN THE DESERTED HOUSE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It is now quite night, and so peculiar and solemn a stillness reigns in
+and about Bannerworth Hall and its surrounding grounds, that one might
+have supposed it a place of the dead, deserted completely after sunset
+by all who would still hold kindred with the living. There was not a
+breath of air stirring, and this circumstance added greatly to the
+impression of profound repose which the whole scene exhibited.
+
+The wind during the day had been rather of a squally character, but
+towards nightfall, as is often usual after a day of such a character, it
+had completely lulled, and the serenity of the scene was unbroken even
+by the faintest sigh from a wandering zephyr.
+
+The moon rose late at that period, and as is always the case at that
+interval between sunset and the rising of that luminary which makes the
+night so beautiful, the darkness was of the most profound character.
+
+It was one of those nights to produce melancholy reflections--a night on
+which a man would be apt to review his past life, and to look into the
+hidden recesses of his soul to see if conscience could make a coward of
+him in the loneliness and stillness that breathed around.
+
+It was one of those nights in which wanderers in the solitude of nature
+feel that the eye of Heaven is upon them, and on which there seems to be
+a more visible connection between the world and its great Creator than
+upon ordinary occasions.
+
+The solemn and melancholy appear places once instinct with life, when
+deserted by those familiar forms and faces that have long inhabited
+them. There is no desert, no uninhabited isle in the far ocean, no wild,
+barren, pathless tract of unmitigated sterility, which could for one
+moment compare in point of loneliness and desolation to a deserted city.
+
+Strip London, mighty and majestic as it is, of the busy swarm of
+humanity that throng its streets, its suburbs, its temples, its public
+edifices, and its private dwellings, and how awful would be the walk of
+one solitary man throughout its noiseless thoroughfares.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+If madness seized not upon him ere he had been long the sole survivor of
+a race, it would need be cast in no common mould.
+
+And to descend from great things to smaller--from the huge leviathan
+city to one mansion far removed from the noise and bustle of
+conventional life, we may imagine the sort of desolation that reigned
+through Bannerworth Hall, when, for the first time, after nearly a
+hundred and fifty years of occupation, it was deserted by the
+representatives of that family, so many members of which had lived and
+died beneath its roof. The house, and everything within, without, and
+around it, seemed actually to sympathize with its own desolation and
+desertion.
+
+It seemed as if twenty years of continued occupation could not have
+produced such an effect upon the ancient edifice as had those few hours
+of neglect and desertion.
+
+And yet it was not as if it had been stripped of those time-worn and
+ancient relics of ornament and furnishing that so long had appertained
+to it. No, nothing but the absence of those forms which had been
+accustomed quietly to move from room to room, and to be met here upon a
+staircase, there upon a corridor, and even in some of the ancient
+panelled apartments, which give it an air of dreary repose and
+listlessness.
+
+The shutters, too, were all closed, and that circumstance contributed
+largely to the production of that gloomy effect which otherwise could
+not have ensued.
+
+In fact, what could be done without attracting very special observation
+was done to prove to any casual observer that the house was untenanted.
+
+But such was not really the case. In that very room where the much
+dreaded Varney the vampyre had made one of his dreaded appearances to
+Flora Bannerworth and her mother, sat two men.
+
+It was from that apartment that Flora had discharged the pistol, which
+had been left to her by her brother, and the shot from which it was
+believed by the whole family had most certainly taken effect upon the
+person of the vampyre.
+
+It was a room peculiarly accessible from the gardens, for it had long
+French windows opening to the very ground, and but a stone step
+intervened between the flooring of the apartment and a broad gravel walk
+which wound round that entire portion of the house.
+
+It was in this room, then, that two men sat in silence, and nearly in
+darkness.
+
+Before them, and on a table, were several articles of refreshment, as
+well of defence and offence, according as their intentions might be.
+
+There were a bottle and three glasses, and lying near the elbow of one
+of the men was a large pair of pistols, such as might have adorned the
+belt of some desperate character, who wished to instil an opinion of his
+prowess into his foes by the magnitude of his weapons.
+
+Close at hand, by the same party, lay some more modern fire arms, as
+well as a long dirk, with a silver mounted handle.
+
+The light they had consisted of a large lantern, so constructed with a
+slide, that it could be completely obscured at a moment's notice; but
+now as it was placed, the rays that were allowed to come from it were
+directed as much from the window of the apartment, as possible, and fell
+upon the faces of the two men, revealing them to be Admiral Bell and Dr.
+Chillingworth.
+
+It might have been the effect of the particular light in which he sat,
+but the doctor looked extremely pale, and did not appear at all at his
+ease.
+
+The admiral, on the contrary, appeared in as placable a state of mind as
+possible and had his arms folded across his breast, and his head shrunk
+down between his shoulders as if he had made up his mind to something
+that was to last a long time, and, therefore he was making the best of
+it.
+
+"I do hope," said Mr. Chillingworth, after a long pause, "that our
+efforts will be crowned with success--you know, my dear sir, that I have
+always been of your opinion, that there was a great deal more in this
+matter than met the eye."
+
+"To be sure," said the admiral, "and as to our efforts being crowned
+with success, why, I'll give you a toast, doctor, 'may the morning's
+reflection provide for the evening's amusement.'"
+
+"Ha! ha!" said Chillingworth, faintly; "I'd rather not drink any more,
+and you seem, admiral, to have transposed the toast in some way. I
+believe it runs, 'may the evening's amusement bear the morning's
+reflection.'"
+
+"Transpose the devil!" said the admiral; "what do I care how it runs? I
+gave you my toast, and as to that you mention, it's another one
+altogether, and a sneaking, shore-going one too: but why don't you
+drink?"
+
+"Why, my dear sir, medically speaking, I am strongly of opinion that,
+when the human stomach is made to contain a large quantity of alcohol,
+it produces bad effects upon the system. Now, I've certainly taken one
+glass of this infernally strong Hollands, and it is now lying in my
+stomach like the red-hot heater of a tea-urn."
+
+"Is it? put it out with another, then."
+
+"Ay, I'm afraid that would not answer, but do you really think, admiral,
+that we shall effect anything by waiting here, and keeping watch and
+ward, not under the most comfortable circumstances, this first night of
+the Hall being empty."
+
+"Well, I don't know that we shall," said the admiral; "but when you
+really want to steal a march upon the enemy, there is nothing like
+beginning betimes. We are both of opinion that Varney's great object
+throughout has been, by some means or another, to get possession of the
+house."
+
+"Yes; true, true."
+
+"We know that he has been unceasing in his endeavours to get the
+Bannerworth family out of it; that he has offered them their own price
+to become its tenant, and that the whole gist of his quiet and placid
+interview with Flora in the garden, was to supply her with a new set of
+reasons for urging her mother and brother to leave Bannerworth Hall,
+because the old ones were certainly not found sufficient."
+
+"True, true, most true," said Mr. Chillingworth, emphatically. "You
+know, sir, that from the first time you broached that view of the
+subject to me, how entirely I coincided with you."
+
+"Of course you did, for you are a honest fellow, and a right-thinking
+fellow, though you are a doctor, and I don't know that I like doctors
+much better than I like lawyers--they're only humbugs in a different
+sort of way. But I wish to be liberal; there is such a thing as an
+honest lawyer, and, d----e, you're an honest doctor!"
+
+"Of course I'm much obliged, admiral, for your good opinion. I only wish
+it had struck me to bring something of a solid nature in the shape of
+food, to sustain the waste of the animal economy during the hours we
+shall have to wait here."
+
+"Don't trouble yourself about that," said the admiral. "Do you think I'm
+a donkey, and would set out on a cruise without victualling my ship? I
+should think not. Jack Pringle will be here soon, and he has my orders
+to bring in something to eat."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, "that's very provident of you, admiral, and I
+feel personally obliged; but tell me, how do you intend to conduct the
+watch?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, I mean, if we sit here with the window fastened so as to prevent
+our light from being seen, and the door closed, how are we by any
+possibility to know if the house is attacked or not?"
+
+"Hark'ee, my friend," said the admiral; "I've left a weak point for the
+enemy."
+
+"A what, admiral?"
+
+"A weak point. I've taken good care to secure everything but one of the
+windows on the ground floor, and that I've left open, or so nearly open,
+that it will look like the most natural place in the world to get in at.
+Now, just inside that window, I've placed a lot of the family crockery.
+I'll warrant, if anybody so much as puts his foot in, you'll hear the
+smash;--and, d----e, there it is!"
+
+There was a loud crash at this moment, followed by a succession of
+similar sounds, but of a lesser degree; and both the admiral and Mr.
+Chillingworth sprung to their feet.
+
+"Come on," cried the former; "here'll be a precious row--take the
+lantern."
+
+Mr. Chillingworth did so, but he did not seem possessed of a great deal
+of presence of mind; for, before they got out of the room, he twice
+accidentally put on the dark slide, and produced a total darkness.
+
+"D--n!" said the admiral; "don't make it wink and wink in that way; hold
+it up, and run after me as hard as you can."
+
+"I'm coming, I'm coming," said Mr. Chillingworth.
+
+It was one of the windows of a long room, containing five, fronting the
+garden, which the admiral had left purposely unguarded; and it was not
+far from the apartment in which they had been sitting, so that,
+probably, not half a minute's time elapsed between the moment of the
+first alarm, and their reaching the spot from whence it was presumed to
+arise.
+
+The admiral had armed himself with one of the huge pistols, and he
+dashed forward, with all the vehemence of his character, towards the
+window, where he knew he had placed the family crockery, and where he
+fully expected to meet the reward of his exertion by discovering some
+one lying amid its fragments.
+
+In this, however, he was disappointed; for, although there was evidently
+a great smash amongst the plates and dishes, the window remained closed,
+and there was no indication whatever of the presence of any one.
+
+"Well, that's odd," said the admiral; "I balanced them up amazingly
+careful, and two of 'em edgeways--d---e, a fly would have knocked them
+down."
+
+"Mew," said, a great cat, emerging from under a chair.
+
+"Curse you, there you are," said the admiral. "Put out the light, put
+out the light; here we're illuminating the whole house for nothing."
+
+With, a click went the darkening slide over the lantern, and all was
+obscurity.
+
+At that instant a shrill, clear whistle came from the garden.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVIII.
+
+THE ARRIVAL OF JACK PRINGLE.--MIDNIGHT AND THE VAMPYRE.--THE MYSTERIOUS
+HAT.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Bless me! what is that?" said Mr. Chillingworth; "what a very singular
+sound."
+
+"Hold your noise," said the admiral; "did you never hear that before?"
+
+"No; how should I?"
+
+"Lor, bless the ignorance of some people, that's a boatswain's call."
+
+"Oh, it is," said Mr. Chillingworth; "is he going to call again?"
+
+"D----e, I tell ye it's a boatswain's call."
+
+"Well, then, d----e, if it comes to that," said Mr. Chillingworth, "what
+does he call here for?"
+
+The admiral disdained an answer; but demanding the lantern, he opened
+it, so that there was a sufficient glimmering of light to guide him, and
+then walked from the room towards the front door of the Hall.
+
+He asked no questions before he opened it, because, no doubt, the signal
+was preconcerted; and Jack Pringle, for it was he indeed who had
+arrived, at once walked in, and the admiral barred the door with the
+same precision with which it was before secured.
+
+"Well, Jack," he said, "did you see anybody?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack.
+
+"Why, ye don't mean that--where?"
+
+"Where I bought the grub; a woman--"
+
+"D----e, you're a fool, Jack."
+
+"You're another."
+
+"Hilloa, ye scoundrel, what d'ye mean by talking to me in that way? is
+this your respect for your superiors?"
+
+"Ship's been paid off long ago," said Jack, "and I ain't got no
+superiors. I ain't a marine or a Frenchman."
+
+"Why, you're drunk."
+
+"I know it; put that in your eye."
+
+"There's a scoundrel. Why, you know-nothing-lubber, didn't I tell you to
+be careful, and that everything depended upon secrecy and caution? and
+didn't I tell you, above all this, to avoid drink?"
+
+"To be sure you did."
+
+"And yet you come here like a rum cask."
+
+"Yes; now you've had your say, what then?"
+
+"You'd better leave him alone," said Mr. Chillingworth; "it's no use
+arguing with a drunken man."
+
+"Harkye, admiral," said Jack, steadying himself as well as he could.
+"I've put up with you a precious long while, but I won't no longer;
+you're so drunk, now, that you keeping bobbing up and down like the
+mizen gaff in a storm--that's my opinion--tol de rol."
+
+"Let him alone, let him alone," urged Mr. Chillingworth.
+
+"The villain," said the admiral; "he's enough to ruin everything; now,
+who would have thought that? but it's always been the way with him for a
+matter of twenty years--he never had any judgment in his drink. When it
+was all smooth sailing, and nothing to do, and the fellow might have got
+an extra drop on board, which nobody would have cared for, he's as sober
+as a judge; but, whenever there's anything to do, that wants a little
+cleverness, confound him, he ships rum enough to float a seventy-four."
+
+"Are you going to stand anything to drink," said Jack, "my old buffer?
+Do you recollect where you got your knob scuttled off Beyrout--how you
+fell on your latter end and tried to recollect your church cateckis, you
+old brute?--I's ashamed of you. Do you recollect the brown girl you
+bought for thirteen bob and a tanner, at the blessed Society Islands,
+and sold her again for a dollar, to a nigger seven feet two, in his
+natural pumps? you're a nice article, you is, to talk of marines and
+swabs, and shore-going lubbers, blow yer. Do you recollect the little
+Frenchman that told ye he'd pull your blessed nose, and I advised you to
+soap it? do you recollect Sall at Spithead, as you got in at a port hole
+of the state cabin, all but her behind?"
+
+"Death and the devil!" said the admiral, breaking from the grasp of Mr.
+Chillingworth.
+
+"Ay," said Jack, "you'll come to 'em both one of these days, old cock,
+and no mistake."
+
+"I'll have his life, I'll have his life," roared the admiral.
+
+"Nay, nay, sir," said Mr. Chillingworth, catching the admiral round the
+waist. "My dear sir, recollect, now, if I may venture to advise you,
+Admiral Bell, there's a lot of that fiery hollands you know, in the next
+room; set firm down to that, and finish him off. I'll warrant him, he'll
+be quiet enough."
+
+"What's that you say?" cried Jack--"hollands!--who's got any?--next to
+rum and Elizabeth Baker, if I has an affection, it's hollands."
+
+"Jack!" said the admiral.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" said Jack, instinctively.
+
+"Come this way."
+
+Jack staggered after him, and they all reached the room where the
+admiral and Mr. Chillingworth had been sitting before the alarm.
+
+"There!" said the admiral, putting the light upon the table, and
+pointing to the bottle; "what do you think of that?"
+
+"I never thinks under such circumstances," said Jack. "Here's to the
+wooden walls of old England!"
+
+He seized the bottle, and, putting its neck into his mouth, for a few
+moments nothing was heard but a gurgling sound of the liquor passing
+down his throat; his head went further and further back, until, at last,
+over he went, chair and bottle and all, and lay in a helpless state of
+intoxication on the floor.
+
+"So far, so good," said the admiral. "He's out of the way, at all
+events."
+
+"I'll just loosen his neckcloth," said Mr. Chillingworth, "and then
+we'll go and sit somewhere else; and I should recommend that, if
+anywhere, we take up our station in that chamber, once Flora's, where
+the mysterious panelled portrait hangs, that bears so strong a
+resemblance to Varney, the vampyre."
+
+"Hush!" said the admiral. "What's that?"
+
+They listened for a moment intently; and then, distinctly, upon the
+gravel path outside the window, they heard a footstep, as if some person
+were walking along, not altogether heedlessly, but yet without any very
+great amount of caution or attention to the noise he might make.
+
+"Hist!" said the doctor. "Not a word. They come."
+
+"What do you say they for?" said the admiral.
+
+"Because something seems to whisper me that Mr. Marchdale knows more of
+Varney, the vampyre, than ever he has chosen to reveal. Put out the
+light."
+
+"Yes, yes--that'll do. The moon has risen; see how it streams through
+the chinks of the shutters."
+
+"No, no--it's not in that direction, or our light would have betrayed
+us. Do you not see the beams come from that half glass-door leading to
+the greenhouse?"
+
+"Yes; and there's the footstep again, or another."
+
+Tramp, tramp came a footfall again upon the gravel path, and, as before,
+died away upon their listening ears.
+
+"What do you say now," said Mr. Chillingworth--"are there not two?"
+
+"If they were a dozen," said the admiral, "although we have lost one of
+our force, I would tackle them. Let's creep on through the rooms in the
+direction the footsteps went."
+
+"My life on it," said Mr. Chillingworth as they left the apartment, "if
+this be Varney, he makes for that apartment where Flora slept, and which
+he knows how to get admission to. I've studied the house well, admiral,
+and to get to that window any one from here outside must take a
+considerable round. Come on--we shall be beforehand."
+
+"A good idea--a good idea. Be it so."
+
+Just allowing themselves sufficient light to guide them on the way from
+the lantern, they hurried on with as much precipitation as the
+intricacies of the passage would allow, nor halted till they had reached
+the chamber were hung the portrait which bore so striking and remarkable
+a likeness to Varney, the vampyre.
+
+They left the lamp outside the door, so that not even a straggling beam
+from it could betray that there were persons on the watch; and then, as
+quietly as foot could fall, they took up their station among the
+hangings of the antique bedstead, which has been before alluded to in
+this work as a remarkable piece of furniture appertaining to that
+apartment.
+
+"Do you think," said the admiral, "we've distanced them?"
+
+"Certainly we have. It's unlucky that the blind of the window is down."
+
+"Is it? By Heaven, there's a d----d strange-looking shadow creeping over
+it."
+
+Mr. Chillingworth looked almost with suspended breath. Even he could not
+altogether get rid of a tremulous feeling, as he saw that the shadow of
+a human form, apparently of very large dimensions, was on the outside,
+with the arms spread out, as if feeling for some means of opening the
+window.
+
+It would have been easy now to have fired one of the pistols direct upon
+the figure; but, somehow or another, both the admiral and Mr.
+Chillingworth shrank from that course, and they felt much rather
+inclined to capture whoever might make his appearance, only using their
+pistols as a last resource, than gratuitously and at once to resort to
+violence.
+
+"Who should you say that was?" whispered the admiral.
+
+"Varney, the vampyre."
+
+"D----e, he's ill-looking and big enough for anything--there's a noise!"
+
+There was a strange cracking sound at the window, as if a pane of glass
+was being very stealthily and quietly broken; and then the blind was
+agitated slightly, confusing much the shadow that was cast upon it, as
+if the hand of some person was introduced for the purpose of effecting a
+complete entrance into the apartment.
+
+"He's coming in," whispered the admiral.
+
+"Hush, for Heaven's sake!" said Mr. Chillingworth; "you will alarm him,
+and we shall lose the fruit of all the labour we have already bestowed
+upon the matter; but did you not say something, admiral, about lying
+under the window and catching him by the leg?"
+
+"Why, yes; I did."
+
+"Go and do it, then; for, as sure as you are a living man, his leg will
+be in in a minute."
+
+"Here goes," said the admiral; "I never suggest anything which I'm
+unwilling to do myself."
+
+Whoever it was that now was making such strenuous exertions to get into
+the apartment seemed to find some difficulty as regarded the fastenings
+of the window, and as this difficulty increased, the patience of the
+party, as well as his caution deserted him, and the casement was rattled
+with violence.
+
+With a far greater amount of caution than any one from a knowledge of
+his character would have given him credit for, the admiral crept forward
+and laid himself exactly under the window.
+
+The depth of wood-work from the floor to the lowest part of the
+window-frame did not exceed above two feet; so that any one could
+conveniently step in from the balcony outride on to the floor of the
+apartment, which was just what he who was attempting to effect an
+entrance was desirous of doing.
+
+It was quite clear that, be he who he might, mortal or vampyre, he had
+some acquaintance with the fastening of the window; for now he succeeded
+in moving it, and the sash was thrown open.
+
+The blind was still an obstacle; but a vigorous pull from the intruder
+brought that down on the prostrate admiral; and then Mr. Chillingworth
+saw, by the moonlight, a tall, gaunt figure standing in the balcony, as
+if just hesitating for a moment whether to get head first or feet first
+into the apartment.
+
+Had he chosen the former alternative he would need, indeed, to have been
+endowed with more than mortal powers of defence and offence to escape
+capture, but his lucky star was in the ascendancy, and he put his foot
+in first.
+
+He turned his side to the apartment and, as he did so, the blight
+moonlight fell upon his face, enabling Mr. Chillingworth to see, without
+the shadow of a doubt, that it was, indeed, Varney, the vampyre, who was
+thus stealthily making his entrance into Bannerworth Hall, according to
+the calculation which had been made by the admiral upon that subject.
+The doctor scarcely knew whether to be pleased or not at this discovery;
+it was almost a terrifying one, sceptical as he was upon the subject of
+vampyres, and he waited breathless for the issue of the singular and
+perilous adventure.
+
+No doubt Admiral Bell deeply congratulated himself upon the success
+which was about to crown his stratagem for the capture of the intruder,
+be he who he might, and he writhed with impatience for the foot to come
+sufficiently near him to enable him to grasp it.
+
+His patience was not severely tried, for in another moment it rested
+upon his chest.
+
+"Boarders a hoy!" shouted the admiral, and at once he laid hold of the
+trespasser. "Yard-arm to yard-arm, I think I've got you now. Here's a
+prize, doctor! he shall go away without his leg if he goes away now. Eh!
+what! the light--d----e, he has--Doctor, the light! the light! Why
+what's this?--Hilloa, there!"
+
+Dr. Chillingworth sprang into the passage, and procured the light--in
+another moment he was at the side of the admiral, and the lantern slide
+being thrown back, he saw at once the dilemma into which his friend had
+fallen.
+
+There he lay upon his back, grasping, with the vehemence of an embrace
+that had in it much of the ludicrous, a long boot, from which the
+intruder had cleverly slipped his leg, leaving it as a poor trophy in
+the hands of his enemies.
+
+"Why you've only pulled his boot off," said the doctor; "and now he's
+gone for good, for he knows what we're about, and has slipped through
+your fingers."
+
+Admiral Bell sat up and looked at the boot with a rueful countenance.
+
+"Done again!" he said.
+
+"Yes, you are done," said the doctor; "why didn't you lay hold of the
+leg while you were about it, instead of the boot? Admiral, are these
+your tactics?"
+
+"Don't be a fool," said the admiral; "put out the light and give me the
+pistols, or blaze away yourself into the garden; a chance shot may do
+something. It's no use running after him; a stern chase is a long chase;
+but fire away."
+
+As if some parties below had heard him give the word, two loud reports
+from the garden immediately ensued, and a crash of glass testified to
+the fact that some deadly missile had entered the room.
+
+"Murder!" said the doctor, and he fell flat upon his back. "I don't like
+this at all; it's all in your line, admiral, but not in mine."
+
+"All's right, my lad," said the admiral; "now for it."
+
+He saw lying in the moonlight the pistols which he and the doctor had
+brought into the room, and in another moment he, to use his own words,
+returned the broadside of the enemy.
+
+"D--n it!" he said, "this puts me in mind of old times. Blaze away, you
+thieves, while I load; broadside to broadside. It's your turn now; I
+scorn to take an advantage. What the devil's that?"
+
+Something very large and very heavy came bang against the window,
+sending it all into the room, and nearly smothering the admiral with the
+fragments. Another shot was then fired, and in came something else,
+which hit the wall on the opposite side of the room, rebounding from
+thence on to the doctor, who gave a yell of despair.
+
+After that all was still; the enemy seemed to be satisfied that they had
+silenced the garrison. And it took the admiral a great deal of kicking
+and plunging to rescue himself from some superincumbent mass that was
+upon him, which seemed to him to be a considerable sized tree.
+
+"Call this fair fighting," he shouted--"getting a man's legs and arms
+tangled up like a piece of Indian matting in the branches of a tree?
+Doctor, I say! hilloa! where are you?"
+
+"I don't know," said the doctor; "but there's somebody getting into the
+balcony--now we shall be murdered in cold blood!"
+
+"Where's the pistols?"
+
+"Fired off, of course; you did it yourself."
+
+Bang came something else into the room, which, from the sound it made,
+closely resembled a brick, and after that somebody jumped clean into the
+centre of the floor, and then, after rolling and writhing about in a
+most singular manner, slowly got up, and with various preliminary
+hiccups, said,--
+
+"Come on, you lubbers, many of you as like. I'm the tar for all
+weathers."
+
+"Why, d----e," said the admiral, "it's Jack Pringle."
+
+"Yes, it is," said Jack, who was not sufficiently sober to recognise the
+admiral's voice. "I sees as how you've heard of me. Come on, all of
+you."
+
+"Why, Jack, you scoundrel," roared the admiral, "how came you here?
+Don't you know me? I'm your admiral, you horse-marine."
+
+"Eh?" said Jack. "Ay--ay, sir, how came you here?"
+
+"How came you, you villain?"
+
+"Boarded the enemy."
+
+"The enemy who you boarded was us; and hang me if I don't think you
+haven't been pouring broadsides into us, while the enemy were scudding
+before the wind in another direction."
+
+"Lor!" said Jack.
+
+"Explain, you scoundrel, directly--explain."
+
+"Well, that's only reasonable," said Jack; and giving a heavier lurch
+than usual, he sat down with a great bounce upon the floor. "You see
+it's just this here,--when I was a coming of course I heard, just as I
+was a going, that ere as made me come all in consequence of somebody a
+going, or for to come, you see, admiral."
+
+"Doctor," cried the admiral, in a great rage, "just help me out of this
+entanglement of branches, and I'll rid the world from an encumbrance by
+smashing that fellow."
+
+"Smash yourself!" said Jack. "You know you're drunk."
+
+"My dear admiral," said Mr. Chillingworth, laying hold of one of his
+legs, and pulling it very hard, which brought his face into a lot of
+brambles, "we're making a mess of this business."
+
+"Murder!" shouted the admiral; "you are indeed. Is that what you call
+pulling me out of it? You've stuck me fast."
+
+"I'll manage it," said Jack. "I've seed him in many a scrape, and I've
+seed him out. You pull me, doctor, and I'll pull him. Yo hoy!"
+
+Jack laid hold of the admiral by the scuff of the neck, and the doctor
+laid hold of Jack round the waist, the consequence of which was that he
+was dragged out from the branches of the tree, which seemed to have been
+thrown into the room, and down fell both Jack and the doctor.
+
+At this instant there was a strange hissing sound heard below the
+window; then there was a sudden, loud report, as if a hand-grenade had
+gone off. A spectral sort of light gleamed into the room, and a tall,
+gaunt-looking figure rose slowly up in the balcony.
+
+"Beware of the dead!" said a voice. "Let the living contend with the
+living, the dead with the dead. Beware!"
+
+The figure disappeared, as did also the strange, spectral-looking light.
+A death-like silence ensued, and the cold moonbeams streamed in upon the
+floor of the apartment, as if nothing had occurred to disturb the
+wrapped repose and serenity of the scene.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIX.
+
+THE WARNING.--THE NEW PLAN OF OPERATION.--THE INSULTING MESSAGE FROM
+VARNEY.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+So much of the night had been consumed in these operations, that by the
+time they were over, and the three personages who lay upon the floor of
+what might be called the haunted chamber of Bannerworth Hall, even had
+they now been disposed to seek repose, would have had a short time to do
+so before the daylight would have streamed in upon them, and roused them
+to the bustle of waking existence.
+
+It may be well believed what a vast amount of surprise came over the
+three persons in that chamber at the last little circumstance that had
+occurred in connection with the night's proceedings.
+
+There was nothing which had preceded that, that did not resemble a
+genuine attack upon the premises; but about that last mysterious
+appearance, with its curious light, there was quite enough to bother the
+admiral and Jack Pringle to a considerable effect, whatever might be the
+effect upon Mr. Chillingworth, whose profession better enabled him to
+comprehend, chemically, what would produce effects that, no doubt,
+astonished them amazingly.
+
+What with his intoxication and the violent exercise he had taken, Jack
+was again thoroughly prostrate; while the admiral could not have looked
+more astonished had the evil one himself appeared in _propria persona_
+and given him notice to quit the premises.
+
+He was, however, the first to speak, and the words he spoke were
+addressed to Jack, to whom he said,--
+
+"Jack, you lubber, what do you think of all that?"
+
+Jack, however, was too far gone even to say "Ay, ay, sir;" and Mr.
+Chillingworth, slowly getting himself up to his feet, approached the
+admiral.
+
+"It's hard to say so much, Admiral Bell," he said, "but it strikes me
+that whatever object this Sir Francis Varney, or Varney, the vampyre,
+has in coming into Bannerworth Hall, it is, at all events, of sufficient
+importance to induce him to go any length, and not to let even a life to
+stand in the way of its accomplishment."
+
+"Well, it seems so," said the admiral; "for I'll be hanged if I can make
+head or tail of the fellow."
+
+"If we value our personal safety, we shall hesitate to continue a
+perilous adventure which I think can end only in defeat, if not in
+death."
+
+"But we don't value our personal safety," said the admiral. "We've got
+into the adventure, and I don't see why we shouldn't carry it out. It
+may be growing a little serious; but what of that? For the sake of that
+young girl, Flora Bannerworth, as well as for the sake of my nephew,
+Charles Holland, I will see the end of this affair, let it be what it
+may; but mind you, Mr. Chillingworth, if one man chooses to go upon a
+desperate service, that's no reason why he should ask another to do so."
+
+"I understand you," said Mr. Chillingworth; "but, having commenced the
+adventure with you, I am not the man to desert you in it. We have
+committed a great mistake."
+
+"A mistake! how?"
+
+"Why, we ought to have watched outside the house, instead of within it.
+There can be no doubt that if we had lain in wait in the garden, we
+should have been in a better position to have accomplished our object."
+
+"Well, I don't know, doctor, but it seems to me that if Jack Pringle
+hadn't made such a fool of himself, we should have managed very well:
+and I don't know now how he came to behave in the manner he did."
+
+"Nor I," said Mr. Chillingworth. "But, at all events, so far as the
+result goes, it is quite clear that any further watching, in this house,
+for the appearance of Sir Francis Varney, will now be in vain. He has
+nothing to do now but to keep quiet until we are tired out--a fact,
+concerning which he can easily obtain information--and then he
+immediately, without trouble, walks into the premises, to his own
+satisfaction."
+
+"But what the deuce can he want upon the premises?"
+
+"That question, admiral, induces me to think that we have made another
+mistake. We ought not to have attempted to surprise Sir Francis Varney
+in coming into Bannerworth Hall, but to catch him as he came out."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Well, there's something in that," said the admiral. "This is a pretty
+night's business, to be sure. However, it can't be helped, it's done,
+and there's an end on't. And now, as the morning is near at hand, I
+certainly must confess I should like to get some breakfast, although I
+don't like that we should all leave the house together"
+
+"Why," said Mr. Chillingworth, "as we have now no secret to keep with
+regard to our being here, because the principal person we wished to keep
+it from is aware of it, I think we cannot do better than send at once
+for Henry Bannerworth, tell him of the non-success of the effort we have
+made in his behalf, and admit him at once into our consultation of what
+is next to be done."
+
+"Agreed, agreed, I think that, without troubling him, we might have
+captured this Varney; but that's over now, and, as soon as Jack Pringle
+chooses to wake up again, I'll send him to the Bannerworths with a
+message."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack, suddenly; "all's right."
+
+"Why, you vagabond," said the admiral, "I do believe you've been
+shamming!"
+
+"Shamming what?"
+
+"Being drunk, to be sure."
+
+"Lor! couldn't do it," said Jack; "I'll just tell you how it was. I
+wakened up and found myself shut in somewhere; and, as I couldn't get
+out of the door, I thought I'd try the window, and there I did get out.
+Well, perhaps I wasn't quite the thing, but I sees two people in the
+garden a looking up at this ere room; and, to be sure, I thought it was
+you and the doctor. Well, it warn't no business of mine to interfere, so
+I seed one of you climb up the balcony, as I thought, and then, after
+which, come down head over heels with such a run, that I thought you
+must have broken your neck. Well, after that you fired a couple of shots
+in, and then, after that, I made sure it was you, admiral."
+
+"And what made you make sure of that?"
+
+"Why, because you scuttled away like an empty tar-barrel in full tide."
+
+"Confound you, you scoundrel!"
+
+"Well, then, confound you, if it comes to that. I thought I was doing
+you good sarvice, and that the enemy was here, when all the while it
+turned out as you was and the enemy wasn't, and the enemy was outside
+and you wasn't."
+
+"But who threw such a confounded lot of things into the room?"
+
+"Why, I did, of course; I had but one pistol, and, when I fired that
+off, I was forced to make up a broadside with what I could."
+
+"Was there ever such a stupid!" said the admiral; "doctor, doctor, you
+talked of us making two mistakes; but you forgot a third and worse one
+still, and that was the bringing such a lubberly son of a sea-cook into
+the place as this fellow."
+
+"You're another," said Jack; "and you knows it."
+
+"Well, well," said Mr. Chillingworth, "it's no use continuing it,
+admiral; Jack, in his way, did, I dare say, what he considered for the
+best."
+
+"I wish he'd do, then, what he considers for the worst, next time."
+
+"Perhaps I may," said Jack, "and then you will be served out above a
+bit. What 'ud become of you, I wonder, if it wasn't for me? I'm as good
+as a mother to you, you knows that, you old babby."
+
+"Come, come, admiral," said Mr. Chillingworth: "come down to the
+garden-gate; it is now just upon daybreak, and the probability is that
+we shall not be long there before we see some of the country people, who
+will get us anything we require in the shape of refreshment; and as for
+Jack, he seems quite sufficiently recovered now to go to the
+Bannerworths'."
+
+"Oh! I can go," said Jack; "as for that, the only thing as puts me out
+of the way is the want of something to drink. My constitution won't
+stand what they call temperance living, or nothing with the chill off."
+
+"Go at once," said the admiral, "and tell Mr. Henry Bannerworth that we
+are here; but do not tell him before his sister or his mother. If you
+meet anybody on the road, send them here with a cargo of victuals. It
+strikes me that a good, comfortable breakfast wouldn't be at all amiss,
+doctor."
+
+"How rapidly the day dawns," remarked Mr. Chillingworth, as he walked
+into the balcony from whence Varney, the vampire, had attempted to make
+good his entrance to the Hall.
+
+Just as he spoke, and before Jack Pringle could get half way over to the
+garden gate, there came a tremendous ring at the bell which was
+suspended over it.
+
+A view of that gate could not be commanded from the window of the
+haunted apartment, so that they could not see who it was that demanded
+admission.
+
+As Jack Pringle was going down at any rate, they saw no necessity for
+personal interference; and he proved that there was not, by presently
+returning with a note which he said had been thrown over the gate by a
+lad, who then scampered off with all the speed he could make.
+
+The note, exteriorly, was well got up, and had all the appearance of
+great care having been bestowed upon its folding and sealing.
+
+It was duly addressed to "Admiral Bell, Bannerworth Hall," and the word
+"immediate" was written at one corner.
+
+The admiral, after looking at it for some time with very great wonder,
+came at last to the conclusion that probably to open it would be the
+shortest way of arriving at a knowledge of who had sent it, and he
+accordingly did so.
+
+The note was as follows:--
+
+    "My dear sir,--Feeling assured that you cannot be surrounded
+    with those means and appliances for comfort in the Hall, in its
+    now deserted condition, which you have a right to expect, and so
+    eminently deserve, I flatter myself that I shall receive an
+    answer in the affirmative, when I request the favour of your
+    company to breakfast, as well as that of your learned friend.
+    Mr. Chillingworth.
+
+    "In consequence of a little accident which occurred last evening
+    to my own residence, I am, _ad interim_, until the county build
+    it up for me again, staying at a house called Walmesley Lodge,
+    where I shall expect you with all the impatience of one
+    soliciting an honour, and hoping that it will be conferred upon
+    him.
+
+    "I trust that any little difference of opinion on other subjects
+    will not interfere to prevent the harmony of our morning's meal
+    together.
+
+    "Believe me to be, my dear sir, with the greatest possible
+    consideration, your very obedient, humble servant,
+
+    "FRANCIS VARNEY."
+
+The admiral gasped again, and looked at Mr. Chillingworth, and then at
+the note, and then at Mr. Chillingworth again, as if he was perfectly
+bewildered.
+
+"That's about the coolest piece of business," said Mr. Chillingworth,
+"that ever I heard of."
+
+"Hang me," said the admiral, "if I sha'n't like the fellow at last. It
+is cool, and I like it because it is cool. Where's my hat? where's my
+stick!"
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"Accept his invitation, to be sure, and breakfast with him; and, my
+learned friend, as he calls you, I hope you'll come likewise. I'll take
+the fellow at his word. By fair means, or by foul, I'll know what he
+wants here; and why he persecutes this family, for whom I have an
+attachment; and what hand he has in the disappearance of my nephew,
+Charles Holland; for, as sure as there's a Heaven above us, he's at the
+bottom of that affair. Where is this Walmesley Lodge?"
+
+"Just in the neighbourhood; but--"
+
+"Come on, then; come on."
+
+"But, really, admiral, you don't mean to say you'll breakfast
+with--with--"
+
+"A vampyre? Yes, I would, and will, and mean to do so. Here, Jack, you
+needn't go to Mr. Bannerworth's yet. Come, my learned friend, let's take
+Time by the forelock."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LX.
+
+THE INTERRUPTED BREAKFAST AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Notwithstanding all Mr. Chillingworth could say to the contrary, the
+admiral really meant to breakfast with Sir Francis Varney.
+
+The worthy doctor could not for some time believe but that the admiral
+must be joking, when he talked in such a strain; but he was very soon
+convinced to the contrary, by the latter actually walking out and once
+more asking him, Mr. Chillingworth, if he meant to go with him, or not.
+
+This was conclusive, so the doctor said,--
+
+"Well, admiral, this appears to me rather a mad sort of freak; but, as I
+have begun the adventure with you, I will conclude it with you."
+
+"That's right," said the admiral; "I'm not deceived in you, doctor; so
+come along. Hang these vampyres, I don't know how to tackle them,
+myself. I think, after all, Sir Francis Varney is more in your line than
+line is in mine."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"Why, couldn't you persuade him he's ill, and wants some physic? That
+would soon settle him, you know."
+
+"Settle him!" said Mr. Chillingworth; "I beg to say that if I did give
+him any physic, the dose would be much to his advantage; but, however,
+my opinion is, that this invitation to breakfast is, after all, a mere
+piece of irony; and that, when we get to Walmesley Lodge, we shall not
+see anything of him; on the contrary, we shall probably find it's a
+hoax."
+
+"I certainly shouldn't like that, but still it's worth the trying. The
+fellow has really behaved himself in such an extraordinary manner, that,
+if I can make terms with him I will; and there's one thing, you know,
+doctor, that I think we may say we have discovered."
+
+"And what may that be? Is it, not to make too sure of a vampyre, even
+when you have him by the leg?"
+
+"No, that ain't it, though that's a very good thing in its way: but it
+is just this, that Sir Francis Varney, whoever he is and whatever he is,
+is after Bannerworth Hall, and not the Bannerworth family. If you
+recollect, Mr. Chillingworth, in our conversation, I have always
+insisted upon that fact."
+
+"You have; and it seems to me to be completely verified by the
+proceedings of the night. There, then, admiral, is the great
+mystery--what can he want at Bannerworth Hall that makes him take such a
+world of trouble, and run so many fearful risks in trying to get at it?"
+
+"That is, indeed, the mystery; and if he really means this invitation to
+breakfast, I shall ask him plumply, and tell him, at the same time, that
+possibly his very best way to secure his object will be to be candid,
+vampyre as he is."
+
+"But really, admiral, you do not still cling to that foolish
+superstition of believing that Sir Francis Varney is in reality a
+vampyre?"
+
+"I don't know, and I can't say; if anybody was to give me a description
+of a strange sort of fish that I had never seen, I wouldn't take upon
+myself to say there wasn't such a thing; nor would you, doctor, if you
+had really seen the many odd ones that I have encountered at various
+times."
+
+"Well, well, admiral, I'm certainly not belonging to that school of
+philosophy which declares the impossible to be what it don't understand;
+there may be vampyres, and there may be apparitions, for all I know to
+the contrary; I only doubt these things, because I think, if they were
+true, that, as a phenomena of nature, they would have been by this time
+established by repeated instances without the possibility of doubt or
+cavil."
+
+"Well, there's something in that; but how far have we got to go now?"
+
+"No further than to yon enclosure where you see those park-like looking
+gates, and that cedar-tree stretching its dark-green foliage so far into
+the road; that is Walmesley Lodge, whither you have been invited."
+
+"And you, my learned friend, recollect that you were invited too; so
+that you are no intruder upon the hospitality of Varney the vampyre."
+
+"I say, admiral," said Mr. Chillingworth, when they reached the gates,
+"you know it is not quite the thing to call a man a vampyre at his own
+breakfast-table, so just oblige me by promising not to make any such
+remark to Sir Francis."
+
+"A likely thing!" said the admiral; "he knows I know what he is, and he
+knows I'm a plain man and a blunt speaker; however, I'll be civil to
+him, and more than that I can't promise. I must wring out of him, if I
+can, what has become of Charles Holland, and what the deuce he really
+wants himself."
+
+"Well, well; come to no collision with him, while we're his guests."
+
+"Not if I can help it."
+
+The doctor rang at the gate bell of Walmesley Lodge, and was in a few
+moments answered by a woman, who demanded their business.
+
+"Is Sir Francis Varney here?" said the doctor.
+
+"Oh, ah! yes," she replied; "you see his house was burnt down, for
+something or other--I'm sure I don't know what--by some people--I'm sure
+I don't know who; so, as the lodge was to let, we have took him in till
+he can suit himself."
+
+"Ah! that's it, is it?" said the admiral--"tell him that Admiral Bell
+and Dr. Chillingworth are here."
+
+"Very well," said the woman; "you may walk in."
+
+"Thank ye; you're vastly obliging, ma'am. Is there anything going on in
+the breakfast line?"
+
+"Well, yes; I am getting him some breakfast, but he didn't say as he
+expected company."
+
+The woman opened the garden gate, and they walked up a trimly laid out
+garden to the lodge, which was a cottage-like structure in external
+appearance, although within it boasted of all the comforts of a
+tolerably extensive house.
+
+She left them in a small room, leading from the hall, and was absent
+about five minutes; then she returned, and, merely saying that Sir
+Francis Varney presented his compliments, and desired them to walk up
+stairs, she preceded them up a handsome flight which led to the first
+floor of the lodge.
+
+Up to this moment, Mr. Chillingworth had expected some excuse, for,
+notwithstanding all he had heard and seen of Sir Francis Varney, he
+could not believe that any amount of impudence would suffice to enable
+him to receive people as his guests, with whom he must feel that he was
+at such positive war.
+
+It was a singular circumstance; and, perhaps, the only thing that
+matched the cool impertinence of the invitation, was the acceptance of
+it under the circumstances by the admiral.
+
+Sir Francis Varney might have intended it as a jest; but if he did so,
+in the first instance, it was evident he would not allow himself to be
+beaten with his own weapons.
+
+The room into which they were shown was a longish narrow one; a very
+wide door gave them admission to it, at the end, nearest the staircase,
+and at its other extremity there was a similar door opening into some
+other apartments of the house.
+
+Sir Francis Varney sat with his back towards this second door, and a
+table, with some chairs and other articles of furniture, were so
+arranged before him, that while they seemed but to be carelessly placed
+in the position they occupied, they really formed a pretty good barrier
+between him and his visitors.
+
+The admiral, however, was too intent upon getting a sight of Varney, to
+notice any preparation of this sort, and he advanced quickly into the
+room.
+
+And there, indeed, was the much dreaded, troublesome, persevering, and
+singular looking being who had caused such a world of annoyance to the
+family of the Bannerworths, as well as disturbing the peace of the whole
+district, which had the misfortune to have him as an inhabitant.
+
+If anything, he looked thinner, taller, and paler than usual, and there
+seemed to be a slight nervousness of manner about him, as he slowly
+inclined his head towards the admiral, which was not quite intelligible.
+
+"Well," said Admiral Bell, "you invited me to breakfast, and my learned
+friend; here we are."
+
+"No two human beings," said Varney, "could be more welcome to my
+hospitality than yourself and Dr. Chillingworth. I pray you to be
+seated. What a pleasant thing it is, after the toils and struggles of
+this life, occasionally to sit down in the sweet companionship of such
+dear friends."
+
+He made a hideous face as he spoke, and the admiral looked as if he were
+half inclined to quarrel at that early stage of the proceedings.
+
+"Dear friends!" he said; "well, well--it's no use squabbling about a
+word or two; but I tell you what it is, Mr. Varney, or Sir Francis
+Varney, or whatever your d----d name is--"
+
+"Hold, my dear sir," said Varney--"after breakfast, if you please--after
+breakfast."
+
+He rang a hand-bell as he spoke, and the woman who had charge of the
+house brought in a tray tolerably covered with the materials for a
+substantial morning's meal. She placed it upon the table, and certainly
+the various articles that smoked upon it did great credit to her
+culinary powers.
+
+"Deborah," said Sir Varney, in a mild sort of tone, "keep on continually
+bringing things to eat until this old brutal sea ruffian has satiated
+his disgusting appetite."
+
+The admiral opened his eyes an enormous width, and, looking at Sir
+Francis Varney, he placed his two fists upon the table, and drew a long
+breath.
+
+"Did you address those observations to me," he said, at length, "you
+blood-sucking vagabond?"
+
+"Eh?" said Sir Francis Varney, looking over the admiral's head, as if he
+saw something interesting on the wall beyond.
+
+"My dear admiral," said Mr. Chillingworth, "come away."
+
+"I'll see you d----d first!" said the admiral. "Now, Mr. Vampyre, no
+shuffling; did you address those observations to me?"
+
+"Deborah," said Sir Francis Varney, in silvery tones, "you can remove
+this tray and bring on the next."
+
+"Not if I know it," said the admiral "I came to breakfast, and I'll have
+it; after breakfast I'll pull your nose--ay, if you were fifty vampyres,
+I'd do it."
+
+"Dr. Chillingworth," said Varney, without paying the least attention to
+what the admiral said, "you don't eat, my dear sir; you must be fatigued
+with your night's exertions. A man of your age, you know, cannot be
+supposed to roll and tumble about like a fool in a pantomime with
+impunity. Only think what a calamity it would be if you were laid up.
+Your patients would all get well, you know."
+
+"Sir Francis Varney," said Mr. Chillingworth, "we're your guests; we
+come here at your invitation to partake of a meal. You have wantonly
+attacked both of us. I need not say that by so doing you cast a far
+greater slur upon your own taste and judgment than you can upon us."
+
+"Admirably spoken," said Sir Francis Varney, giving his hands a clap
+together that made the admiral jump again. "Now, old Bell, I'll fight
+you, if you think yourself aggrieved, while the doctor sees fair play."
+
+"Old who?" shouted the admiral.
+
+"Bell, Bell--is not your name Bell?--a family cognomen, I presume, on
+account of the infernal clack, clack, without any sense in it, that is
+the characteristic of your race."
+
+"You'll fight me?" said the admiral, jumping up.
+
+"Yes; if you challenge me."
+
+"By Jove I do; of course"
+
+"Then I accept it; and the challenged party, you know well, or ought to
+know, can make his own terms in the encounter."
+
+"Make what terms you please; I care not what they are. Only say you will
+fight, and that's sufficient."
+
+"It is well," said Sir Francis Varney, in a solemn tone.
+
+"Nay, nay," interrupted Mr. Chillingworth; "this is boyish folly."
+
+"Hold your row," said the admiral, "and let's hear what he's got to
+say."
+
+"In this mansion," said Sir Francis Varney--"for a mansion it is,
+although under the unpretending name of a lodge--in this mansion there
+is a large apartment which was originally fitted up by a scientific
+proprietor of the place, for the purpose of microscopic and other
+experiments, which required a darkness total and complete, such a
+darkness as seems as if it could be felt--palpable, thick, and obscure
+as the darkness of the tomb, and I know what that is."
+
+"The devil you do!" said this admiral "It's damp, too, ain't it?"
+
+"The room?"
+
+"No; the grave."
+
+"Oh! uncommonly, after autumnal rains. But to resume--this room is
+large, lofty, and perfectly empty."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I propose that we procure two scythes."
+
+"Two what?"
+
+"Scythes, with their long handles, and their convenient holding places."
+
+"Well, I'll be hanged! What next do you propose?"
+
+"You may be hanged. The next is, that with these scythes we be both of
+us placed in the darkened room, and the door closed, and doubly locked
+upon us for one hour, and that then and there we do our best each to cut
+the other in two. If you succeed in dismembering me, you will have won
+the day; but I hope, from my superior agility"--here Sir Francis jumped
+upon his chair, and sat upon the back of it--"to get the better of you.
+How do you like the plan I have proposed? Does it meet your wishes?"
+
+"Curse your impudence!" said the admiral, placing his elbows upon the
+table and resting his chin in astonishment upon his two hands.
+
+"Nay," interrupted Sir Francis, "you challenged me; and, besides, you'll
+have an equal chance, you know that. If you succeed in striking me
+first, down I go; whereas it I succeed in striking you first, down you
+go."
+
+As he spoke, Sir Francis Varney stretched out his foot, and closed a
+small bracket which held out the flap of the table on which the admiral
+was leaning, and, accordingly, down the admiral went, tea-tray and all.
+
+Mr. Chillingworth ran to help him up, and, when they both recovered
+their feet, they found they were alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXI.
+
+THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER.--THE PARTICULARS OF THE SUICIDE AT BANNERWORTH
+HALL.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Hilloa where the deuce is he?" said the admiral. "Was there ever such a
+confounded take-in?"
+
+"Well, I really don't know," said Mr. Chillingworth; "but it seems to me
+that he must have gone out of that door that was behind him: I begin, do
+you know, admiral, to wish--"
+
+"What?"
+
+"That we had never come here at all; and I think the sooner we get out
+of it the better."
+
+"Yes; but I am not going to be hoaxed and humbugged in this way. I will
+have satisfaction, but not with those confounded scythes and things he
+talks about in the dark room. Give me broad daylight and no favour;
+yardarm and yardarm; broadside and broadside; hand-grenades and
+marling-spikes."
+
+"Well, but that's what he won't do. Now, admiral, listen to me."
+
+"Well, go on; what next?"
+
+"Come away at once."
+
+"Oh, you said that before."
+
+"Yes; but I'm going to say something else. Look round you. Don't you
+think this a large, scientific-looking room?"
+
+"What of that?"
+
+"Why, what if suppose it was to become as dark as the grave, and Varney
+was to enter with his scythe, that he talks of, and begin mowing about
+our legs."
+
+"The devil! Come along!"
+
+The door at which they entered was at this moment opened, and the old
+woman made her appearance.
+
+"Please, sir," she said, "here's a Mr. Mortimer," in a loud voice. "Oh,
+Sir Francis ain't here! Where's he gone, gentlemen?"
+
+"To the devil!" said the admiral. "Who may Mr. Mortimer be?"
+
+There walked past the woman a stout, portly-looking man, well dressed,
+but with a very odd look upon his face, in consequence of an obliquity
+of vision, which prevented the possibility of knowing which way he was
+looking.
+
+"I must see him," he said; "I must see him."
+
+Mr. Chillingworth started back as if in amazement.
+
+"Good God!" he cried, "you here!"
+
+"Confusion!" said Mortimer; "are you Dr.---- Dr.----"
+
+
+"The same. Hush! there is no occasion to betray--that is, to state my
+secret."
+
+"And mine, too," said Chillingworth. "But what brings you here?"
+
+"I cannot and dare not tell you. Farewell!"
+
+He turned abruptly, and was leaving the room; but he ran against some
+one at the entrance, and in another moment Henry Bannerworth, heated and
+almost breathless by evident haste, made his appearance.
+
+"Hilloa! bravo!" cried the admiral; "the more the merrier! Here's a
+combined squadron! Why, how came you here, Mr. Henry Bannerworth?"
+
+"Bannerworth!" said Mortimer; "is that young man's name Bannerworth?"
+
+"Yes," said Henry. "Do you know me, sir?"
+
+"No, no; only I--I--must be off. Does anybody know anything of Sir
+Francis Varney?"
+
+"We did know something of him," said the admiral, "a little while ago;
+but he's taken himself off. Don't you do so likewise. If you've got
+anything to say, stop and say it, like an Englishman."
+
+"Stuff! stuff!" said Mortimer, impatiently. "What do you all want here?"
+
+"Why, Sir Francis Varney," said Henry,--"and I care not if the whole
+world heard it--is the persecutor of my family."
+
+"How? in what way?"
+
+"He has the reputation of a vampyre; he has hunted me and mine from
+house and home."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes," cried Dr. Chillingworth; "and, by some means or another, he seems
+determined to get possession of Bannerworth Hall."
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said Mortimer, "I promise you that I will inquire
+into this. Mr. Chillingworth, I did not expect to meet you. Perhaps the
+least we say to each other is, after all, the better."
+
+"Let me ask but one question," said Dr. Chillingworth, imploringly.
+
+"Ask it."
+
+"Did he live after--"
+
+"Hush! he did."
+
+"You always told me to the contrary."
+
+"Yes; I had an object; the game is up. Farewell; and, gentlemen, as I am
+making my exit, let me do so with a sentiment:--Society at large is
+divided into two great classes."
+
+"And what may they be?" said the admiral.
+
+"Those who have been hanged, and those who have not. Adieu!"
+
+He turned and left the room; and Mr. Chillingworth sunk into a chair,
+and said, in a low voice,--
+
+"It's uncommonly true; and I've found out an acquaintance among the
+former."
+
+"-D--n it! you seem all mad," said the admiral. "I can't make out what
+you are about. How came you here, Mr. Henry Bannerworth?"
+
+"By mere accident I heard," said Henry, "that you were keeping watch and
+ward in the Hall. Admiral, it was cruel, and not well done of you, to
+attempt such an enterprise without acquainting me with it. Did you
+suppose for a moment that I, who had the greatest interest in this
+affair, would have shrunk from danger, if danger there be; or lacked
+perseverance, if that quality were necessary in carrying out any plan by
+which the safety and honour of my family might be preserved?"
+
+"Nay, now, my young friend," said Mr. Chillingworth.
+
+"Nay, sir; but I take it ill that I should have been kept out of this
+affair; and it should have been sedulously, as it were, kept a secret
+from me."
+
+"Let him go on as he likes," said the admiral; "boys will be boys. After
+all, you know, doctor, it's my affair, and not yours. Let him say what
+he likes; where's the odds? It's of no consequence."
+
+"I do not expect. Admiral Bell," said Henry, "that it is to you; but it
+is to me."
+
+"Psha!"
+
+"Respecting you, sir, as I do--"
+
+"Gammon!"
+
+"I must confess that I did expect--"
+
+"What you didn't get; therefore, there's an end of that. Now, I tell you
+what, Henry, Sir Francis Varney is within this house; at least, I have
+reason to suppose so."
+
+"Then," exclaimed Henry, impetuously, "I will wring from him answers to
+various questions which concern my peace and happiness."
+
+"Please, gentlemen," said the woman Deborah, making her appearance, "Sir
+Francis Varney has gone out, and he says I'm to show you all the door,
+as soon as it is convenient for you all to walk out of it."
+
+"I feel convinced," said Mr. Chillingworth, "that it will be a useless
+search now to attempt to find Sir Francis Varney here. Let me beg of you
+all to come away; and believe me that I do not speak lightly, or with a
+view to get you from here, when I say, that after I have heard something
+from you, Henry, which I shall ask you to relate to me, painful though
+it may be, I shall be able to suggest some explanation of many things
+which appear at present obscure, and to put you in a course of freeing
+you from the difficulties which surround you, which, Heaven knows, I
+little expected I should have it in my power to propose to any of you."
+
+"I will follow your advice, Mr. Chillingworth," said Henry; "for I have
+always found that it has been dictated by good feeling as well as
+correct judgment. Admiral Bell, you will oblige me much by coming away
+with me now and at once."
+
+"Well," remarked the admiral, "if the doctor has really something to
+say, it alters the appearance of things, and, of course, I have no
+objection."
+
+Upon this, the whole three of them immediately left the place, and it
+was evident that Mr. Chillingworth had something of an uncomfortable
+character upon his mind. He was unusually silent and reserved, and, when
+he did speak, he seemed rather inclined to turn the conversation upon
+indifferent topics, than to add anything more to what he had said upon
+the deeply interesting one which held so foremost a place in all their
+minds.
+
+"How is Flora, now," he asked of Henry, "since her removal?"
+
+"Anxious still," said Henry; "but, I think, better."
+
+"That is well. I perceive that, naturally, we are all three walking
+towards Bannerworth Hall, and, perhaps, it is as well that on that spot
+I should ask of you, Henry, to indulge me with a confidence such as,
+under ordinary circumstances, I should not at all feel myself justified
+in requiring of you."
+
+"To what does it relate?" said Henry. "You may be assured, Mr.
+Chillingworth, that I am not likely to refuse my confidence to you, whom
+I have so much reason to respect as an attached friend of myself and my
+family."
+
+"You will not object, likewise, I hope," added Mr. Chillingworth, "to
+extend that confidence to Admiral Bell; for, as you well know, a truer
+and more warm-hearted man than he does not exist."
+
+"What do you expect for that, doctor?" said the admiral.
+
+"There is nothing," said Henry, "that I could relate at all, that I
+should shrink from relating to Admiral Bell."
+
+"Well, my boy," said the admiral, "and all I can reply to that is, you
+are quite right; for there can be nothing that you need shrink from
+telling me, so far as regards the fact of trusting me with it goes."
+
+"I am assured of that."
+
+"A British officer, once pledging his word, prefers death to breaking
+it. Whatever you wish kept secret in the communication you make to me,
+say so, and it will never pass my lips."
+
+"Why, sir, the fact is," said Henry, "that what I am about to relate to
+you consists not so much of secrets as of matters which would be painful
+to my feelings to talk of more than may be absolutely required."
+
+"I understand you."
+
+"Let me, for a moment," said Mr Chillingworth, "put myself right. I do
+not suspect, Mr. Henry Bannerworth, that you fancy I ask you to make a
+recital of circumstances which must be painful to you from any idle
+motive. But let me declare that I have now a stronger impulse, which
+induces me to wish to hear from your own lips those matters which
+popular rumour may have greatly exaggerated or vitiated."
+
+"It is scarcely possible," remarked Henry, sadly, "that popular rumour
+should exaggerate the facts."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"No. They are, unhappily, of themselves, in their bare truthfulness, so
+full of all that can be grievous to those who are in any way connected
+with them, that there needs no exaggeration to invest them with more
+terror, or with more of that sadness which must ever belong to a
+recollection of them in my mind."
+
+In suchlike discourse as this, the time was passed, until Henry
+Bannerworth and his friends once more reached the Hall, from which he,
+with his family, had so recently removed, in consequence of the fearful
+persecution to which they had been subjected.
+
+They passed again into the garden which they all knew so well, and then
+Henry paused and looked around him with a deep sigh.
+
+In answer to an inquiring glance from Mr. Chillingworth, he said,--
+
+"Is it not strange, now, that I should have only been away from here a
+space of time which may be counted by hours, and yet all seems changed.
+I could almost fancy that years had elapsed since I had looked at it."
+
+"Oh," remarked the doctor, "time is always by the imagination measured
+by the number of events which are crowded into a given space of it, and
+not by its actual duration. Come into the house; there you will find all
+just as you left it, Henry, and you can tell us your story at leisure."
+
+"The air," said Henry, "about here is fresh and pleasant. Let us sit
+down in the summer-house yonder, and there I will tell you all. It has a
+local interest, too, connected with the tale."
+
+This was agreed to, and, in a few moments, the admiral, Mr.
+Chillingworth, and Henry were seated in the same summer-house which had
+witnessed the strange interview between Sir Francis Varney and Flora
+Bannerworth, in which he had induced her to believe that he felt for the
+distress he had occasioned her, and was strongly impressed with the
+injustice of her sufferings.
+
+Henry was silent for some few moments, and then he said, with a deep
+sigh, as he looked mournfully around him,--
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"It was on this spot that my father breathed his last, and hence have I
+said that it has a local interest in the tale I have to tell, which
+makes it the most fitting place in which to tell it."
+
+"Oh," said the admiral, "he died here, did he?"
+
+"Yes, where you are now sitting."
+
+"Very good, I have seen many a brave man die in my time, and I hope to
+see a few more, although, I grant you, the death in the heat of
+conflict, and fighting for our country, is a vastly different thing to
+some shore-going mode of leaving the world."
+
+"Yes," said Henry, as if pursuing his own meditations, rather than
+listening to the admiral. "Yes, it was from this precise spot that my
+father took his last look at the ancient house of his race. What we can
+now see of it, he saw of it with his dying eyes and many a time I have
+sat here and fancied the world of terrible thoughts that must at such a
+moment have come across his brain."
+
+"You might well do so," said the doctor.
+
+"You see," added Henry, "that from here the fullest view you have of any
+of the windows of the house is of that of Flora's room, as we have
+always called it, because for years she had had it as her chamber; and,
+when all the vegetation of summer is in its prime, and the vine which
+you perceive crawls over this summer-house is full of leaf and fruit,
+the view is so much hindered that it is difficult, without making an
+artificial gap in the clustering foliage, to see anything but the
+window."
+
+"So I should imagine," replied Mr. Chillingworth.
+
+"You, doctor," added Henry, "who know much of my family, need not be
+told what sort of man my father was."
+
+"No, indeed."
+
+"But you, Admiral Bell, who do not know, must be told, and, however
+grievous it may be to me to have to say so, I must inform you that he
+was not a man who would have merited your esteem."
+
+"Well," said the admiral, "you know, my boy, that can make no difference
+as regards you in anybody's mind, who has got the brains of an owl.
+Every man's credit, character, and honour, to my thinking, is in his own
+most special keeping, and let your father be what he might, or who he
+might, I do not see that any conduct of his ought to raise upon your
+cheek the flush of shame, or cost you more uneasiness than ordinary good
+feeling dictates to the errors and feelings of a fellow creature."
+
+"If all the world," said Henry, "would take such liberal and
+comprehensive views as you do, admiral, it would be much happier than it
+is; but such is not the case, and people are but too apt to blame one
+person for the evil that another has done."
+
+"Ah, but," said Mr. Chillingworth, "it so happens that those are the
+people whose opinions are of the very least consequence."
+
+"There is some truth in that," said Henry, sadly; "but, however, let me
+proceed; since I have to tell the tale, I could wish it over. My father,
+then, Admiral Bell, although a man not tainted in early life with vices,
+became, by the force of bad associates, and a sort of want of
+congeniality and sentiment that sprang up between him and my mother,
+plunged into all the excesses of his age."
+
+"These excesses were all of that character which the most readily lay
+hold strongly of an unreflecting mind, because they all presented
+themselves in the garb of sociality.
+
+"The wine cup is drained in the name of good fellowship; money which is
+wanted for legitimate purposes is squandered under the mask of a noble
+and free generosity, and all that the small imaginations of a number of
+persons of perverted intellects could enable them to do, has been done
+from time to time, to impart a kind of lustre to intemperance and all
+its dreadful and criminal consequences.
+
+"My father, having once got into the company of what he considered wits
+and men of spirit, soon became thoroughly vitiated. He was almost the
+only one of the set among whom he passed what he considered his highly
+convivial existence, who was really worth anything, pecuniarily
+speaking. There were some among them who might have been respectable
+men, and perchance carved their way to fortune, as well as some others
+who had started in life with good patrimonies; but he, my father, at the
+time he became associated with them, was the only one, as I say, who, to
+use a phrase I have heard myself from his lips concerning them, had got
+a feather to fly with.
+
+"The consequence of this was, that his society, merely for the sake of
+the animal gratification of drinking at his expense was courted, and he
+was much flattered, all of which he laid to the score of his own merits,
+which had been found out, and duly appreciated by these _bon vivants_,
+while he considered that the grave admonitions of his real friends
+proceeded from nothing in the world but downright envy and malice.
+
+"Such a state of things as this could not last very long. The associates
+of my father wanted money as well as wine, so they introduced him to the
+gaming-table, and he became fascinated with the fearful vice to an
+extent which predicted his own destruction and the ruin of every one who
+was in any way dependent upon him.
+
+"He could not absolutely sell Bannerworth Hall, unless I had given my
+consent, which I refused; but he accumulated debt upon debt, and from
+time to time stripped the mansion of all its most costly contents.
+
+"With various mutations of fortune, he continued this horrible and
+baneful career for a long time, until, at last, he found himself utterly
+and irretrievably ruined, and he came home in an agony of despair, being
+so weak, and utterly ruined in constitution, that he kept his bed for
+many days.
+
+"It appeared, however, that something occurred at this juncture which
+gave him actually, or all events awakened a hope that he should possess
+some money, and be again in a position to try his fortune at the
+gaming-table.
+
+"He rose, and, fortifying himself once more with the strong stimulant of
+wine and spirits, he left his home, and was absent for about two months.
+
+"What occurred to him during that time we none of us ever knew, but late
+one night he came home, apparently much flurried in manner, and seeming
+as if something had happened to drive him half mad.
+
+"He would not speak to any one, but he shut himself up the whole of the
+night in the chamber where hangs the portrait that bears so strong a
+resemblance to Sir Francis Varney, and there he remained till the
+morning, when he emerged, and said briefly that he intended to leave the
+country.
+
+"He was in a most fearful state of nervousness, and my mother tells me
+that he shook like one in an ague, and started at every little sound
+that occurred in the house, and glared about him so wildly that it was
+horrible to see him, or to sit in the same apartment with him.
+
+"She says that the whole morning passed on in this way till a letter
+came to him, the contents of which appeared to throw him into a perfect
+convulsion of terror, and he retired again to the room with the
+portrait, where he remained some hours, and then he emerged, looking
+like a ghost, so dreadfully pale and haggard was he.
+
+"He walked into the garden here, and was seen to sit down in this
+summer-house, and fix his eyes upon the window of that apartment."
+
+Henry paused for a few moments, and then he added,--
+
+"You will excuse me from entering upon any details of what next ensued
+in the melancholy history. My father here committed suicide. He was
+found dying, and all I he words he spoke were, 'The money is hidden!'
+Death claimed his victim, and, with a convulsive spasm, he resigned his
+spirit, leaving what he had intended to say hidden in the oblivion of
+the grave."
+
+"That was an odd affair," said the admiral.
+
+"It was, indeed. We have all pondered deeply, and the result was, that,
+upon the whole, we were inclined to come to an opinion that the words he
+so uttered were but the result of the mental disturbance that at such a
+moment might well be supposed to be ensuing in the mind, and that they
+related really to no foregone fact any more than some incoherent words
+uttered by a man in a dream might be supposed to do."
+
+"It may be so."
+
+"I do not mean," remarked Mr. Chillingworth, "for one moment to attempt
+to dispute, Henry, the rationality of such an opinion as you have just
+given utterance to; but you forget that another circumstance occurred,
+which gave a colour to the words used by your father."
+
+"Yes; I know to what you allude."
+
+"Be so good as to state it to the admiral."
+
+"I will. On the evening of that same day there came a man here, who, in
+seeming ignorance of what had occurred, although by that time it was
+well known to all the neighbourhood, asked to see my father.
+
+"Upon being told that he was dead, he started back, either with well
+acted or with real surprise, and seemed to be immensely chagrined. He
+then demanded to know if he had left any disposition of his property;
+but he got no information, and departed muttering the most diabolical
+oaths and curses that can be imagined. He mounted his horse, for he had
+ridden to the Hall and his last words were, as I am told--
+
+"'Where, in the name of all that's damnable, can he have put the
+money!'"
+
+"And did you never find out who this man was?" asked the admiral.
+
+"Never."
+
+"It is an odd affair."
+
+"It is," said Mr. Chillingworth, "and full of mystery. The public mind
+was much taken up at the time with some other matters, or it would have
+made the death of Mr. Bannerworth the subject of more prolific comment
+than it did. As it was, however, a great deal was said upon the subject,
+and the whole comity was in a state of commotion for weeks afterwards."
+
+"Yes," said Henry; "it so happened that about that very time a murder
+was committed in the neighbourhood of London, which baffled all the
+exertions of the authorities to discover the perpetrators of. It was the
+murder of Lord Lorne."
+
+"Oh! I remember," said the admiral; "the newspapers were full of it for
+a long time."
+
+"They were; and so, as Mr. Chillingworth says, the more exciting
+interest which that affair created drew off public attention, in a great
+measure, from my father's suicide, and we did not suffer so much from
+public remark and from impertinent curiosity as might have been
+expected."
+
+"And, in addition," said Mr. Chillingworth, and he changed colour a
+little as he spoke, "there was an execution shortly afterwards."
+
+"Yes," said Henry, "there was."
+
+"The execution of a man named Angerstein," added Mr. Chillingworth, "for
+a highway robbery, attended with the most brutal violence."
+
+"True; all the affairs of that period of time are strongly impressed
+upon my mind," said Henry; "but you do not seem well, Mr.
+Chillingworth."
+
+"Oh, yes; I am quite well--you are mistaken."
+
+Both the admiral and Henry looked scrutinizingly at the doctor, who
+certainly appeared to them to be labouring under some great mental
+excitement, which he found it almost beyond his power to repress.
+
+"I tell you what it is, doctor," said the admiral; "I don't pretend, and
+never did, to see further through a tar-barrel than my neighbours; but I
+can see far enough to feel convinced that you have got something on your
+mind, and that it somehow concerns this affair."
+
+"Is it so?" said Henry.
+
+"I cannot if I would," said Mr. Chillingworth; "and I may with truth
+add, that I would not, if I could, hide from you that I have something
+on my mind connected with this affair; but let me assure you it would be
+premature of me to tell you of it."
+
+"Premature be d----d!" said the admiral; "out with it."
+
+"Nay, nay, dear sir; I am not now in a position to say what is passing
+through my mind."
+
+"Alter your position, then, and be blowed!" cried Jack Pringle, suddenly
+stepping forward, and giving the doctor such a push, that he nearly went
+through one of the sides of the summer-house.
+
+"Why, you scoundrel!" cried the admiral, "how came you here?"
+
+"On my legs," said Jack. "Do you think nobody wants to know nothing but
+yourself? I'm as fond of a yarn as anybody."
+
+"But if you are," said Mr. Chillingworth, "you had no occasion to come
+against me as if you wanted to move a house."
+
+"You said as you wasn't in a position to say something as I wanted to
+hear, so I thought I'd alter it for you."
+
+"Is this fellow," said the doctor, shaking his head, as he accosted the
+admiral, "the most artful or stupid?"
+
+"A little of both," said Admiral Bell--"a little of both, doctor. He's a
+great fool and a great scamp."
+
+"The same to you," said Jack; "you're another. I shall hate you
+presently, if you go on making yourself so ridiculous. Now, mind, I'll
+only give you a trial of another week or so, and if you don't be more
+purlite in your d--n language, I'll leave you."
+
+Away strolled Jack, with his hands in his pockets, towards the house,
+while the admiral was half choked with rage, and could only glare after
+him, without the ability to say a word.
+
+Under any other circumstances than the present one of trouble, and
+difficulty; and deep anxiety, Henry Bannerworth must have laughed at
+these singular little episodes between Jack and the admiral; but his
+mind was now by far too much harassed to permit him to do so.
+
+"Let him go, let him go, my dear sir," said Mr. Chillingworth to the
+admiral, who showed some signs of an intention to pursue Jack; "he no
+doubt has been drinking again."
+
+"I'll turn him off the first moment I catch him sober enough to
+understand me," said the admiral.
+
+"Well, well; do as you please; but now let me ask a favour of both of
+you."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"That you will leave Bannerworth Hall to me for a week."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"I hope to make some discoveries connected with it which shall well
+reward you for the trouble."
+
+"It's no trouble," said Henry; "and for myself, I have amply sufficient
+faith, both in your judgment and in your friendship, doctor, to accede
+to any request which you may make to me."
+
+"And I," said the admiral. "Be it so--be it so. For one week, you say?"
+
+"Yes--for one week. I hope, by the end of that time, to have achieved
+something worth the telling you of; and I promise you that, if I am at
+all disappointed in my expectation, that I will frankly and freely
+communicate to you all I know and all I suspect."
+
+"Then that's a bargain."
+
+"It is."
+
+"And what's to be done at once?"
+
+"Why, nothing, but to take the greatest possible care that Bannerworth
+Hall is not left another hour without some one in it; and in order that
+such should be the case, I have to request that you two will remain here
+until I go to the town, and make preparations for taking quiet
+possession of it myself, which I will do in the course of two hours, at
+most."
+
+"Don't be longer," said the admiral, "for I am so desperately hungry,
+that I shall certainly begin to eat somebody, if you are."
+
+"Depend upon me."
+
+"Very well," said Henry; "you may depend we will wait here until you
+come back."
+
+The doctor at once hurried from the garden, leaving Henry and the
+admiral to amuse themselves as best they might, with conjectures as to
+what he was really about, until his return.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXII.
+
+THE MYSTERIOUS MEETING IN THE RUIN AGAIN.--THE VAMPYRE'S ATTACK UPON THE
+CONSTABLE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It is now necessary that we return once more to that mysterious ruin, in
+the intricacies of which Varney, when pursued by the mob, had succeeded
+in finding a refuge which defied all the exertions which were made for
+his discovery. Our readers must be well aware, that, connected with that
+ruin, are some secrets of great importance to our story; and we will
+now, at the solemn hour of midnight, take another glance at what is
+doing within its recesses.
+
+At that solemn hour it is not probable that any one would seek that
+gloomy place from choice. Some lover of the picturesque certainly might
+visit it; but such was not the inciting cause of the pilgrimage with
+those who were soon to stand within its gloomy precincts.
+
+Other motives dictated their presence in that spot--motives of rapine;
+peradventure of murder itself.
+
+As the neighbouring clocks sounded the hour of twelve, and the faint
+strokes were borne gently on the wind to that isolated ruin, there might
+have been seen a tall man standing by the porch of what had once been a
+large doorway to some portion of the ruin.
+
+His form was enveloped in a large cloak, which was of such ample
+material that he seemed well able to wrap it several times around him,
+and then leave a considerable portion of it floating idly in the gentle
+wind.
+
+He stood as still, as calm, and as motionless as a statue, for a
+considerable time, before any degree of impatience began to show itself.
+
+Then he took from his pocket a large antique watch, the white face of
+which just enabled him to see what the time was, and, in a voice which
+had in it some amount of petulance and anger, he said,--
+
+"Not come yet, and nearly half an hour beyond the time! What can have
+detained him? This is, indeed, trifling with the most important moments
+of a man's existence."
+
+Even as he spoke, he heard, from some distance off, the sound of a
+short, quick footstep. He bent forwards to listen, and then, in a tone
+of satisfaction, he said,--
+
+"He comes--he comes!"
+
+But he who thus waited for some confederate among these dim and old grey
+ruins, advanced not a step to meet him. On the contrary, such seemed the
+amount of cold-blooded caution which he possessed, that the nearer the
+man--who was evidently advancing--got to the place, the further back did
+he who had preceded him shrink into the shadow of the dim and crumbling
+walls, which had, for some years now past, seemed to bend to the passing
+blast, and to be on the point of yielding to the destroying hand of
+time.
+
+And yet, surely he needed not have been so cautious. Who was likely, at
+such an hour as that, to come to the ruins, but one who sought it by
+appointment?
+
+And, moreover, the manner of the advancing man should have been quite
+sufficient to convince him who waited, that so much caution was
+unnecessary; but it was a part and parcel of his nature.
+
+About three minutes more sufficed to bring the second man to the ruin,
+and he, at once, and fearlessly, plunged into its recesses.
+
+"Who comes?" said the first man, in a deep, hollow voice.
+
+"He whom you expect," was the reply.
+
+"Good," he said, and at once he now emerged from his hiding-place, and
+they stood together in the nearly total darkness with which the place
+was enshrouded; for the night was a cloudy one, and there appeared not a
+star in the heavens, to shed its faint light upon the scene below.
+
+For a few moments they were both silent, for he who had last arrived had
+evidently made great exertions to reach the spot, and was breathing
+laboriously, while he who was there first appeared, from some natural
+taciturnity of character, to decline opening the conversation.
+
+At length the second comer spoke, saying,--
+
+"I have made some exertion to get here to my time, and yet I am beyond
+it, as you are no doubt aware."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"Well, such would not have been the case; but yet, I stayed to bring you
+some news of importance."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"It is so. This place, which we have, now for some time had as a quiet
+and perfectly eligible one of meeting, is about to be invaded by one of
+those restless, troublesome spirits, who are never happy but when they
+are contriving something to the annoyance of others who do not interfere
+with them."
+
+"Explain yourself more fully."
+
+"I will. At a tavern in the town, there has happened some strange scenes
+of violence, in consequence of the general excitement into which the
+common people have been thrown upon the dreadful subject of vampyres."
+
+"Well."
+
+"The consequence is, that numerous arrests have taken place, and the
+places of confinement for offenders against the laws are now full of
+those whose heated and angry imaginations have induced them to take
+violent steps to discover the reality or the falsehood of rumours which
+so much affected them, their wives, and their families, that they feared
+to lie down to their night's repose."
+
+The other laughed a short, hollow, restless sort of laugh, which had not
+one particle of real mirth in it.
+
+"Go on--go on," he said. "What did they do?"
+
+"Immense excesses have been committed; but what made me, first of all,
+stay beyond my time, was that I overheard a man declare his intentions
+this night, from twelve till the morning, and for some nights to come,
+to hold watch and ward for the vampyre."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes. He did but stay, at the earnest solicitation of his comrades, to
+take yet another glass, ere he came upon his expedition."
+
+"He must be met. The idiot! what business is it of his?"
+
+"There are always people who will make everything their business,
+whether it be so or not."
+
+"There are. Let us retire further into the recesses of the ruin, and
+there consider as well what is to be done regarding more important
+affairs, as with this rash intruder here."
+
+They both walked for some twenty paces, or so, right into the ruin, and
+then he who had been there first, said, suddenly, to his companion,--
+
+"I am annoyed, although the feeling reaches no further than annoyance,
+for I have a natural love of mischief, to think that my reputation has
+spread so widely, and made so much noise."
+
+"Your reputation as a vampyre, Sir Francis Varney, you mean?"
+
+"Yes; but there is no occasion for you to utter my name aloud, even here
+where we are alone together."
+
+"It came out unawares."
+
+"Unawares! Can it be possible that you have so little command over
+yourself as to allow a name to come from your lips unawares?"
+
+"Sometimes."
+
+"I am surprised."
+
+"Well, it cannot be helped. What do you now propose to do?"
+
+"Nay, you are my privy councillor. Have you no deep-laid, artful project
+in hand? Can you not plan and arrange something which may yet have the
+effect of accomplishing what at first seemed so very simple, but which
+has, from one unfortunate circumstance and another, become full of
+difficulty and pregnant with all sorts of dangers?"
+
+"I must confess I have no plan."
+
+"I listen with astonishment."
+
+"Nay, now, you are jesting."
+
+"When did you ever hear of me jesting?"
+
+"Not often, I admit. But you have a fertile genius, and I have always,
+myself, found it easier to be the executive than to plan an elaborate
+course of action for others."
+
+"Then you throw it all on me?"
+
+"I throw a weight, naturally enough, upon the shoulders which I think
+the best adapted to sustain it."
+
+"Be it so, then--be it so."
+
+"You are, I presume, from what you say, provided with a scheme of action
+which shall present better hopes of success, at less risk, I hope. Look
+what great danger we have already passed through."
+
+"Yes, we have."
+
+"I pray you avoid that in the next campaign."
+
+"It is not the danger that annoys and troubles me, but it is that,
+notwithstanding it, the object is as far off as ever from being
+attained."
+
+"And not only so, but, as is invariably the case under such
+circumstances, we have made it more difficult of execution because we
+have put those upon their guard thoroughly who are the most likely to
+oppose us."
+
+"We have--we have."
+
+"And placed the probability of success afar off indeed."
+
+"And yet I have set my life upon the cast, and I will stand the hazard.
+I tell you I will accomplish this object, or I will perish in the
+attempt."
+
+"You are too enthusiastic."
+
+"Not at all. Nothing has been ever done, the execution of which was
+difficult, without enthusiasm. I will do what I intend, or Bannerworth
+Hall shall become a heap of ruins, where fire shall do its worst work of
+devastation, and I will myself find a grave in the midst."
+
+"Well, I quarrel with no man for chalking out the course he intends to
+pursue; but what do you mean to do with the prisoner below here?"
+
+"Kill him."
+
+"What?"
+
+"I say kill him. Do you not understand me?"
+
+"I do, indeed."
+
+"When everything else is secured, and when the whole of that which I so
+much court, and which I will have, is in my possession, I will take his
+life, or you shall. Ay, you are just the man for such a deed. A
+smooth-faced, specious sort of roan are you, and you like not danger.
+There will be none in taking the life of a man who is chained to the
+floor of a dungeon."
+
+"I know not why," said the other, "you take a pleasure on this
+particular night, of all others, in saying all you can which you think
+will be offensive to me."
+
+"Now, how you wrong me. This is the reward of confidence."
+
+"I don't want such confidence."
+
+"Why, you surely don't want me to flatter you."
+
+"No; but--"
+
+"Psha! Hark you. That admiral is the great stumbling-block in my way. I
+should ere this have had undisturbed possession of Bannerworth Hall but
+for him. He must be got out of the way somehow."
+
+"A short time will tire him out of watching. He is one of those men of
+impulse who soon become wearied of inaction."
+
+"Ay, and then the Bannerworths return to the Hall."
+
+"It may be so."
+
+"I am certain of it. We have been out-generalled in this matter,
+although I grant we did all that men could do to give us success."
+
+"In what way would you get rid of this troublesome admiral?"
+
+"I scarcely know. A letter from his nephew might, if well put together,
+get him to London."
+
+"I doubt it. I hate him mortally. He has offended me more than once most
+grievously."
+
+"I know it. He saw through you."
+
+"I do not give him so much credit. He is a suspicious man, and a vain
+and a jealous one."
+
+"And yet he saw through you. Now, listen to me. You are completely at
+fault, and have no plan of operations whatever in your mind. What I want
+you to do is, to disappear from the neighbourhood for a time, and so
+will I. As for our prisoner here below, I cannot see what else can be
+done with him than--than--"
+
+"Than what? Do you hesitate?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Then what is it you were about to say?"
+
+"I cannot but feel that all we have done hitherto, as regards this young
+prisoner of ours, has failed. He has, with a determined obstinacy, set
+at naught, as well you know, all threats."
+
+"He has."
+
+"He has refused to do one act which could in any way aid me in my
+objects. In fact, from the first to the last, he has been nothing but an
+expense and an encumbrance to us both."
+
+"All that is strictly true."
+
+"And yet, although you, as well as I, know of a marvellously ready way
+of getting rid of such encumbrances, I must own, that I shrink with more
+than a feeling of reluctance from the murder of the youth."
+
+"You contemplated it then?" asked the other.
+
+"No; I cannot be said to have contemplated it. That is not the proper
+sort of expression to use."
+
+"What is then?"
+
+"To contemplate a deed seems to me to have some close connexion to the
+wish to do it."
+
+"And you have no such wish?"
+
+"I have no such wish, and what is more I will not do it."
+
+"Then that is sufficient; and the only question that remains for you to
+confide, is, what you will do. It is far easier in all enterprises to
+decide upon what we will not do, than upon what we will. For my own part
+I must say that I can perceive no mode of extricating ourselves from
+this involvement with anything like safety."
+
+"Then it must be done with something like danger."
+
+"As you please."
+
+"You say so, and your words bear a clear enough signification; but from
+your tone I can guess how much you are dissatisfied with the aspect of
+affairs."
+
+"Dissatisfied!"
+
+"Yes; I say, dissatisfied. Be frank, and own that which it is in vain to
+conceal from me. I know you too well; arch hypocrite as you are, and
+fully capable of easily deceiving many, you cannot deceive me."
+
+"I really cannot understand you."
+
+"Then I will take care that you shall."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Listen. I will not have the life of Charles Holland taken."
+
+"Who wishes to take it?"
+
+"You."
+
+"There, indeed, you wrong me. Unless you yourself thought that such an
+act was imperatively called for by the state of affairs, do you think
+that I would needlessly bring down upon my head the odium as well as the
+danger of such a deed? No, no. Let him live, if you are willing; he may
+live a thousand years for all I care."
+
+"'Tis well. I am, mark me, not only willing, but I am determined that he
+shall live so far as we are concerned. I can respect the courage that,
+even when he considered that his life was at stake, enabled him to say
+no to a proposal which was cowardly and dishonourable, although it went
+far to the defeat of my own plans and has involved me in much trouble."
+
+"Hush! hush!"
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I fancy I hear a footstep."
+
+"Indeed; that were a novelty in such a place as this."
+
+"And yet not more than I expected. Have you forgotten what I told you
+when I reached here to-night after the appointed hour?"
+
+"Truly; I had for the moment. Do you think then that the footstep which
+now meets our ears, is that of the adventurer who boasted that he could
+keep watch for the vampyre?"
+
+"In faith do I. What is to be done with such a meddling fool?"
+
+"He ought certainly to be taught not to be so fond of interfering with
+other people's affairs."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Perchance the lesson will not be wholly thrown away upon others. It may
+be worth while to take some trouble with this poor valiant fellow, and
+let him spread his news so as to stop any one else from being equally
+venturous and troublesome."
+
+"A good thought."
+
+"Shall it be done?"
+
+"Yes; if you will arrange that which shall accomplish such a result."
+
+"Be it so. The moon rises soon."
+
+"It does."
+
+"Ah, already I fancy I see a brightening of the air as if the mellow
+radiance of the queen of night were already quietly diffusing itself
+throughout the realms of space. Come further within the ruins."
+
+They both walked further among the crumbling walls and fragments of
+columns with which the place abounded. As they did so they paused now
+and then to listen, and more than once they both heard plainly the sound
+of certain footsteps immediately outside the once handsome and spacious
+building.
+
+Varney, the vampyre, who had been holding this conversation with no
+other than Marchdale, smiled as he, in a whispered voice, told the
+latter what to do in order to frighten away from the place the foolhardy
+man who thought that, by himself, he should be able to accomplish
+anything against the vampyre.
+
+It was, indeed, a hair-brained expedition, for whether Sir Francis
+Varney was really so awful and preternatural a being as so many
+concurrent circumstances would seem to proclaim, or not, he was not a
+likely being to allow himself to be conquered by anyone individual, let
+his powers or his courage be what they might.
+
+What induced this man to become so ventursome we shall now proceed to
+relate, as well as what kind of reception he got in the old ruins,
+which, since the mysterious disappearance of Sir Francis Varney within
+their recesses, had possessed so increased a share of interest and
+attracted so much popular attention and speculation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXIII.
+
+THE GUESTS AT THE INN, AND THE STORY OF THE DEAD UNCLE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+As had been truly stated by Mr. Marchdale, who now stands out in his
+true colours to the reader as the confidant and abettor of Sir Francis
+Varney, there had assembled on that evening a curious and a gossipping
+party at the inn where such dreadful and such riotous proceedings had
+taken place, which, in their proper place, we have already duly and at
+length recorded.
+
+It was not very likely that, on that evening, or for many and many an
+evening to come, the conversation in the parlour of the inn would be
+upon any other subject than that of the vampyre.
+
+Indeed, the strange, mysterious, and horrible circumstances which had
+occurred, bade fair to be gossipping stock in trade for many a year.
+
+Never before had a subject presenting so many curious features arisen.
+Never, within the memory of that personage who is supposed to know
+everything, had there occurred any circumstance in the county, or set of
+circumstances, which afforded such abundant scope for conjecture and
+speculation.
+
+Everybody might have his individual opinion, and be just as likely to be
+right as his neighbours; and the beauty of the affair was, that such was
+the interest of the subject itself, that there was sure to be a kind of
+reflected interest with every surmise that at all bore upon it.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+On this particular night, when Marchdale was prowling about, gathering
+what news he could, in order that he might carry it to the vampyre, a
+more than usually strong muster of the gossips of the town took place.
+
+Indeed, all of any note in the talking way were there, with the
+exception of one, and he was in the county gaol, being one of the
+prisoners apprehended by the military when they made the successful
+attack upon the lumber-room of the inn, after the dreadful desecration
+of the dead which had taken place.
+
+The landlord of the inn was likely to make a good thing of it, for
+talking makes people thirsty; and he began to consider that a vampyre
+about once a-year would be no bad thing for the Blue Lion.
+
+"It's shocking," said one of the guests; "it's shocking to think of.
+Only last night, I am quite sure I had such a fright that it added at
+least ten years to my age."
+
+"A fright!" said several.
+
+"I believe I speak English--I said a fright."
+
+"Well, but had it anything to do with the vampyre?"
+
+"Everything."
+
+"Oh! do tell us; do tell us all about it. How was it? Did he come to
+you? Go on. Well, well."
+
+The first speaker became immediately a very important personage in the
+room; and, when he saw that, he became at once a very important
+personage in his own eyes likewise; and, before he would speak another
+word, he filled a fresh pipe, and ordered another mug of ale.
+
+"It's no use trying to hurry him," said one.
+
+"No," he said, "it isn't. I'll tell you in good time what a dreadful
+circumstance has made me sixty-three to-day, when I was only fifty-three
+yesterday."
+
+"Was it very dreadful?"
+
+"Rather. You wouldn't have survived it at all."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"No. Now listen. I went to bed at a quarter after eleven, as usual. I
+didn't notice anything particular in the room."
+
+"Did you peep under the bed?"
+
+"No, I didn't. Well, as I was a-saying, to bed I went, and I didn't
+fasten the door; because, being a very sound sleeper, in case there was
+a fire, I shouldn't hear a word of it if I did."
+
+"No," said another. "I recollect once--"
+
+"Be so good as allow me to finish what I know, before you begin to
+recollect anything, if you please. As I was saying, I didn't lock the
+door, but I went to bed. Somehow or another, I did not feel at all
+comfortable, and I tossed about, first on one side, and then on the
+other; but it was all in vain; I only got, every moment, more and more
+fidgetty."
+
+"And did you think of the vampyre?" said one of the listeners.
+
+"I thought of nothing else till I heard my clock, which is on the
+landing of the stairs above my bed-room, begin to strike twelve."
+
+"Ah! I like to hear a clock sound in the night," said one; "it puts one
+in mind of the rest of the world, and lets one know one isn't all
+alone."
+
+"Very good. The striking of the clock I should not at all have objected
+to; but it was what followed that did the business."
+
+"What, what?"
+
+"Fair and softly; fair and softly. Just hand me a light, Mr. Sprigs, if
+you please. I'll tell you all, gentlemen, in a moment or two."
+
+With the most provoking deliberation, the speaker re-lit his pipe, which
+had gone out while he was talking, and then, after a few whiffs, to
+assure himself that its contents had thoroughly ignited, he resumed,--
+
+"No sooner had the last sound of it died away, than I heard something on
+the stairs."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"It was as if some man had given his foot a hard blow against one of the
+stairs; and he would have needed to have had a heavy boot on to do it. I
+started up in bed and listened, as you may well suppose, not in the most
+tranquil state of mind, and then I heard an odd, gnawing sort of noise,
+and then another dab upon one of the stairs."
+
+"How dreadful!"
+
+"It was. What to do I knew not, or what to think, except that the
+vampyre had, by some means, got in at the attic window, and was coming
+down stairs to my room. That seemed the most likely. Then there was
+another groan, and then another heavy step; and, as they were evidently
+coming towards my door, I felt accordingly, and got out of bed, not
+knowing hardly whether I was on my head or my heels, to try and lock my
+door."
+
+"Ah, to be sure."
+
+"Yes; that was all very well, if I could have done it; but a man in such
+a state of mind as I was in is not a very sharp hand at doing anything.
+I shook from head to foot. The room was very dark, and I couldn't, for a
+moment or two, collect my senses sufficient really to know which way the
+door lay."
+
+"What a situation!"
+
+"It was. Dab, dab, dab, came these horrid footsteps, and there was I
+groping about the room in an agony. I heard them coming nearer and
+nearer to my door. Another moment, and they must have reached it, when
+my hand struck against the lock."
+
+"What an escape!"
+
+"No, it was not."
+
+"No?"
+
+"No, indeed. The key was on the outside, and you may well guess I was
+not over and above disposed to open the door to get at it."
+
+"No, no."
+
+"I felt regularly bewildered, I can tell you; it seemed to me as if the
+very devil himself was coming down stairs hopping all the way upon one
+leg."
+
+"How terrific!"
+
+"I felt my senses almost leaving me; but I did what I could to hold the
+door shut just as I heard the strange step come from the last stair on
+to the landing. Then there was a horrid sound, and some one began trying
+the lock of my door."
+
+"What a moment!"
+
+"Yes, I can tell you it was a moment. Such a moment as I don't wish to
+go through again. I held the door as close as I could, and did not
+speak. I tried to cry out help and murder, but I could not; my tongue
+stuck to the roof of my mouth, and my strength was fast failing me."
+
+"Horrid, horrid!"
+
+"Take a drop of ale."
+
+"Thank you. Well, I don't think this went on above two or three minutes,
+and all the while some one tried might and main to push open the door.
+My strength left me all at once; I had only time to stagger back a step
+or two, and then, as the door opened, I fainted away."
+
+"Well, well!"
+
+"Ah, you wouldn't have said well, if you had been there, I can tell
+you."
+
+"No; but what become of you. What happened next? How did it end? What
+was it?"
+
+"Why, what exactly happened next after I fainted I cannot tell you; but
+the first thing I saw when I recovered was a candle."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"And then a crowd of people."
+
+"Ah, ah!"
+
+"And then Dr. Web."
+
+"Gracious!"
+
+"And. Mrs. Bulk, my housekeeper. I was in my own bed, and when I opened
+my eyes I heard Dr. Webb say,--
+
+"'He will be better soon. Can no one form any idea of what it is all
+about. Some sudden fright surely could alone have produced such an
+effect.'"
+
+"'The Lord have mercy upon me!' said I.
+
+"Upon this everybody who had been called in got round the bed, and
+wanted to know what had happened; but I said not a word of it; but
+turning to Mrs. Bulk, I asked her how it was she found out I had
+fainted.
+
+"'Why, sir,' says she, 'I was coming up to bed as softly as I could,
+because I knew you had gone to rest some time before. The clock was
+striking twelve, and as I went past it some of my clothes, I suppose,
+caught the large weight, but it was knocked off, and down the stairs it
+rolled, going with such a lump from one to the other, and I couldn't
+catch it because it rolled so fast, that I made sure you would be
+awakened; so I came down to tell you what it was, and it was some time
+before I could get your room door open, and when I did I found you out
+of bed and insensible.'"
+
+There was a general look of disappointment when this explanation was
+given, and one said,--
+
+"Then it was not the vampire?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"And, after all, only a clock weight."
+
+"That's about it."
+
+"Why didn't you tell us that at first?"
+
+"Because that would have spoilt the story."
+
+There was a general murmur of discontent, and, after a few moments one
+man said, with some vivacity,--
+
+"Well, although our friend's vampyre has turned out, after all, to be
+nothing but a confounded clock-weight, there's no disputing the fact
+about Sir Francis Varney being a vampyre, and not a clock-weight."
+
+"Very true--very true."
+
+"And what's to be done to rid the town of such a man?"
+
+"Oh, don't call him a man."
+
+"Well, a monster."
+
+"Ah, that's more like. I tell you what, sir, if you had got a light,
+when you first heard the noise in your room, and gone out to see what it
+was, you would have spared yourself much fright."
+
+"Ah, no doubt; it's always easy afterwards to say, if you had done this,
+and if you had done the other, so and so would have been the effect; but
+there is something about the hour of midnight that makes men tremble."
+
+"Well," said one, who had not yet spoken, "I don't see why twelve at
+night should be a whit more disagreeable than twelve at day."
+
+"Don't you?"
+
+"Not I."
+
+"Now, for instance, many a party of pleasure goes to that old ruin where
+Sir Francis Varney so unaccountably disappeared in broad daylight. But
+is there any one here who would go to it alone, and at midnight?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"I would."
+
+"What! and after what has happened as regards the vampyre in connection
+with it?"
+
+"Yes, I would."
+
+"I'll bet you twenty shilling you won't."
+
+"And I--and I," cried several.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said the man, who certainly shewed no signs of fear,
+"I will go, and not only will I go and take all your bets, but, if I do
+meet the vampyre, then I'll do my best to take him prisoner."
+
+"And when will you go?"
+
+"To-night," he cried, and he sprang to his feet; "hark ye all, I don't
+believe one word about vampyres. I'll go at once; it's getting late, and
+let any one of you, in order that you may be convinced I have been to
+the place, give me any article, which I will hide among the ruins; and
+tell you where to find it to-morrow in broad daylight."
+
+"Well," said one, "that's fair, Tom Eccles. Here's a handkerchief of
+mine; I should know it again among a hundred others."
+
+"Agreed; I'll leave it in the ruins."
+
+The wagers were fairly agreed upon; several handkerchiefs were handed to
+Tom Eccles; and at eleven o'clock he fairly started, through the murky
+darkness of the night, to the old ruin where Sir Francis Varney and
+Marchdale were holding their most unholy conference.
+
+It is one thing to talk and to accept wagers in the snug parlour of an
+inn, and another to go alone across a tract of country wrapped in the
+profound stillness of night to an ancient ruin which, in addition to the
+natural gloom which might well be supposed to surround it, has
+superadded associations which are anything but of a pleasant character.
+
+Tom Eccles, as he was named, was one of those individuals who act
+greatly from impulse. He was certainly not a coward, and, perhaps,
+really as free from superstition as most persons, but he was human, and
+consequently he had nerves, and he had likewise an imagination.
+
+He went to his house first before he started on his errand to the ruins.
+It was to get a horse-pistol which he had, and which he duly loaded and
+placed in his pocket. Then he wrapped himself up in a great-coat, and
+with the air of a man quite determined upon something desperate he left
+the town.
+
+The guests at the inn looked after him as he walked from the door of
+that friendly establishment, and some of them, as they saw his resolved
+aspect, began to quake for the amount of the wagers they had laid upon
+his non-success.
+
+However, it was resolved among them, that they would stay until
+half-past twelve, in the expectation of his return, before they
+separated.
+
+To while away the time, he who had been so facetious about his story of
+the clock-weight, volunteered to tell what happened to a friend of his
+who went to take possession of some family property which he became
+possessed of as heir-at-law to an uncle who had died without a will,
+having an illegitimate family unprovided for in every shape.
+
+"Ah! nobody cares for other people's illegitimate children, and, if
+their parents don't provide for them, why, the workhouse is open for
+them, just as if they were something different from other people."
+
+"So they are; if their parents don't take care of them, and provide for
+them, nobody else will, as you say, neighbour, except when they have a
+Fitz put to their name, which tells you they are royal bastards, and of
+course unlike anybody else's."
+
+"But go on--let's know all about it; we sha'n't hear what he has got to
+say at all, at this rate."
+
+"Well, as I was saying, or about to say, the nephew, as soon as he heard
+his uncle was dead, comes and claps his seal upon everything in the
+house."
+
+"But, could he do so?" inquired one of the guests.
+
+"I don't see what was to hinder him," replied a third. "He could do so,
+certainly."
+
+"But there was a son, and, as I take it, a son's nearer than a nephew
+any day."
+
+"But the son is illegitimate."
+
+"Legitimate, or illegitimate, a son's a son; don't bother me about
+distinction of that sort; why, now, there was old Weatherbit--"
+
+"Order, order."
+
+"Let's hear the tale."
+
+"Very good, gentlemen, I'll go on, if I ain't to be interrupted; but
+I'll say this, that an illegitimate son is no son, in the eyes of the
+law; or at most he's an accident quite, and ain't what he is, and so
+can't inherit."
+
+"Well, that's what I call making matters plain," said one of the guests,
+who took his pipe from his mouth to make room for the remark; "now that
+is what I likes."
+
+"Well, as I have proved then," resumed the speaker, "the nephew was the
+heir, and into the house he would come. A fine affair it was too--the
+illegitimates looking the colour of sloes; but he knew the law, and
+would have it put in force."
+
+"Law's law, you know."
+
+"Uncommonly true that; and the nephew stuck to it like a cobbler to his
+last--he said they should go out, and they did go out; and, say what
+they would about their natural claims, he would not listen to them, but
+bundled them out and out in a pretty short space of time."
+
+"It was trying to them, mind you, to leave the house they had been born
+in with very different expectations to those which now appeared to be
+their fate. Poor things, they looked ruefully enough, and well they
+might, for there was a wide world for them, and no prospect of a warm
+corner.
+
+"Well, as I was saying, he had them all out and the house clear to
+himself.
+
+"Now," said he, "I have an open field and no favour. I don't care for
+no--Eh! what?"
+
+"There was a sudden knocking, he thought, the door, and went and opened
+it, but nothing was to be seen.
+
+"Oh! I see--somebody next door; and if it wasn't, it don't matter.
+There's nobody here. I'm alone, and there's plenty of valuables in the
+house. That is what I call very good company. I wouldn't wish for
+better."
+
+He turned about, looked over room after room, and satisfied himself that
+he was alone--that the house was empty.
+
+At every room he entered he paused to think over the value--what it was
+worth, and that he was a very fortunate man in having dropped into such
+a good thing.
+
+"Ah! there's the old boy's secretary, too--his bureau--there'll be
+something in that that will amuse me mightily; but I don't think I shall
+sit up late. He was a rum old man, to say the least of it--a very odd
+sort of man."
+
+With that he gave himself a shrug, as if some very uncomfortable feeling
+had come over him.
+
+"I'll go to bed early, and get some sleep, and then in daylight I can
+look after these papers. They won't be less interesting in the morning
+than they are now."
+
+There had been some rum stories about the old man, and now the nephew
+seemed to think he might have let the family sleep on the premises for
+that night; yes, at that moment he could have found it in his heart to
+have paid for all the expense of their keep, had it been possible to
+have had them back to remain the night.
+
+But that wasn't possible, for they would not have done it, but sooner
+have remained in the streets all night than stay there all night, like
+so many house-dogs, employed by one who stepped in between them and
+their father's goods, which were their inheritance, but for one trifling
+circumstance--a mere ceremony.
+
+The night came on, and he had lights. True it was he had not been down
+stairs, only just to have a look. He could not tell what sort of a place
+it was; there were a good many odd sort of passages, that seemed to end
+nowhere, and others that did.
+
+There were large doors; but they were all locked, and he had the keys;
+so he didn't mind, but secured all places that were not fastened.
+
+He then went up stairs again, and sat down in the room where the bureau
+was placed.
+
+"I'll be bound," said one of the guests, "he was in a bit of a stew,
+notwithstanding all his brag."
+
+"Oh! I don't believe," said another, "that anything done that is
+dangerous, or supposed to be dangerous, by the bravest man, is any way
+wholly without some uncomfortable feelings. They may not be strong
+enough to prevent the thing proposed to be done from being done, but
+they give a disagreeable sensation to the skin."
+
+"You have felt it, then?"
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+"Why, at that time I slept in the churchyard for a wager, I must say I
+felt cold all over, as if my skin was walking about me in an
+uncomfortable manner."
+
+"But you won your wager?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And of course you slept there?"
+
+"To be sure I did."
+
+"And met with nothing?"
+
+"Nothing, save a few bumps against the gravestones."
+
+"Those were hard knocks, I should say."
+
+"They were, I assure you; but I lay there, and slept there, and won my
+wager."
+
+"Would you do it again?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"Because of the rheumatism."
+
+"You caught that?"
+
+"I did; I would give ten times my wager to get rid of them. I have them
+very badly."
+
+"Come, order, order--the tale; let's hear the end of that, since it has
+begun."
+
+"With all my heart. Come, neighbour."
+
+"Well, as I said, he was fidgetty; but yet he was not a man to be very
+easily frightened or overcome, for he was stout and bold.
+
+"When he shut himself up in the room, he took out a bottle of some good
+wine, and helped himself to drink; it was good old wine, and he soon
+felt himself warmed and, comforted. He could have faced the enemy.
+
+"If one bottle produces such an effect," he muttered, "what will two
+do?"
+
+This was a question that could only be solved by trying it, and this he
+proceeded to do.
+
+But first he drew a brace of long barrelled pistols from his coat
+pocket, and taking a powder-flask and bullets from his pocket also, he
+loaded them very carefully.
+
+"There," said he, "are my bull-dogs; and rare watch-dogs they are. They
+never bark but they bite. Now, if anybody does come, it will be all up
+with them. Tricks upon travellers ain't a safe game when I have these;
+and now for the other bottle."
+
+He drew the other bottle, and thought, if anything, it was better than
+the first. He drank it rather quick, to be sure, and then he began to
+feel sleepy and tired.
+
+"I think I shall go to bed," he said; "that is, if I can find my way
+there, for it does seem to me as if the door was travelling. Never mind,
+it will make a call here again presently, and then I'll get through."
+
+So saying he arose. Taking the candle in his hand, he walked with a
+better step than might have been expected under the circumstance. True
+it was the candle wagged to and fro, and his shadow danced upon the
+wall; but still, when he got to the bed, he secured his door, put the
+light in a safe place, threw himself down, and was fast asleep in a few
+moments, or rather he fell into a doze instantaneously.
+
+How long he remained in this state he knew not, but he was suddenly
+awakened by a loud bang, as though something heavy and flat had fallen
+upon the floor--such, for instance, as a door, or anything of that sort.
+He jumped up, rubbed his eyes, and could even then hear the
+reverberations through the house.
+
+"What is that?" he muttered; "what is that?"
+
+He listened, and thought he could hear something moving down stairs, and
+for a moment he was seized with an ague fit; but recollecting, I
+suppose, that there were some valuables down stairs that were worth
+fighting for, he carefully extinguished the light that still burned, and
+softly crept down stairs.
+
+When he got down stairs he thought he could hear some one scramble up
+the kitchen stairs, and then into the room where the bureau was.
+Listening for a moment to ascertain if there were more than one, and
+then feeling convinced there was not, he followed into the parlour, when
+he heard the cabinet open by a key.
+
+This was a new miracle, and one he could not understand; and then he
+heard the papers begin to rattle and rustle; so, drawing out one of the
+pistols, he cocked it, and walked in.
+
+The figure instantly began to jump about; it was dressed in white--in
+grave-clothes. He was terribly nervous, and shook, so he feared to fire
+the pistol; but at length he did, and the report was followed by a fall
+and a loud groan.
+
+This was very dreadful--very dreadful; but all was quiet, and he lit the
+candle again, and approached the body to examine it, and ascertain if he
+knew who it was. A groan came from it. The bureau was open, and the
+figure clutched firmly a will in his hand.
+
+The figure was dressed in grave-clothes, and he started up when he saw
+the form and features of his own uncle, the man who was dead, who
+somehow or other had escaped his confinement, and found his way up,
+here. He held his will firmly; and the nephew was so horrified and
+stunned, that he threw down the light, and rushed out of the room with a
+shout of terror, and never returned again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The narrator concluded, and one of the guests said,--
+
+"And do you really believe it?"--"No, no--to be sure not."
+
+"You don't?"--"Why should I? My friend was, out of all hand, one of the
+greatest liars I ever came near; and why, therefore, should I believe
+him? I don't, on my conscience, believe one word of it."
+
+It was now half-past twelve, and, as Tom Eccles came not back, and the
+landlord did not feel disposed to draw any more liquor, they left the
+inn, and retired to their separate houses in a great state of anxiety to
+know the fate of their respective wagers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXIV.
+
+THE VAMPIRE IN THE MOONLIGHT.--THE FALSE FRIEND.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Part of the distance being accomplished towards the old ruins, Tom
+Eccles began to feel that what he had undertaken was not altogether such
+child's-play as he had at first imagined it to be. Somehow or another,
+with a singular and uncomfortable sort of distinctness, there came
+across his mind every story that he had remembered of the wild and the
+wonderful. All the long-since forgotten tales of superstition that in
+early childhood he had learned, came now back upon him, suggesting to
+his mind a thousand uncomfortable fancies of the strangest description.
+
+It was not likely that when once a man, under such circumstances, got
+into such a frame of mind, he would readily get out of it again, while
+he continued surrounded by such scenes as had first called them into
+existence.
+
+No doubt, had he turned about, and faced the inn again instead of the
+old ruins he would soon have shaken off these "thick coming fancies;"
+but such a result was no to be expected, so long as he kept on towards
+the dismal place he had pledged himself to reach.
+
+As he traversed meadow after meadow he began to ask himself some
+questions which he found that he could not answer exactly in a
+consolatory manner, under the present state of things.
+
+Among these question was the very pertinent one of,--"It's no argument
+against vampyres, because I don't see the use of 'em--is it?" This he
+was compelled to answer as he had put it; and when, in addition, he
+began to recollect that, without the shadow of a doubt, Sir Francis
+Varney the supposed vampyre, had been chased across the fields to that
+very ruin whither he was bound, and had then and there disappeared, he
+certainly found himself in decidedly uncomfortable and most unpromising
+situation.
+
+"No," he said, "no. Hang it, I won't go back now, to be made the
+laughing-stock of the whole town, which I should be. Come what may of
+it, I will go on as I have commenced; so I shall put on as stout a heart
+as I can."
+
+Then, having come to this resolve, he strove might and main to banish
+from his mind those disagreeable reminiscences that had been oppressing
+him, to turn his attention to subjects of a different complexion.
+
+During the progress of making this endeavour, which was rather futile,
+he came within sight of the ruins. Then he slackened his pace a little,
+telling himself, with a pardonable self-deceit, that it was common,
+ordinary caution only, which induced him to do so, and nothing at all in
+the shape of fear.
+
+"Time enough," he remarked, "to be afraid, when I see anything to be
+afraid of, which I don't see as yet. So, as all's right, I may as well
+put a good face upon the matter."
+
+He tried to whistle a tune, but it turned out only a melancholy failure;
+so he gave that up in despair, and walked on until he got within a
+hundred yards, or thereabouts, of the old ruins.
+
+He thus proceeded, and bending his ear close to the ground, he listened
+attentively for several minutes. Somehow, he fancied that a strange,
+murmuring sound came to his ears; but he was not quite sure that it
+proceeded from the ruins, because it was just that sort of sound that
+might come from a long way off, being mellowed by distance, although,
+perhaps, loud enough at its source.
+
+"Well, well," he whispered to himself, "it don't matter much, after all.
+Go I must, and hide the handkerchiefs somewhere, or else be laughed at,
+besides losing my wages. The former I don't like, and the latter I
+cannot afford."
+
+Thus clinching the matter by such knock-down arguments, he walked on
+until he was almost within the very shadow of the ruins, and, probably,
+it was at this juncture that his footsteps may have been heard by
+Marchdale and Sir Francis Varney.
+
+Then he paused again; but all was profoundly still, and he began to
+think that the strange sort of murmuring noise which he had heard must
+have come from far off and not at all from any person or persons within
+the ruins.
+
+"Let me see," he said to himself; "I have five handkerchiefs to hide
+among the old ruins somewhere, and the sooner I do so the better,
+because then I will get away; for, as regards staying here to watch,
+Heaven knows how long, for Sir Francis Varney, I don't intend to do it,
+upon second thoughts and second thoughts, they say, are generally best."
+
+With the most careful footsteps now, as if he were treading upon some
+fragile substance, which he feared to injure, he advanced until he was
+fairly within the precincts of the ancient place, which now bore so ill
+a reputation.
+
+He then made to himself much the same remark that Sir Francis Varney had
+made to Marchdale, with respect to the brightening up of the sky, in
+consequence of its being near the time for the moon to rise from the
+horizon, and he saw more clearly around him, although he could not find
+any good place to hide the handkerchiefs in.
+
+"I must and will," he said, "hide them securely; for it would, indeed,
+be remarkably unpleasant, after coming here and winning my wages, to
+have the proofs that I had done so taken away by some chance visitor to
+the place."
+
+He at length saw a tolerably large stone, which stood, in a slant
+position, up against one of the walls. Its size attracted him. He
+thought, if his strength was sufficient to move it, that it would be a
+good thing to do so, and to place the handkerchiefs beneath it; for, at
+all events, it was so heavy that it could not be kicked aside, and no
+one, without some sort of motive to do so, beyond the mere love of
+labour, would set about moving it from its position.
+
+"I may go further and fare worse," he said to himself; "so here shall
+all the handkerchiefs lie, to afford a proof that I have been here."
+
+He packed them into a small compass, and then stooped to roll aside the
+heavy stone, when, at the moment, before he could apply his strength to
+that purpose, he heard some one, in his immediate neighbourhood,
+say,--"Hist!"
+
+This was so sudden, and so utterly unexpected, that he not only ceased
+his exertions to move the stone, but he nearly fell down in his
+surprise.
+
+"Hist--hist!" said the voice again.
+
+"What--what," gasped Tom Eccles--"what are you?"--"Hush--hush--hush!"
+
+The perspiration broke out upon his brow, and he leaned against the wall
+for support, as he managed to say, faintly,--
+
+"Well, hush--what then?"--"Hist!"
+
+"Well, I hear you. Where are you?"
+
+"Here at hand. Who are you?"
+
+"Tom Eccles. Who are you?"--"A friend. Have you seen anything?"
+
+"No; I wish I could. I should like to see you if I could."--"I'm
+coming."
+
+There was a slow and cautious footstep, and Marchdale advanced to where
+Tom Eccles was standing.
+
+"Come, now," said the latter, when he saw the dusky-looking form
+stalking towards him; "till I know you better, I'll be obliged to you to
+keep off. I am well armed. Keep your distance, be you friend or foe."
+
+"Armed!" exclaimed Marchdale, and he at once paused.--"Yes, I am."
+
+"But I am a friend. I have no sort of objection frankly to tell you my
+errand. I am a friend of the Bannerworth family, and have kept watch
+here now for two nights, in the hopes of meeting with Varney, the
+vampyre."
+
+"The deuce you have: and pray what may your name be?"--"Marchdale."
+
+"If you be Mr. Marchdale, I know you by sight: for I have seen you with
+Mr. Henry Bannerworth several times. Come out from among the shadows,
+and let us have a look at you; but, till you do, don't come within arm's
+length of me. I am not naturally suspicious; but we cannot be too
+careful."
+
+"Oh! certainly--certainly. The silver edge of the moon is now just
+peeping up from the east, and you will be able to see me well, if you
+step from the shadow of the wall by which you now are."
+
+This was a reasonable enough proposition, and Tom Eccles at once acceded
+to it, by stepping out boldly into the partial moonlight, which now
+began to fall upon the open meadows, tinting the grass with a silvery
+refulgence, and rendering even minute objects visible. The moment he saw
+Marchdale he knew him, and, advancing frankly to him, he said,--
+
+"I know you, sir, well."
+
+"And what brings you here?"--"A wager for one thing, and a wish to see
+the vampyre for another."
+
+"Indeed!"--"Yes; I must own I have such a wish, along with a still
+stronger one, to capture him, if possible; and, as there are now two of
+us, why may we not do it?"
+
+"As for capturing him," said Marchdale, "I should prefer shooting
+him."--"You would?"
+
+"I would, indeed. I have seen him once shot down, and he is now, I have
+no doubt, as well as ever. What were you doing with that huge stone I
+saw you bending over?"--"I have some handkerchiefs to hide here, as a
+proof that I have to-night really been to this place."
+
+"Oh, I will show you a better spot, where there is a crevice in which
+you can place them with perfect safety. Will you walk with me into the
+ruins?"--"Willingly."
+
+"It's odd enough," remarked Marchdale, after he had shown Tom Eccles
+where to hide the handkerchiefs, "that you and I should both be here
+upon so similar an errand."--"I'm very glad of it. It robs the place of
+its gloom, and makes it ten times more endurable than it otherwise would
+be. What do you propose to do if you see the vampyre?"
+
+"I shall try a pistol bullet on him. You say you are armed?"--"Yes."
+
+"With pistols?"--"One. Here it is."
+
+"A huge weapon; loaded well, of course?"--"Oh, yes, I can depend upon
+it; but I did not intend to use it, unless assailed."
+
+"'Tis well. What is that?"--"What--what?"
+
+"Don't you see anything there? Come farther back. Look--look. At the
+corner of that wall there I am certain there is the flutter of a human
+garment."--"There is--there is."
+
+"Hush! Keep close. It must be the vampyre."--"Give me my pistol. What
+are you doing with it?"
+
+"Only ramming down the charge more firmly for you. Take it. If that be
+Varney the vampyre, I shall challenge him to surrender the moment he
+appears; and if he does not, I will fire upon him, and do you do so
+likewise."--"Well, I--I don't know."
+
+"You have scruples?"--"I certainly have."
+
+"Well, well--don't you fire, then, but leave it to me. There;
+look--look. Now have you any doubt? There he goes; in his cloak. It
+is--it is----"--"Varney, by Heavens!" cried Tom Eccles.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Surrender!" shouted Marchdale.
+
+At the instant Sir Francis Varney sprang forward, and made off at a
+rapid pace across the meadows.
+
+"Fire after him--fire!" cried Marchdale, "or he will escape. My pistol
+has missed fire. He will be off."
+
+On the impulse of the moment, and thus urged by the voice and the
+gesture of his companion, Tom Eccles took aim as well as he could, and
+fired after the retreating form of Sir Francis Varney. His conscience
+smote him as he heard the report and saw the flash of the large pistol
+amid the half sort of darkness that was still around.
+
+The effect of the shot was then to him painfully apparent. He saw Varney
+stop instantly; then make a vain attempt to stagger forward a little,
+and finally fall heavily to the earth, with all the appearance of one
+killed upon the spot.
+
+"You have hit him," said Marchdale--"you have hit him. Bravo!"--"I
+have--hit him."
+
+"Yes, a capital shot, by Jove!"--"I am very sorry."
+
+"Sorry! sorry for ridding the world of such a being! What was in your
+pistol?"--"A couple of slugs."
+
+"Well, they have made a lodgment in him, that's quite clear. Let's go up
+and finish him at once."--"He seems finished."
+
+"I beg your pardon there. When the moonbeams fall upon him he'll get up
+and walk away as if nothing was the matter."--"Will he?" cried Tom, with
+animation--"will he?"
+
+"Certainly he will."--"Thank God for that. Now, hark you, Mr. Marchdale:
+I should not have fired if you had not at the moment urged me to do so.
+Now, I shall stay and see if the effect which you talk of will ensue;
+and although it may convince me that he is a vampyre, and that there are
+such things, he may go off, scot free, for me."
+
+"Go off?"--"Yes; I don't want to have even a vampyre's blood upon my
+hands."
+
+"You are exceedingly delicate."--"Perhaps I am; it's my way, though. I
+have shot him--not you, mind; so, in a manner of speaking, he belongs to
+me. Now, mark, me: I won't have him touched any more to-night, unless
+you think there's a chance of making a prisoner of him without
+violence."
+
+"There he lies; you can go and make a prisoner of him at once, dead as
+he is; and if you take him out of the moonlight--"
+
+"I understand; he won't recover."--"Certainly not."
+
+"But, as I want him to recover, that don't suit me."--"Well, I cannot
+but honour your scruples, although I do not actually share in them; but
+I promise you that, since such is your wish, I will take no steps
+against the vampyre; but let us come up to him and see if he be really
+dead, or only badly wounded."
+
+Tom Eccles hang back a little from this proposal; but, upon being urged
+again by Marchdale, and told that he need not go closer than he chose,
+he consented, and the two of them approached the prostrate form of Sir
+Francis Varney, which lay upon its face in the faint moonlight, which
+each moment was gathering strength and power.
+
+"He lies upon his face," said Marchdale. "Will you go and turn him
+over?"--"Who--I? God forbid I should touch him."
+
+"Well--well, I will. Come on."
+
+They halted within a couple of yards of the body. Tom Eccles would not
+go a step farther; so Marchdale advanced alone, and pretended to be,
+with great repugnance, examining for the wound.
+
+"He is quite dead," he said; "but I cannot see the hurt."--"I think he
+turned his head as I fired."
+
+"Did he? Let us see."
+
+Marchdale lifted up the head, and disclosed such a mass of
+clotted-looking blood, that Tom Eccles at once took to his heels, nor
+stopped until he was nearly as far off as the ruins. Marchdale followed
+him more slowly, and when he came up to him, he said,--
+
+"The slugs have taken effect on his face."--"I know it--I know it. Don't
+tell me."
+
+"He looks horrible."--"And I am a murderer."
+
+"Psha! You look upon this matter too seriously. Think of who and what he
+was, and then you will soon acquit yourself of being open to any such
+charge."--"I am bewildered, Mr. Marchdale, and cannot now know whether
+he be a vampyre or not. If he be not, I have murdered, most
+unjustifiably, a fellow-creature."
+
+"Well, but if he be?"--"Why, even then I do not know but that I ought to
+consider myself as guilty. He is one of God's creatures if he were ten
+times a vampyre."
+
+"Well, you really do take a serious view of the affair."--"Not more
+serious than it deserves."
+
+"And what do you mean to do?"--"I shall remain here to await the result
+of what you tell me will ensue, if he be a real vampire. Even now the
+moonbeams are full upon him, and each moment increasing in intensity.
+Think you he will recover?"
+
+"I do indeed."--"Then here will I wait."
+
+"Since that is you resolve, I will keep you company. We shall easily
+find some old stone in the ruins which will serve us for a seat, and
+there at leisure we can keep our eyes upon the dead body, and be able to
+observe if it make the least movement."
+
+This plan was adopted, and they sat down just within the ruins, but in
+such a place that they had a full view of the dead body, as it appeared
+to be, of Sir Francis Varney, upon which the sweet moonbeams shone full
+and clear.
+
+Tom Eccles related how he was incited to come upon his expedition, but
+he might have spared himself that trouble, as Marchdale had been in a
+retired corner of the inn parlour before he came to his appointment with
+Varney, and heard the business for the most part proposed.
+
+Half-an-hour, certainly not more, might have elapsed; when suddenly Tom
+Eccles uttered an exclamation, partly of surprise and partly of
+terror,--
+
+"He moves; he moves!" he cried. "Look at the vampyre's body."
+
+Marchdale affected to look with an all-absorbing interest, and there was
+Sir Francis Varney, raising slowly one arm with the hand outstretched
+towards the moon, as if invoking that luminary to shed more of its beams
+upon him. Then the body moved slowly, like some one writhing in pain,
+and yet unable to move from the spot on which it lay. From the head to
+the foot, the whole frame seemed to be convulsed, and now and then as
+the ghastly object seemed to be gathering more strength, the limbs were
+thrown out with a rapid and a frightful looking violence.
+
+It was truly to one, who might look upon it as a reality and no juggle,
+a frightful sight to see, and although Marchdale, of course, tolerably
+well preserved his equanimity, only now and then, for appearance sake,
+affecting to be wonderfully shocked, poor Tom Eccles was in such a state
+of horror and fright that he could not, if he would, have flown from the
+spot, so fascinated was he by the horrible spectacle.
+
+This was a state of things which continued for many minutes, and then
+the body showed evident symptoms of so much returning animation, that it
+was about to rise from his gory bed and mingle once again with the
+living.
+
+"Behold!" said Marchdale--"behold!"--"Heaven have mercy upon us!"
+
+"It is as I said; the beams of the moon have revived the vampyre. You
+perceive now that there can be no doubt."--"Yes, yes, I see him; I see
+him."
+
+Sir Francis Varney now, as if with a great struggle, rose to his feet,
+and looked up at the bright moon for some moments with such an air and
+manner that it would not have required any very great amount of
+imagination to conceive that he was returning to it some sort of
+thanksgiving for the good that it had done to him.
+
+He then seemed for some moments in a state of considerable indecision as
+to which way he should proceed. He turned round several times. Then he
+advanced a step or two towards the house, but apparently his resolution
+changed again, and casting his eyes upon the ruins, he at once made
+towards them.
+
+This was too much for the philosophy as well as for the courage of Tom
+Eccles. It was all very well to look on at some distance, and observe
+the wonderful and inexplicable proceedings of the vampyre; but when he
+showed symptoms of making a nearer acquaintance, it was not to be borne.
+
+"Why, he's coming here," said Tom.--"He seems so indeed," remarked
+Marchdale.
+
+"Do you mean to stay?"--"I think I shall."
+
+"You do, do you?"--"Yes, I should much like to question him, and as we
+are two to one I think we really can have nothing to fear."
+
+"Do you? I'm altogether of a different opinion. A man who has more lives
+than a cat don't much mind at what odds he fights. You may stay if you
+like."--"You do not mean to say that you will desert me?"
+
+"I don't see a bit how you call it deserting you; if we had come out
+together on this adventure, I would have stayed it out with you; but as
+we came separate and independent, we may as well go back so."--"Well,
+but--"
+
+"Good morning?" cried Tom, and he at once took to his heels towards the
+town, without staying to pay any attention to the remonstrances of
+Marchdale, who called after him in vain.
+
+Sir Francis Varney, probably, had Tom Eccles not gone off so rapidly,
+would have yet taken another thought, and gone in another direction than
+that which led him to the ruins, and Tom, if he had had his senses fully
+about him, as well as all his powers of perception, would have seen that
+the progress of the vampyre was very slow, while he continued to
+converse with Marchdale, and that it was only when he went off at good
+speed that Sir Francis Varney likewise thought it prudent to do so.
+
+"Is he much terrified?" said Varney, as he came up to Marchdale.--"Yes,
+most completely."
+
+"This then, will make a good story in the town."--"It will, indeed, and
+not a little enhance your reputation."
+
+"Well, well; it don't much matter now; but if by terrifying people I can
+purchase for myself anything like immunity for the past, I shall be
+satisfied."--"I think you may now safely reckon that you have done so.
+This man who has fled with so much precipitation, had courage."
+
+"Unquestionably."--"Or else he would have shrunk from coming here at
+all."
+
+"True, but his courage and presence arose from his strong doubts as to
+the existence of such beings as vampyres."--"Yes, and now that he is
+convinced, his bravery has evaporated along with his doubts; and such a
+tale as he has now to tell, will be found sufficient to convert even the
+most sceptical in the town."
+
+"I hope so."--"And yet it cannot much avail you."
+
+"Not personally, but I must confess that I am not dead to all human
+opinions, and I feel some desire of revenge against those dastards who
+by hundreds have hunted me, burnt down my mansion, and sought my
+destruction."--"That I do not wonder at."
+
+"I would fain leave among them a legacy of fear. Such fear as shall
+haunt them and their children for years to come. I would wish that the
+name of Varney, the vampire, should be a sound of terror for
+generations."--"It will be so."
+
+"It shall."--"And now, then, for a consideration of what is to be done
+with our prisoner. What is your resolve upon that point?"
+
+"I have considered it while I was lying upon yon green sward waiting for
+the friendly moonbeams to fall upon my face, and it seems to me that
+there is no sort of resource but to----"--"Kill him?"
+
+"No, no."--"What then?"
+
+"To set him free."--"Nay, have you considered the immense hazard of
+doing so? Think again; I pray you think again. I am decidedly of opinion
+that he more than suspects who are his enemies; and, in that case, you
+know what consequences would ensue; besides, have we not enough already
+to encounter? Why should we add another young, bold, determined spirit
+to the band which is already arrayed against us?"
+
+"You talk in vain, Marchdale; I know to what it all tends; you have a
+strong desire for the death of this young man."--"No; there you wrong
+me. I have no desire for his death, for its own sake; but, where great
+interests are at stake, there must be sacrifices made."
+
+"So there must; therefore, I will make a sacrifice, and let this young
+prisoner free from his dungeon."--"If such be your determination, I know
+well it is useless to combat with it. When do you purpose giving him his
+freedom?"
+
+"I will not act so heedlessly as that your principles of caution shall
+blame me. I will attempt to get from him some promise that he will not
+make himself an active instrument against me. Perchance, too, as
+Bannerworth Hall, which he is sure to visit, wears such an air of
+desertion, I may be able to persuade him that the Bannerworth family, as
+well as his uncle, have left this part of the country altogether; so
+that, without making any inquiry for them about the neighbourhood, he
+may be induced to leave at once."--"That would be well."
+
+"Good; your prudence approves of the plan, and therefore it shall be
+done."--"I am rather inclined to think," said Marchdale, with a slight
+tone of sarcasm, "that if my prudence did not approve of the plan, it
+would still be done."
+
+"Most probably," said Varney, calmly.--"Will you release him to-night?"
+
+"It is morning, now, and soon the soft grey light of day will tint the
+east. I do not think I will release him till sunset again now. Has he
+provision to last him until then?"--"He has."
+
+"Well, then, two hours after sunset I will come here and release him
+from his weary bondage, and now I must go to find some place in which to
+hide my proscribed head. As for Bannerworth Hall, I will yet have it in
+my power; I have sworn to do so, I will keep my oath."--"The
+accomplishment of our purpose, I regret to say, seems as far off as
+ever."
+
+"Not so--not so. As I before remarked, we must disappear, for a time, so
+as to lull suspicion. There will then arise a period when Bannerworth
+Hall will neither be watched, as it is now, nor will it be inhabited,--a
+period before the Bannerworth family has made up its mind to go back to
+it, and when long watching without a result has become too tiresome to
+be continued at all; then we can at once pursue our object."--"Be it
+so."
+
+"And now, Marchdale, I want more money."--"More money!"
+
+"Yes; you know well that I have had large demands of late."--"But I
+certainly had an impression that you were possessed, by the death of
+some one, with very ample means."
+
+"Yes, but there is a means by which all is taken from me. I have no real
+resources but what are rapidly used up, so I must come upon you
+again."--"I have already completely crippled myself as regards money
+matters in this enterprise, and I do certainly hope that the fruits will
+not be far distant. If they be much longer delayed, I shall really not
+know what to do. However, come to the lodge where you have been staying,
+and then I will give you, to the extent of my ability, whatever sum you
+think your present exigencies require."
+
+"Come on, then, at once. I would certainly, of course, rather leave this
+place now, before daybreak. Come on, I say, come on."
+
+Sir Francis Varney and Marchdale walked for some time in silence across
+the meadows. It was evident that there was not between these associates
+the very best of feelings. Marchdale was always smarting under an
+assumption of authority over him, on the part of Sir Francis Varney,
+while the latter scarcely cared to conceal any portion of the contempt
+with which he regarded his hypocritical companion.
+
+Some very strong band of union, indeed, must surely bind these two
+strange persons together! It must be something of a more than common
+nature which induces Marchdale not only to obey the behests of his
+mysterious companion, but to supply him so readily with money as we
+perceive he promises to do.
+
+And, as regards Varney, the vampyre, he, too, must have some great
+object in view to induce him to run such a world of risk, and take so
+much trouble as he was doing with the Bannerworth family.
+
+What his object is, and what is the object of Marchdale, will, now that
+we have progressed so far in our story, soon appear, and then much that
+is perfectly inexplicable, will become clear and distinct, and we shall
+find that some strong human motives are at the bottom of it all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXV.
+
+VARNEY'S VISIT TO THE DUNGEON OF THE LONELY PRISONER IN THE RUINS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Evident it was that Marchdale was not near so scrupulous as Sir Francis
+Varney, in what he chose to do. He would, without hesitation, have
+sacrificed the life of that prisoner in the lonely dungeon, whom it
+would be an insult to the understanding of our readers, not to presume
+that they had, long ere this, established in their minds to be Charles
+Holland.
+
+His own safety seemed to be the paramount consideration with Marchdale,
+and it was evident that he cared for nothing in comparison with that
+object.
+
+It says much, however, for Sir Francis Varney, that he did not give in
+to such a blood-thirsty feeling, but rather chose to set the prisoner
+free, and run all the chances of the danger to which he might expose
+himself by such a course of conduct, than to insure safety,
+comparatively, by his destruction.
+
+Sir Francis Varney is evidently a character of strangely mixed feelings.
+It is quite evident that he has some great object in view, which he
+wishes to accomplish almost at any risk; but it is equally evident, at
+the same time, that he wishes to do so with the least possible injury to
+others, or else he would never have behaved as he had done in his
+interview with the beautiful and persecuted Flora Bannerworth, or now
+suggested the idea of setting Charles Holland free from the dreary
+dungeon in which he had been so long confined.
+
+We are always anxious and willing to give every one credit for the good
+that is in them; and, hence, we are pleased to find that Sir Francis
+Varney, despite his singular, and apparently preternatural capabilities,
+has something sufficiently human about his mind and feelings, to induce
+him to do as little injury as possible to others in the pursuit of his
+own objects.
+
+Of the two, vampyre as he is, we prefer him much to the despicable and
+hypocritical, Marchdale, who, under the pretence of being the friend of
+the Bannerworth family, would freely have inflicted upon them the most
+deadly injuries.
+
+It was quite clear that he was most dreadfully disappointed that Sir
+Francis Varney, would not permit him to take the life of Charles
+Holland, and it was with a gloomy and dissatisfied air that he left the
+ruins to proceed towards the town, after what we may almost term the
+altercation he had had with Varney the vampyre upon that subject.
+
+It must not be supposed that Sir Francis Varney, however, was blind to
+the danger which must inevitably accrue from permitting Charles Holland
+once more to obtain his liberty.
+
+What the latter would be able to state would be more than sufficient to
+convince the Bannerworths, and all interested in their fortunes, that
+something was going on of a character, which, however, supernatural it
+might seem to be, still seemed to have some human and ordinary objects
+for its ends.
+
+Sir Francis Varney thought over all this before he proceeded, according
+to his promise, to the dungeon of the prisoner; but it would seem as if
+there was considerable difficulty, even to an individual of his long
+practice in all kinds of chicanery and deceit, in arriving at any
+satisfactory conclusion, as to a means of making Charles Holland's
+release a matter of less danger to himself, than it would be likely to
+be, if, unfettered by obligation, he was at once set free.
+
+At the solemn hour of midnight, while all was still, that is, to say, on
+the night succeeding the one, on which he had had the interview with
+Marchdale, we have recorded, Sir Francis Varney alone sought the silent
+ruins. He was attired, as usual, in his huge cloak, and, indeed, the
+chilly air of the evening warranted such protection against its numerous
+discomforts.
+
+Had any one seen him, however, that evening, they would have observed an
+air of great doubt, and irresolution upon his brow, as if he were
+struggling with some impulses which he found it extremely difficult to
+restrain.
+
+"I know well," he muttered, as he walked among the shadow of the ruins,
+"that Marchdale's reasoning is coldly and horribly correct, when he says
+that there is danger in setting this youth free; but, I am about to
+leave this place, and not to show myself for some time, and I cannot
+reconcile myself to inflicting upon him the horror of a death by
+starvation, which must ensue."
+
+It was a night of more than usual dullness, and, as Sir Francis Varney
+removed the massy stone, which hid the narrow and tortuous entrance to
+the dungeons, a chilly feeling crept over him, and he could not help
+supposing, that even then Marchdale might have played him false, and
+neglected to supply the prisoner food, according to his promise.
+
+Hastily he descended to the dungeons, and with a step, which had in it
+far less of caution, than had usually characterised his proceedings, he
+proceeded onwards until he reached that particular dungeon, in which our
+young friend, to whom we wished so well, had been so long confined from
+the beautiful and cheering light of day, and from all that his heart's
+best affections most cling to.
+
+"Speak," said Sir Francis Varney, as he entered the dungeon--"If the
+occupant of this dreary place live, let him answer one who is as much
+his friend as he has been his enemy."
+
+"I have no friend," said Charles Holland, faintly; "unless it be one who
+would come and restore me to liberty."
+
+"And how know you that I am not he?"
+
+"Your voice sounds like that of one of my persecutors. Why do you not
+place the climax to your injuries by at once taking away life. I should
+be better pleased that you would do so, than that I should wear out the
+useless struggle of existence in so dreary and wretched an abode as
+this."
+
+"Young man," said Sir Francis Varney, "I have come to you on a greater
+errand of mercy than, probably, you will ever give me credit for. There
+is one who would too readily have granted your present request, and who
+would at once have taken that life of which you profess to be so
+wearied; but which may yet present to you some of its sunniest and most
+beautiful aspects."
+
+"Your tones are friendly," said Charles; "but yet I dread some new
+deception. That you are one of those who consigned me by stratagem, and
+by brute force, to this place of durance, I am perfectly well assured,
+and, therefore, any good that may be promised by you, presents itself to
+me in a very doubtful character."
+
+"I cannot be surprised," said Sir Francis Varney, "at such sentiments
+arising from your lips; but, nevertheless, I am inclined to save you.
+You have been detained here because it was supposed by being so, a
+particular object would be best obtained by your absence. That object,
+however has failed, notwithstanding, and I do not feel further inclined
+to protract your sufferings. Have you any guess as to the parties who
+have thus confined you?"--"I am unaccustomed to dissemble, and,
+therefore I will say at once that I have a guess."
+
+"In which way does it tend?"--
+
+"Against Sir Francis Varney, called the vampyre."
+
+"Does it not strike you that this may be a dangerous candour?"--"It may,
+or it may not be; I cannot help it. I know I am at the mercy of my foes,
+and I do not believe that anything I can say or do will make my
+situation worse or better."
+
+"You are much mistaken there. In other hands than mine, it might make it
+much worse; but it happens to be one of my weaknesses, that I am charged
+with candour, and that I admire boldness of disposition."--"Indeed! and
+yet can behave in the manner you have done towards me."
+
+"Yes. There are more things in heaven and on earth than are dreamt of in
+your philosophy. I am the more encouraged to set you free, because, if I
+procure from you a promise, which I intend to attempt, I am inclined to
+believe that you will keep it."--"I shall assuredly keep whatever
+promise I may make. Propound your conditions, and if they be such as
+honour and honesty will permit me to accede to, I will do so willingly
+and at once. Heaven knows I am weary enough of this miserable
+imprisonment."
+
+"Will you promise me then, if I set you free, not to mention your
+suspicions that it is to Sir Francis Varney you owe this ill turn, and
+not to attempt any act of vengeance against him as a retaliation for
+it."--"I cannot promise so much as that. Freedom, indeed, would be a
+poor boon, if I were not permitted freely to converse of some of the
+circumstances connected with my captivity."
+
+"You object?"--"I do to the former of your propositions, but not to the
+latter. I will promise not to go at all out of my way to execute any
+vengeance upon you; but I will not promise that I will not communicate
+the circumstances of my forced absence from them, to those friends whose
+opinion I so much value, and to return to whom is almost as dear to me
+as liberty itself."
+
+Sir Francis Varney was silent for a few moments, and then he said, in a
+tone of deep solemnity,--
+
+"There are ninety-nine persons out of a hundred who would take your life
+for the independence of your tongue; but I am as the hundredth one, who
+looks with a benevolent eye at your proceedings. Will you promise me, if
+I remove the fetters which now bind your limbs, that you will make no
+personal attack upon me; for I am weary of personal contention, and I
+have no disposition to endure it. Will you make me this promise?"--"I
+promise?"--"I will."
+
+Without another word, but trusting implicitly to the promise which had
+been given to him, Sir Francis Varney produced a small key from his
+pocket, and unlocked with it a padlock which confined the chains about
+the prisoner.
+
+With ease, Charles Holland was then enabled to shake them off, and then,
+for the first time, for some weeks, he rose to his feet, and felt all
+the exquisite relief of being comparatively free from bondage.
+
+"This is delightful, indeed," he said.
+
+"It is," said Sir Francis Varney--"it is but a foretaste of the
+happiness you will enjoy when you are entirely free. You see that I have
+trusted you."
+
+"You have trusted me as you might trust me, and you perceive that I have
+kept my word."
+
+"You have; and since you decline to make me the promise which I would
+fain have from you, to the effect that you would not mention me as one
+of the authors of your calamity, I must trust to your honour not to
+attempt revenge for what you have suffered."
+
+"That I will promise. There can be but little difficulty to any generous
+mind in giving up such a feeling. In consequence of your sparing me what
+you might still further have inflicted, I will let the past rest, and as
+if it had never happened really to me; and speak of it to others, but as
+a circumstance which I wish not to revert to, but prefer should be
+buried in oblivion."
+
+"It is well; and now I have a request to make of you, which, perhaps,
+you will consider the hardest of all."
+
+"Name it. I feel myself bound to a considerable extent to comply with
+whatever you may demand of me, that is not contrary to honourable
+principle."
+
+"Then it is this, that, comparatively free as you are, and in a
+condition, as you are, to assert your own freedom, you will not do so
+hastily, or for a considerable period; in fact, I wish and expect that
+you should wait yet awhile, until it shall suit me to say that it is my
+pleasure that you shall be free."
+
+"That is, indeed, a hard condition to man who feels, as you yourself
+remark, that he can assert his freedom. It is one which I have still a
+hope you will not persevere in.
+
+"Nay, young man, I think that I have treated you with generosity, to
+make you feel that I am not the worst of foes you could have had. All I
+require of you is, that you should wait here for about an hour. It is
+now nearly one o'clock; will you wait until you hear it strike two
+before you actually make a movement to leave this place?"
+
+Charles Holland hesitated for some moments, and then he said,--
+
+"Do not fancy that I am not one who appreciates the singular trust you
+have reposed in me; and, however repugnant to me it may be to remain
+here, a voluntary prisoner, I am inclined to do so, if it be but to
+convince you that the trust you have reposed in me is not in vain, and
+that I can behave with equal generosity to you as you can to me."
+
+"Be it so," said Sir Francis Varney; "I shall leave you with a full
+reliance that you will keep your word; and now, farewell. When you think
+of me, fancy me rather one unfortunate than criminal, and tell yourself
+that even Varney the vampyre had some traits in his character, which,
+although they might not raise your esteem, at all events did not loudly
+call for your reprobation."
+
+"I shall do so. Oh! Flora, Flora, I shall look upon you once again,
+after believing and thinking that I had bidden you a long and last
+adieu. My own beautiful Flora, it is joy indeed to think that I shall
+look upon that face again, which, to my perception, is full of all the
+majesty of loveliness."
+
+Sir Francis Varney looked coldly on while Charles uttered this
+enthusiastic speech.
+
+"Remember," he said, "till two o'clock;" and he walked towards the door
+of the dungeon. "You will have no difficulty in finding your way out
+from this place. Doubtless you already perceive the entrance by which I
+gained admission."
+
+"Had I been free," said Charles, "and had the use of my limbs, I should,
+long ere this, have worked my way to life and liberty."
+
+"'Tis well. Goodnight."
+
+Varney walked from the place, and just closed the door behind him. With
+a slow and stately step he left the ruins, and Charles Holland found
+himself once more alone, but in a much more enviable condition than for
+many weeks he could have called his.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXVI.
+
+FLORA BANNERWORTH'S APPARENT INCONSISTENCY.--THE ADMIRAL'S CIRCUMSTANCES
+AND ADVICE.--MR. CHILLINGWORTH'S MYSTERIOUS ABSENCE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+For a brief space let us return to Flora Bannerworth, who had suffered
+so much on account of her affections, as well as on account of the
+mysterious attack that had been made upon her by the reputed vampyre.
+
+After leaving Bannerworth Hall for a short time, she seemed to recover
+her spirits; but this was a state of things which did not last, and only
+showed how fallacious it was to expect that, after the grievous things
+that had happened, she would rapidly recover her equanimity.
+
+It is said, by learned physiologists, that two bodily pains cannot
+endure at the same space of time in the system; and, whether it be so or
+not, is a question concerning which it would be foreign to the nature of
+our work, to enter into anything like an elaborate disquisition.
+
+Certainly, however, so far as Flora Bannerworth was concerned, she
+seemed inclined to show that, mentally, the observation was a true one,
+for that, now she became released from a continued dread of the visits
+of the vampyre, her mind would, with more painful interest than ever,
+recur to the melancholy condition, probably, of Charles Holland, if he
+were alive, and to soul-harrowing reflections concerning him, if he were
+dead.
+
+She could not, and she did not, believe, for one moment, that his
+desertion of her had been of a voluntary character. She knew, or fancied
+she knew, him by far too well for that; and she more than once expressed
+her opinion, to the effect that she was perfectly convinced his
+disappearance was a part and parcel of all that train of circumstances
+which had so recently occurred, and produced such a world of unhappiness
+to her, as well as to the whole of the Bannerworth family.
+
+"If he had never loved me," she said to her brother Henry, "he would
+have been alive and well; but he has fallen a victim to the truth of a
+passion, and to the constancy of an affection which, to my dying day, I
+will believe in."
+
+Now that Mr. Marchdale had left the place there was no one to dispute
+this proposition with Flora, for all, as well as she, were fully
+inclined to think well of Charles Holland.
+
+It was on the very morning which preceded that evening when Sir Francis
+Varney called upon Charles Holland in the manner we have related, with
+the gratifying news that, upon certain conditions, he might be released,
+that Flora Bannerworth, when the admiral came to see them, spoke to him
+of Charles Holland, saying,--
+
+"Now, sir, that I am away from Bannerworth Hall, I do not, and cannot
+feel satisfied; for the thought that Charles may eventually come back,
+and seek us there, still haunts me. Fancy him, sir, doing so, and seeing
+the place completely deserted."
+
+"Well, there's something in that," said the admiral; "but, however, he's
+hardly such a goose, if it were so to happen, to give up the chase--he'd
+find us out somehow."
+
+"You think he would, sir? or, do you not think that despair would seize
+upon him, and that, fancying we had all left the spot for ever, he might
+likewise do so; so that we should lose him more effectually than we have
+done at present?"
+
+"No; hardly," said the admiral; "he couldn't be such a goose as that.
+Why, when I was of his age, if I had secured the affections of a young
+girl like you, I'd have gone over all the world, but I'd have found out
+where she was; and what I mean to say is, if he's half such a goose as
+you think him, he deserves to lose you."
+
+"Did you not tell me something, sir, of Mr. Chillingworth talking of
+taking possession of the Hall for a brief space of time?"
+
+"Why, yes, I did; and I expect he is there now; in fact, I'm sure he's
+there, for he said he would be."
+
+"No, he ain't," said Jack Pringle, at that moment entering the room;
+"you're wrong again, as you always are, somehow or other."
+
+"What, you vagabond, are you here, you mutinous rascal?"--"Ay, ay, sir;
+go on; don't mind me. I wonder what you'd do, sir, if you hadn't
+somebody like me to go on talking about."
+
+"Why, you infernal rascal, I wonder what you'd do if you had not an
+indulgent commander, who puts up even with real mutiny, and says nothing
+about it. But where have you been? Did you go as I directed you, and
+take some provisions to Bannerworth Hall?"
+
+"Yes, I did; but I brought them back again; there's nobody there, and
+don't seem likely to be, except a dead body."
+
+"A dead body! Whose body can that be!"--"Tom somebody; for I'm d----d if
+it ain't a great he cat."
+
+"You scoundrel, how dare you alarm me in such a way? But do you mean to
+tell me that you did not see Dr. Chillingworth at the Hall?"--"How could
+I see him, if he wasn't there?"
+
+"But he was there; he said he would be there."--"Then he's gone again,
+for there's nobody there that I know of in the shape of a doctor. I went
+through every part of the ship--I mean the house--and the deuce a soul
+could I find; so as it was rather lonely and uncomfortable, I came away
+again. 'Who knows,' thought I, 'but some blessed vampyre or another may
+come across me.'"
+
+"This won't do," said the old admiral, buttoning up his coat to the
+chin; "Bannerworth Hall must not be deserted in this way. It is quite
+clear that Sir Francis Varney and his associates have some particular
+object in view in getting possession of the place. Here, you
+Jack."--"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Just go back again, and stay at the Hall till somebody comes to you.
+Even such a stupid hound as you will be something to scare away
+unwelcome visitors. Go back to the Hall, I say. What are you staring
+at?"--"Back to Bannerworth Hall!" said Jack. "What! just where I've come
+from; all that way off, and nothing to eat, and, what's worse, nothing
+to drink. I'll see you d----d first."
+
+The admiral caught up a table-fork, and made a rush at Jack; but Henry
+Bannerworth interfered.
+
+"No, no," he said, "admiral; no, no--not that. You must recollect that
+you yourself have given this, no doubt, faithful fellow of your's
+liberty to do and say a great many things which don't look like good
+service; but I have no doubt, from what I have seen of his disposition,
+that he would risk his life rather than, that you should come to any
+harm."
+
+"Ay, ay," said Jack; "he quite forgets when the bullets were scuttling
+our nobs off Cape Ushant, when that big Frenchman had hold of him by the
+_skirf_ of his neck, and began pummelling his head, and the lee scuppers
+were running with blood, and a bit of Joe Wiggins's brains had come slap
+in my eye, while some of Jack Marling's guts was hanging round my neck
+like a nosegay, all in consequence of grape-shot--then he didn't say as
+I was a swab, when I came up, and bored a hole in the Frenchman's back
+with a pike. Ay, it's all very well now, when there's peace, and no
+danger, to call Jack Pringle a lubberly rascal, and mutinous. I'm
+blessed if it ain't enough to make an old pair of shoes faint away."
+
+"Why, you infernal scoundrel," said the admiral, "nothing of the sort
+ever happened, and you know it. Jack, you're no seaman."--"Werry good,"
+said Jack; "then, if I ain't no seaman, you are what shore-going people
+calls a jolly fat old humbug."
+
+"Jack, hold your tongue," said Henry Bannerworth; "you carry these
+things too far. You know very well that your master esteems you, and you
+should not presume too much upon that fact."--"My master!" said Jack;
+"don't call him my master. I never had a master, and don't intend. He's
+my admiral, if you like; but an English sailor don't like a master."
+
+"I tell you what it is, Jack," said the admiral; "you've got your good
+qualities, I admit."--"Ay, ay, sir--that's enough; you may as well leave
+off well while you can."
+
+"But I'll just tell you what you resemble more than anything
+else."--"Chew me up! what may that be, sir?"
+
+"A French marine."--"A what! A French marine! Good-bye. I wouldn't say
+another word to you, if you was to pay me a dollar a piece. Of all the
+blessed insults rolled into one, this here's the worstest. You might
+have called me a marine, or you might have called me a Frenchman, but to
+make out that I'm both a marine and a Frenchman, d--me, if it isn't
+enough to make human nature stand on an end! Now, I've done with you."
+
+"And a good job, too," said the admiral. "I wish I'd thought of it
+before. You're worse than a third day's ague, or a hot and a cold fever
+in the tropics."--"Very good," said Jack; "I only hope Providence will
+have mercy upon you, and keep an eye upon you when I'm gone, otherwise,
+I wonder what will become of you? It wasn't so when young Belinda, who
+you took off the island of Antiggy, in the Ingies, jumped overboard, and
+I went after her in a heavy swell. Howsomdever, never mind, you shook
+hands with me then; and while a bushel of the briny was weeping out of
+the corner of each of your blinkers, you says, says you,--"
+
+"Hold!" cried the admiral, "hold! I know what I said, Jack. It's cut a
+fathom deep in my memory. Give us your fist, Jack, and--and--"--"Hold
+yourself," said Jack; "I know what you're going to say, and I won't hear
+you say it--so there's an end of it. Lor bless you! I knows you. I ain't
+a going to leave you. Don't be afraid; I only works you up, and works
+you down again, just to see if there's any of that old spirit in you
+when we was aboard the Victory. Don't you recollect, admiral?"
+
+"Yes--yes; enough, Jack."--"Why, let me see--that was a matter of forty
+years ago, nearly, when I was a youngster."
+
+"There--there, Jack--that'll do. You bring the events of other years
+fresh upon my memory. Peace--peace. I have not forgotten; but still, to
+hear what you know of them, if recited, would give the old man a
+pang."--"A pang," said Jack; "I suppose that's some dictionary word for
+a punch in the eye. That would be mutiny with a vengeance; so I'm off."
+
+"Go, go."--"I'm a going; and just to please you, I'll go to the Hall, so
+you sha'n't say that you told me to do anything that I didn't."
+
+Away went Jack, whistling an air, that might have been popular when he
+and the admiral were young, and Henry Bannerworth could not but remark
+that an appearance of great sadness came over the old man, when Jack was
+gone.
+
+"I fear, sir," he said, "that heedless sailor has touched upon some
+episode in your existence, the wounds of which are still fresh enough to
+give you pain."--"It is so," said the old admiral; "just look at me,
+now. Do I look like the hero of a romantic love story?"
+
+"Not exactly, I admit."--"Well, notwithstanding that, Jack Pringle has
+touched a chord that vibrates in my heart yet," replied the admiral.
+
+"Have you any objection to tell me of it?"--"None, whatever; and
+perhaps, by the time I have done, the doctor may have found his way back
+again, or Jack may bring us some news of him. So here goes for a short,
+but a true yarn."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXVII.
+
+THE ADMIRAL'S STORY OF THE BEAUTIFUL BELINDA.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Just at this moment Flora Bannerworth stole into the room from whence
+she had departed a short time since; but when she saw that old Admiral
+Bell was looking so exceedingly serious, and apparently about to address
+Henry upon some very important subject, she would have retired, but he
+turned towards her, and said,--
+
+"My story, my dear, I've no objection to your hearing, and, like all
+women folks, a love story never comes amiss to you; so you may as well
+stay and hear it."--"A love story," said Flora; "you tell a love story,
+sir?"
+
+"Yes, my dear, and not only tell it, but be the hero of it, likewise;
+ain't you astonished?"--"I am, indeed."
+
+"Well, you'll be more astonished then before I've done; so just listen.
+As Jack Pringle says, it was the matter of about somewhere forty years
+ago, that I was in command of the Victory frigate, which was placed upon
+the West Indian station, during a war then raging, for the protection of
+our ports and harbours in that vicinity. We'd not a strong force in that
+quarter, therefore, I had to cut about from place to place, and do the
+best I could. After a time, though, I rather think that we frightened
+off the enemy, during which time I chiefly anchored off the island of
+Antigua, and was hospitably received at the house of a planter, of the
+name of Marchant, who, in fact, made his house my home, and introduced
+me to all the _elite_ of the society of the island. Ah! Miss Flora,
+you've no idea, to look at me now, what I was then; I held a captain's
+commission, and was nearly the youngest man in the service, with such a
+rank. I was as slender, ay, as a dancing master. These withered and
+bleached locks were black as the raven's plume. Ay, ay, but no matter:
+the planter had a daughter."
+
+"And you loved her?" said Flora--"Loved her," said the old man, and the
+flush of youthful animation come to his countenance; "loved her, do you
+say! I adored her; I worshipped her; she was to me--but what a d----d
+old fool, I am; we'll skip that if you please."
+
+"Nay, nay," said Flora; "that is what I want to hear."--"I haven't the
+least doubt of that, in the world; but that's just what you won't hear;
+none of your nonsense, Miss Flora; the old man may be a fool, but he
+isn't quite an idiot."
+
+"He's neither," said Flora; "true feelings can never disgrace any
+one."--"Perhaps not; but, however, to make a long story short, somehow
+or other, one day, Belinda was sitting alone, and I rudely pounced upon
+her; I rather think then I must have said something that I oughtn't to
+have said, for it took her so aback; I was forced, somehow or other, to
+hold her up, and then I--I--yes; I'm sure I kissed her; and so, I told
+her I loved her; and then, what do you think she said?"
+
+"Why," said Flora, "that she reciprocated the passion."--"D--n my rags,"
+said Jack, who at the moment came into the room, "I suppose that's the
+name of some shell or other."
+
+"You here, you villain!" said the admiral; "I thought you were
+gone."--"So I was," said Jack, "but I came back for my hat, you see."
+
+Away he went again, and the admiral resumed his story.
+
+"Well, Miss Flora," he said, "you haven't made a good guess, as she
+didn't say anything at all, she only clung to me like some wild bird to
+its mother's breast, and cried as if her heart would break."--"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; I didn't know the cause of her emotion, but at last I got it out
+of her."--"What was it?"
+
+"Oh, a mere trifle; she was already married to somebody else, that's
+all; some d----d fellow, who had gone trading about the islands, a
+fellow she didn't care a straw about, that was old enough to be her
+father."
+
+"And you left her?"--"No, I didn't. Guess again. I was a mad-headed
+youngster. I only felt--I didn't think. I persuaded her to come away
+with me. I took her aboard my ship, and set sail with her. A few weeks
+flew like hours; but one day we were hailed by a vessel, and when we
+neared her, she manned a boat and brought a letter on board, addressed
+to Belinda. It was from her father, written in his last moments. It
+began with a curse and ended with a blessing. There was a postscript in
+another hand, to say the old man died of grief. She read it by my side
+on the quarter-deck. It dropped from her grasp, and she plunged into the
+sea. Jack Pringle went after her; but I never saw her again."
+
+"Gracious Heavens! what a tragedy!"--"Yes, tolerable," said the old man.
+
+He arose and took his hat and placed it on his head. He gave the crown
+of it a blow that sent it nearly over his eyes. He thrust his hands deep
+into his breeches pockets, clenched his teeth, and muttered something
+inaudible as he strode from the apartment.
+
+"Who would have thought, Henry," said Flora, "that such a man as Admiral
+Bell had been the hero of such an adventure?"--"Ay, who indeed; but it
+shows that we never can judge from appearances, Flora; and that those
+who seem to us the most heart-whole may have experienced the wildest
+vicissitudes of passion."
+
+"And we must remember, likewise, that this was forty years ago, Henry,
+which makes a material difference in the state of the case as regards
+Admiral Bell."
+
+"It does indeed--more than half a lifetime; and yet how evident it was
+that his old feelings clung to him. I can well imagine the many hours of
+bitter regret which the memory of this his lost love must have given
+him."
+
+"True--true. I can feel something for him; for have I not lost one who
+loved me--a worse loss, too, than that which Admiral Bell relates; for
+am I not a prey to all the horrors of uncertainty? Whereas he knew the
+worst, and that, at all events, death had claimed its victim, leaving
+nothing to conjecture in the shape of suffering, so that the mind had
+nothing to do but to recover slowly, but surely, as it would from the
+shock which it had received."
+
+"That is worse than you, Flora; but rather would I have you cherish hope
+of soon beholding Charles Holland, probably alive and well, than fancy
+any great disaster has come over him."
+
+"I will endeavour to do so," replied Flora.
+
+"I long to hear what has become of Dr. Chillingworth. His disappearance
+is most singular; for I fully suspected that he had some particular
+object in view in getting possession for a short time of Bannerworth
+Hall; but now, from Jack Pringle's account, he appears not to be in it,
+and, in fact, to have disappeared completely from the sight of all who
+knew him."
+
+"Yes," said Flora; "but he may have done that, brother, still in
+furtherance of his object."
+
+"It may be so, and I will hope that it is so. Keep yourself close,
+sister, and see no one, while I proceed to his house to inquire if they
+have heard anything of him. I will return soon, be assured; and, in the
+meantime, should you see my brother, tell him I shall be at home in an
+hour or so, and not to leave the cottage; for it is more than likely
+that the admiral has gone to Bannerworth Hall, so that you may not see
+anything of him for some time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXVIII.
+
+MARCHDALE'S ATTEMPTED VILLANY, AND THE RESULT.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Varney the vampyre left the dungeon of Charles Holland amid the grey
+ruins, with a perfect confidence the young man would keep his word, and
+not attempt to escape from that place until the time had elapsed which
+he had dictated to him.
+
+And well might he have that confidence, for having once given his word
+that he would remain until he heard the clock strike two from a
+neighbouring church, Charles Holland never dreamt for a moment of
+breaking it.
+
+To be sure it was a weary time to wait when liberty appeared before him;
+but he was the soul of honour, and the least likely man in all the world
+to infringe in the slightest upon the condition which he had, of his own
+free will, acceded to.
+
+Sir Francis Varney walked rapidly until he came nearly to the outskirts
+of the town, and then he slackened his pace, proceeding more cautiously,
+and looking carefully about him, as if he feared to meet any one who
+might recognise him.
+
+He had not proceeded far in this manner, when he became conscious of the
+cautious figure of a man gliding along in the opposite direction to that
+which he was taking.
+
+A suspicion struck him, from the general appearance, that it was
+Marchdale, and if so he wondered to see him abroad at such a time. Still
+he would not be quite certain; but he hurried forward, so as to meet the
+advancing figure, and then his suspicions were confirmed; and Marchdale,
+with some confusion in his looks and manners, accosted him.
+
+"Ah, Sir Francis Varney," he said, "you are out late."--
+
+"Why, you know I should be out late," said Varney, "and you likewise
+know the errand upon which I was to be out."
+
+"Oh, I recollect; you were to release your prisoner."--
+
+"Yes, I was."
+
+"And have you done so?"--
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+"Oh, indeed. I--I am glad you have taken better thoughts of it. Good
+night--good night; we shall meet to-morrow."--
+
+"Adieu," said Sir Francis Varney; and he watched the retreating figure
+of Marchdale, and then he added, in a low tone to himself,--
+
+"I know his object well. His craven spirit shrinks at the notion, a
+probable enough one, I will admit, that Charles Holland has recognised
+him, and that, if once free, he would denounce him to the Bannerworths,
+holding him up to scorn in his true colours, and bringing down upon his
+head, perhaps, something more than detestation and contempt. The
+villain! he is going now to take the life of the man whom he considers
+chained to the ground. Well, well, they must fight it out together.
+Charles Holland is sufficiently free to take his own part, although
+Marchdale little thinks that such is the case."
+
+Marchdale walked on for some little distance, and then he turned and
+looked after Sir Francis Varney.
+
+"Indeed!" he said; "so you have not released him to-night, but I know
+well will do so soon. I do not, for my part, admire this romantic
+generosity which sets a fox free at the moment that he's the most
+dangerous. It's all very well to be generous, but it is better to be
+just first, and that I consider means looking after one's self first. I
+have a poniard here which will soon put an end to the troubles of the
+prisoner in his dungeon--its edge is keen and sharp, and will readily
+find a way to his heart."
+
+He walked on quite exultingly and carelessly now, for he had got into
+the open country, and it was extremely unlikely that he would meet
+anybody on his road to the ruins.
+
+It did not take many minutes, sharp walking now to bring him close to
+the spot which he intended should become such a scene of treacherous
+slaughter, and just then he heard from afar off something like the
+muttering of thunder, as if Heaven itself was proclaiming its vengeance
+against the man who had come out to slay one of its best and noblest
+creatures.
+
+"What is that'" said Marchdale, shrinking back a moment; "what is
+that--an approaching storm? It must be so, for, now I recollect me, the
+sun set behind a bank of clouds of a fiery redness, and as the evening
+drew in there was every appearance in the heavens of some ensuing strife
+of the elements."
+
+He listened for a few moments, and fixed his eyes intently in the
+direction of the horizon from where the muttering sounds had proceeded.
+
+He had not long to wait before he saw a bright flash of blue lightning,
+which for one instant illumined the sky; then by the time he could have
+counted twelve there came the thunder which the flash preceded, and he
+felt terribly anxious to complete his enterprize, so that he might get
+back to the town and be safely housed before the storm, which was
+evidently approaching, should burst upon him.
+
+"It is sweeping on apace," he said; "why did I not come earlier?"
+
+Even as he spoke he plunged among the recesses of the ruins, and
+searching about for the old stone which covered the entrance to the
+dungeon, he was surprised to find it rolled from its place, and the
+aperture open.
+
+"What is the meaning of this?" he said; "how negligent of Sir Francis
+Varney; or perhaps, after all, he was only jesting with me, and let the
+prisoner go. If that should be the case, I am foiled indeed; but surely
+he could not be so full of indiscretion."
+
+Again came a dazzling flash of lightning, which now, surrounded by the
+ruins as he was, made him shrink back and cover his eyes for a moment;
+and then followed a peal of thunder with not half the duration of time
+between it and the flash which had characterized the previous electric
+phenomenon.
+
+"The storm approaches fast," said Marchdale; "I must get my work done
+quickly, if indeed my victim be here, which I begin seriously to doubt."
+
+He descended the intricate winding passage to the vault below, which
+served the purpose of a dungeon, and when he got very nearly into the
+depth of its recesses, he called aloud, saying,--
+
+"Ho! what ho! is there any one here?"--"Yes," said Charles Holland, who
+fancied it might be his former visitor returned. "Have you come to
+repent of your purpose?"
+
+"Ah!" said Marchdale to himself, "Sir Francis, after all, has told me
+the truth--the prisoner is still here."
+
+The light from without was not near sufficient to send the least ray
+into the depths of that dungeon; so that Marchdale, when he entered the
+place, could see nothing but an absolute blackness.
+
+It was not so, however, with Charles Holland, whose eyes had been now so
+long accustomed to the place that he could see in it as if a dim
+twilight irradiated it, and he at once, in his visitor, saw his worst
+foe, and not the man who had comparatively set him free.
+
+He saw, too, that the hand of his visitor grasped a weapon, which
+Marchdale thought that, favoured by the darkness, he might carry openly
+in perfect security.
+
+"Where are you?" said Marchdale; "I cannot see you."--"Here!" said
+Charles, "you may feel my grip;" and he sprung upon him in an instant.
+
+The attack was so sudden and so utterly unexpected, that Marchdale was
+thrown backwards, and the dagger wrested from his grasp, during the
+first impulse which Charles Holland had thrown into his attack.
+
+Moreover, his head struck with such violence against the earthern floor,
+that it produced a temporary confusion of his faculties, so that, had
+Charles Holland been so inclined, he might, with Marchdale's own weapon,
+have easily taken his life.
+
+The young man did, on the impulse of the moment, raise it in his hand,
+but, on the impulse of another thought, he cast it from him,
+exclaiming--
+
+"No, no! not that; I should be as bad as he, or nearly so. This villain
+has come to murder me, but yet I will not take his life for the deed.
+What shall I do with him? Ha! a lucky thought--chains!"
+
+He dragged Marchdale to the identical spot of earth on which he had lain
+so long; and, as Sir Francis Varney had left the key of the padlock
+which bound the chains together in it, he, in a few moments, had
+succeeded in placing the villain Marchdale in the same durance from
+which he had himself shortly since escaped.
+
+"Remain there," he said, "until some one comes to rescue you. I will not
+let you starve to death, but I will give you a long fast; and, when I
+come again, it shall be along with some of the Bannerworth family, to
+show them what a viper they have fostered in their hearts."
+
+Marchdale was just sufficiently conscious now to feel all the realities
+of his situation. In vain he attempted to rise from his prostrate
+position. The chains did their duty, keeping down a villain with the
+same means that they had held in ignominious confinement a true man.
+
+He was in a perfect agony, inasmuch as he considered that he would be
+allowed to remain there to starve to death, thus achieving for himself a
+more horrible death than any he had ever thought of inflicting.
+
+"Villain!" exclaimed Charles Holland, "you shall there remain; and, let
+you have what mental sufferings you may, you richly deserve them."
+
+He heeded not the cries of Marchdale--he heeded not his imprecations any
+more than he did his prayers; and the arch hypocrite used both in
+abundance. Charles was but too happy once more to look upon the open
+sky, although it was then in darkness, to heed anything that Marchdale,
+in the agony to which he was now reduced, might feel inclined to say;
+and, after glancing around him for some few moments, when he was free of
+the ruins, and inhaling with exquisite delight the free air of the
+surrounding meadows, he saw, by the twinkling of the lights, in which
+direction the town lay, and knowing that by taking a line in that path,
+and then after a time diverging a little to the right, he should come to
+Bannerworth Hall, he walked on, never in his whole life probably feeling
+such an enjoyment of the mere fact of existence as at such a moment as
+that of exquisite liberty.
+
+Our readers may with us imagine what it is to taste the free, fresh air
+of heaven, after being long pent up, as he, Charles Holland, had been,
+in a damp, noisome dungeon, teeming with unwholesome exhalations. They
+may well suppose with what an amount of rapture he now found himself
+unrestrained in his movements by those galling fetters which had hung
+for so long a period upon his youthful limbs, and which, not
+unfrequently in the despair of his heart, he had thought he should
+surely die in.
+
+And last, although not least in his dear esteem, did the rapturous
+thought of once more looking in the sweet face of her he loved come
+cross him with a gush of delight.
+
+"Yes!" he exclaimed, as he quickened his pace; "yes! I shall be able to
+tell Flora Bannerworth how well and how truly I love her. I shall be
+able to tell her that, in my weary and hideous imprisonment, the thought
+alone of her has supported me."
+
+As he neared the Hall, he quickened his pace to such an extent, that
+soon he was forced to pause altogether, as the exertion he had
+undertaken pretty plainly told him that the imprisonment, scanty diet,
+and want of exercise, which had been his portion for some time past, had
+most materially decreased his strength.
+
+His limbs trembled, and a profuse perspiration bedewed his brow,
+although the night was rather cold than otherwise.
+
+"I am very weak," he said; "and much I wonder now that I succeeded in
+overcoming that villain Marchdale; who, if I had not done so, would most
+assuredly have murdered me."
+
+And it was a wonder; for Marchdale was not an old man, although he might
+be considered certainly as past the prime of life, and he was of a
+strong and athletic build. But it was the suddenness of his attack upon
+him which had given Charles Holland the great advantage, and had caused
+the defeat of the ruffian who came bent on one of the most cowardly and
+dastardly murders that could be committed--namely, upon an unoffending
+man, whom he supposed to be loaded with chains, and incapable of making
+the least efficient resistance.
+
+Charles soon again recovered sufficient breath and strength to proceed
+towards the Hall, and now warned, by the exhaustion which had come over
+him that he had not really anything like strength enough to allow him to
+proceed rapidly, he walked with slow and deliberate steps.
+
+This mode of proceeding was more favourable to reflection than the wild,
+rapid one which he had at first adopted, and in all the glowing colours
+of youthful and ingenious fancy did he depict to himself the surprise
+and the pleasure that would beam in the countenance of his beloved Flora
+when she should find him once again by her side.
+
+Of course, he, Charles, could know nothing of the contrivances which had
+been resorted to, and which the reader may lay wholly to the charge of
+Marchdale, to blacken his character, and to make him appear faithless to
+the love he had professed.
+
+Had he known this, it is probable that indignation would have added
+wings to his progress, and he would not have been able to proceed at the
+leisurely pace he felt that his state of physical weakness dictated to
+him.
+
+And now he saw the topmost portion at Bannerworth Hall pushing out from
+amongst the trees with which the ancient pile was so much surrounded,
+and the sight of the home of his beloved revived him, and quickened the
+circulation of the warm blood in his veins.
+
+"I shall behold her now," he said--"I shall behold her how! A few
+minutes more, and I shall hold her to my heart--that heart which has
+been ever hers, and which carried her image enshrined in its deepest
+recesses, even into the gloom of a dungeon!"
+
+But let us, while Charles Holland is indulging in these delightful
+anticipations--anticipations which, we regret, in consequence of the
+departure of the Bannerworths from the Hall, will not be realized so
+soon as he supposes--look back upon the discomfited hypocrite and
+villain, Marchdale, who occupies his place in the dungeon of the old
+ruins.
+
+Until Charles Holland actually had left the strange, horrible, and
+cell-like place, he could scarcely make up his mind that the young man
+entertained a serious intention of leaving him there.
+
+Perhaps he did not think any one could be so cruel and so wicked as he
+himself; for the reader will no doubt recollect that his, Marchdale's,
+counsel to Varney, was to leave Charles Holland to his fate, chained
+down as he was in the dungeon, and that fate would have been the
+horrible one of being starved to death in the course of a few days.
+
+When now, however, he felt confident that he was deserted--when he heard
+the sound of Charles Holland's retreating footsteps slowly dying away in
+the distance, until not the faintest echo of them reached his ears, he
+despaired indeed; and the horror he experienced during the succeeding
+ten minutes, might be considered an ample atonement for some of his
+crimes. His brain was in a complete whirl; nothing of a tangible nature,
+but that he was there, chained down, and left to starve to death, came
+across his intellect. Then a kind of madness, for a moment or two, took
+possession of him; he made a tremendous effort to burst asunder the
+bands that held him.
+
+But it was in vain. The chains--which had been placed upon Charles
+Holland during the first few days of his confinement, when he had a
+little recovered from the effects of the violence which had been
+committed upon him at the time when he was captured--effectually
+resisted Marchdale.
+
+They even cut into his flesh, inflicting upon him some grievous wounds;
+but that was all he achieved by his great efforts to free himself, so
+that, after a few moments, bleeding and in great pain, he, with a deep
+groan, desisted from the fruitless efforts he had better not have
+commenced.
+
+Then he remained silent for a time, but it was not the silence of
+reflection; it was that of exhaustion, and, as such, was not likely to
+last long; nor did it, for, in the course of another five minutes, he
+called out loudly.
+
+Perhaps he thought there might be a remote chance that some one
+traversing the meadows would hear him; and yet, if he had duly
+considered the matter, which he was not in a fitting frame of mind to
+do, he would have recollected that, in choosing a dungeon among the
+underground vaults of these ruins, he had, by experiment, made certain
+that no cry, however loud, from where he lay, could reach the upper air.
+And thus had this villain, by the very precautions which he had himself
+taken to ensure the safe custody of another, been his own greatest
+enemy.
+
+"Help! help! help!" he cried frantically "Varney! Charles Holland! have
+mercy upon me, and do not leave me here to starve! Help, oh, Heaven!
+Curses on all your heads--curses! Oh, mercy--mercy--mercy!"
+
+In suchlike incoherent expressions did he pass some hours, until, what
+with exhaustion and a raging thirst that came over him, he could not
+utter another word, but lay the very picture of despair and discomfited
+malice and wickedness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXIX.
+
+FLORA BANNERWORTH AND HER MOTHER.--THE EPISODE OF CHIVALRY.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Gladly we turn from such a man as Marchdale to a consideration of the
+beautiful and accomplished Flora Bannerworth, to whom we may, without
+destroying in any way the interest of our plot, predict a much happier
+destiny than, probably, at that time, she considers as at all likely to
+be hers.
+
+She certainly enjoyed, upon her first removal from Bannerworth Hall,
+greater serenity of mind than she had done there; but, as we have
+already remarked of her, the more her mind was withdrawn, by change of
+scene, from the horrible considerations which the attack of the vampyre
+had forced upon her, the more she reverted to the fate of Charles
+Holland, which was still shrouded in so much gloom.
+
+She would sit and converse with her mother upon that subject until she
+worked up her feelings to a most uncomfortable pitch of excitement, and
+then Mrs. Bannerworth would get her younger brother to join them, who
+would occasionally read to her some compositions of his own, or of some
+favourite writer whom he thought would amuse her.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It was on the very evening when Sir Francis Varney had made up his mind
+to release Charles Holland, that young Bannerworth read to his sister
+and his mother the following little chivalric incident, which he told
+them he had himself collated from authentic sources:--
+
+"The knight with the green shield," exclaimed one of a party of
+men-at-arms, who were drinking together at an ancient hostel, not far
+from Shrewsbury--"the knight with the green shield is as good a knight
+as ever buckled on a sword, or wore spurs."--"Then how comes it he is
+not one of the victors in the day's tournament?" exclaimed another.--"By
+the bones of Alfred!" said a third, "a man must be judged of by his
+deserts, and not by the partiality of his friends. That's my opinion,
+friends."--"And mine, too," said another.
+
+"That is all very true, and my opinion would go with yours, too; but not
+in this instance. Though you may accuse me of partiality, yet I am not
+so; for I have seen some of the victors of to-day by no means forward in
+the press of battle-men who, I will not say feared danger, but who liked
+it not so well but they avoided it as much as possible."
+
+"Ay, marry, and so have I. The reason is, 'tis much easier to face a
+blunted lance, than one with a spear-head; and a man may practise the
+one and thrive in it, but not the other; for the best lance in the
+tournament is not always the best arm in the battle."
+
+"And that is the reason of my saying the knight with the green shield
+was a good knight. I have seen him in the midst of the melee, when men
+and horses have been hurled to the ground by the shock; there he has
+behaved himself like a brave knight, and has more than once been noticed
+for it."
+
+"But how canne he to be so easily overthrown to-day? That speaks
+something."--"His horse is an old one."
+
+"So much the better," said another; "he's used to his work, and as
+cunning as an old man."--"But he has been wounded more than once, and is
+weakened very much: besides, I saw him lose his footing, else he had
+overthrown his opponent.
+
+"He did not seem distressed about his accident, at all events, but sat
+contented in the tent."--"He knows well that those who know him will
+never attribute his misadventure either to want of courage or conduct;
+moreover, he seems to be one of those who care but little for the
+opinion of men who care nothing for him."
+
+"And he's right. Well, dear comrades, the health of Green Knight, or the
+Knight with a Green Shield, for that's his name, or the designation he
+chooses to go by."--"A health to the Knight with the Green Shield!"
+shouted the men-at-arms, as they lifted their cups on high.
+
+"Who is he?" inquired one of the men-at-arms, of him who had spoken
+favourably of the stranger.--"I don't know."
+
+"And yet you spoke favourably of him a few seconds back, and said what a
+brave knight he was!"--"And so I uphold him to be; but, I tell you what,
+friend, I would do as much for the greatest stranger I ever met. I have
+seen him fight where men and horses have bit the dust in hundreds; and
+that, in my opinion, speaks out for the man and warrior; he who cannot,
+then, fight like a soldier, had better tilt at home in the castle-yard,
+and there win ladies' smiles, but not the commendation of the leader of
+the battle."
+
+"That's true: I myself recollect very well Sir Hugh de Colbert, a very
+accomplished knight in the castle-yard; but his men were as fine a set
+of fellows as ever crossed a horse, to look at, but they proved
+deficient at the moment of trial; they were broken, and fled in a
+moment, and scarce one of them received a scratch."
+
+"Then they hadn't stood the shock of the foeman?"--"No; that's certain."
+
+"But still I should like to know the knight,--to know his name very
+well."--"I know it not; he has some reason for keeping it secret, I
+suppose; but his deeds will not shame it, be it what it may. I can bear
+witness to more than one foeman falling beneath his battle-axe."
+
+"Indeed!"--"Yes; and he took a banner from the enemy in the last battle
+that was fought."
+
+"Ah, well! he deserves a better fortune to-morrow. Who is to be the
+bridegroom of the beautiful Bertha, daughter of Lord de Cauci?"--"That
+will have to be decided: but it is presumed that Sir Guthrie de Beaumont
+is the intended."
+
+"Ah! but should he not prove the victor?"--"It's understood; because
+it's known he is intended by the parents of the lady, and none would be
+ungallant enough to prevail against him,--save on such conditions as
+would not endanger the fruits of victory."
+
+"No?"--"Certainly not; they would lay the trophies at the foot of the
+beauty worshipped by the knights at the tournament."
+
+"So, triumphant or not, he's to be the bridegroom; bearing off the prize
+of valour whether or no,--in fact, deserve her or not,--that's the
+fact."--"So it is, so it is."
+
+"And a shame, too, friends; but so it is now; but yet, if the knight's
+horse recovers from the strain, and is fit for work to-morrow, it
+strikes me that the Green Shield will give some work to the holiday
+knight."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There had been a grand tournament held near Shrewsbury Castle, in honour
+of the intended nuptials of the beautiful Lady Bertha de Cauci. She was
+the only daughter of the Earl de Cauci, a nobleman of some note; he was
+one of an ancient and unblemished name, and of great riches.
+
+The lady was beautiful, but, at the same time, she was an unwilling
+bride,--every one could see that; but the bridegroom cared not for that.
+There was a sealed sorrow on her brow,--a sorrow that seemed sincere and
+lasting; but she spoke not of it to any one,--her lips were seldom
+parted. She loved another. Yes; she loved one who was far away, fighting
+in the wars of his country,--one who was not so rich in lands as her
+present bridegroom.
+
+When he left her, she remembered his promise; it was, to fight on till
+he earned a fortune, or name that should give him some right to claim
+her hand, even from her imperious father. But alas! he came not; and
+what could she do against the commands of one who would be obeyed? Her
+mother, too, was a proud, haughty woman, one whose sole anxiety was to
+increase the grandeur and power of her house by such connections.
+
+Thus it was pressed on by circumstances, she could no longer hold out,
+more especially as she heard nothing of her knight. She knew not where
+he was, or indeed if he were living or dead. She knew not he was never
+named. This last circumstance, indeed, gave her pain; for it assured her
+that he whom she loved had been unable to signalize himself from among
+other men. That, in fact, he was unknown in the annals of fame, as well
+as the probability that he had been slain in some of the earlier
+skirmishes of the war. This, if it had happened, caused her some pain to
+think upon; not but such events were looked upon with almost
+indifference by females, save in such cases where their affections were
+engaged, as on this occasion. But the event was softened by the fact
+that men were continually falling by the hand of man in such encounters,
+but at the same time it was considered an honourable and praiseworthy
+death for a soldier. He was wounded, but not with the anguish we now
+hear of; for the friends were consoled by the reflection that the
+deceased warrior died covered with glory.
+
+Bertha, however, was young, and as yet she knew not the cause of her
+absent knight's silence, or why he had not been heard of among the most
+forward in the battle.
+
+"Heaven's will be done," she exclaimed; "what can I do? I must submit to
+my father's behests; but my future life will be one of misery and
+sorrow."
+
+She wept to think of the past, and to dream of the future; both alike
+were sorrowful to think upon--no comfort in the past and no joy in the
+future.
+
+Thus she wept and sorrowed on the night of the first tournament; there
+was to be a second, and that was to be the grand one, where her intended
+bridegroom was to show himself off in her eyes, and take his part in the
+sport.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Bertha sat late--she sat sorrowing by the light of the lamps and the
+flickering flame of the fire, as it rose and fell on the hearth and
+threw dancing shadows on the walls.
+
+"Oh, why, Arthur Home, should you thus be absent? Absent, too, at such a
+time when you are more needed than ever. Alas, alas! you may no longer
+be in the land of the living. Your family is great and your name
+known--your own has been spoken with commendation from the lips of your
+friend; what more of fame do you need? but I am speaking without
+purpose. Heaven have mercy on me."
+
+As she spoke she looked up and saw one of her women in waiting standing
+by.
+
+"Well, what would you?"--"My lady, there is one who would speak with
+you," said the hand-maiden.
+
+"With me?"--"Yes, my lady; he named you the Lady Bertha de Cauci."
+
+"Who and what is he?" she inquired, with something like trepidation, of
+the maiden.--"I know not, my lady."
+
+"But gave he not some token by which I might know who I admit to my
+chamber?"--"None," replied the maiden.
+
+"And what does he bear by way of distinguishing himself? What crest or
+device doth he bear?"--"Merely a green shield."
+
+"The unsuccessful knight in the tournament to-day. Heaven's! what can he
+desire with me; he is not--no, no, it cannot be--it cannot be."--"Will
+you admit him, lady?"
+
+"Indeed, I know not what to do; but yet he may have some intelligence to
+give me. Yes, yes, admit him; but first throw some logs on the fire."
+
+The attendant did as she was desired, and then quitted the room for the
+purpose of admitting the stranger knight with the green shield. In a few
+moments she could hear the stride of the knight as he entered the
+apartment, and she thought the step was familiar to her ear--she thought
+it was the step of Sir Arthur Home, her lover. She waited anxiously to
+see the door open, and then the stranger entered. His form and bearing
+was that of her lover, but his visor was down, and she was unable to
+distinguish the features of the stranger.
+
+His armour was such as had seen many a day's hard wear, and there were
+plenty of marks of the battle about him. His travel-worn accoutrements
+were altogether such as bespoke service in the field.
+
+"Sir, you desired to see me; say wherefore you do so, and if it is news
+you bring." The knight answered not, but pointed to the female
+attendant, as if he desired she would withdraw. "You may retire," said
+Bertha; "be within call, and let me know if I am threatened with
+interruption."
+
+The attendant retired, and then the knight and lady were left alone. The
+former seemed at a loss how to break silence for some moments, and then
+he said,--
+
+"Lady ----" "Oh, Heavens! 'tis he!" exclaimed Bertha, as she sprang to
+her feet; "it is Sir Arthur Home!"
+
+"It is," exclaimed the knight, pulling up his visor, and dropping on one
+knee he encircled his arm round the waist of the lady, and at the same
+moment he pressed her lips to his own.
+
+The first emotion of joy and surprise over, Bertha checked her
+transports, and chid the knight for his boldness.
+
+"Nay, chide me not, dear Bertha; I am what I was when I left you, and
+hope to find you the same."
+
+"Am I not?" said Bertha.--"Truly I know not, for you seem more beautiful
+than you were then; I hope that is the only change."
+
+"If there be a change, it is only such as you see. Sorrow and regret
+form the principal causes."--"I understand you."
+
+"My intended nuptials ----" "Yes, I have heard all. I came here but
+late in the morning; and my horse was jaded and tired, and my impatience
+to attend the tournament caused me a disaster which it is well it came not
+on the second day."
+
+"It is, dear Arthur. How is it I never heard your name mentioned, or
+that I received no news from any one about you during the wars that have
+ended?"--"I had more than one personal enemy, Bertha; men who would have
+been glad to see me fall, and who, in default of that, would not have
+minded bribing an assassin to secure my death for them at any risk
+whatever."
+
+"Heavens! and how did you escape such a death from such people,
+Arthur?"--"By adopting such a device as that I wear. The Knight of the
+Green Shield I'm called."
+
+"I saw you to-day in the tournament."--"And there my tired and jaded
+horse gave way; but to-morrow I shall have, I hope, a different
+fortune."
+
+"I hope so too."--"I will try; my arm has been good in battle, and I
+see not why it should be deficient in peaceful jousts."
+
+"Certainly not. What fortune have you met with since you left
+England?"--"I was of course known but to a few; among those few were the
+general under whom I served and my more immediate officers, who I knew
+would not divulge my secret."
+
+"And they did not?"--"No; kept it nobly, and kept their eyes upon me in
+battle; and I have reaped a rich harvest in force, honour, and riches, I
+assure you."
+
+"Thank Heaven!" said Bertha.--"Bertha, if I be conqueror, may I claim
+you in the court-yard before all the spectators?"
+
+"You may," said Bertha, and she hung her head.--"Moreover," said Sir
+Arthur, "you will not make a half promise, but when I demand you, you
+will at once come down to me and accept me as your husband; if I be the
+victor then he cannot object to the match."
+
+"But he will have many friends, and his intended bride will have many
+more, so that you may run some danger among so many enemies."--"Never
+fear for me, Bertha, because I shall have many friends of distinction
+there too--many old friends who are tried men in battle, and whose deeds
+are a glory and honour to them; besides, I shall have my commander and
+several gentlemen who would at once interfere in case any unfair
+advantage was attempted to be taken of my supposed weakness."
+
+"Have you a fresh horse?" inquired Bertha.--"I have, or shall have by
+the morning; but promise me you will do what I ask you, and then my arm
+will be nerved to its utmost, and I am sure to be victorious."
+
+"I do promise," said Bertha; "I hope you may be as successful as you
+hope to be, Arthur; but suppose fortune should declare against you;
+suppose an accident of any kind were to happen, what could be done
+then?"--"I must be content to hide myself for ever afterwards, as a
+defeated knight; how can I appear before your friends as the claimant of
+your hand?"
+
+"I will never have any other."--"But you will be forced to accept this
+Guthrie de Beaumont, your father's chosen son-in-law."
+
+"I will seek refuge in a cloister."--"Will you fly with me, Bertha, to
+some sequestered spot, where we can live in each others society?"
+
+"Yes," said Bertha, "anything, save marriage with Guthrie de
+Beaumont."--"Then await the tournament of to-morrow," said Sir Arthur,
+"and then this may be avoided; in the meantime, keep up a good heart and
+remember I am at hand."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These two lovers parted for the present, after a protracted interview,
+Bertha to her chamber, and the Knight of the Green Shield to his tent.
+
+The following morning was one of great preparation; the lists had been
+enlarged, and the seats made more commodious, for the influx of visitors
+appeared to be much greater than had been anticipated.
+
+Moreover, there were many old warriors of distinction to be present,
+which made the bridegroom look pale and feel uncomfortable as to the
+results of the tournament. The tilting was to begin at an early hour,
+and then the feasting and revelry would begin early in the evening,
+after the tilting had all passed off.
+
+In that day's work there were many thrown from their saddles, and many
+broke their lances. The bridegroom tilted with several knights, and came
+off victorious, or without disadvantage to either.
+
+The green knight, on the contrary, tilted with but few, and always
+victorious, and such matches were with men who had been men of some name
+in the wars, or at least in the tilt yard.
+
+The sports drew to a close, and when the bridegroom became the
+challenger, the Knight of the Green Shield at once rode out quietly to
+meet him. The encounter could not well be avoided, and the bridegroom
+would willingly have declined the joust with a knight who had disposed
+of his enemies so easily, and so unceremoniously as he had.
+
+The first encounter was enough; the bridegroom was thrown to a great
+distance, and lay insensible on the ground, and was carried out of the
+field. There was an immediate sensation among the friends of the
+bridegroom, several of whom rode out to challenge the stranger knight
+for his presumption.
+
+In this, however, they had misreckoned the chances, for the challenged
+accepted their challenges with alacrity and disposed of them one by one
+with credit to himself until the day was concluded. The stranger was
+then asked to declare who he was, upon which he lifted his visor, and
+said,
+
+"I am Sir Arthur Home, and claim the Lady Bertha as my bride, by the
+laws of arms, and by those of love."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Again the tent was felled, and again the hostelry was tenanted by the
+soldier, who declared for one side and then for the other, as the cups
+clanged and jingled together.
+
+"Said I not," exclaimed one of the troopers, "that the knight with a
+green shield was a good knight?"--"You did," replied the other.
+
+"And you knew who he was?" said another of the troopers.--"Not I,
+comrades; I had seen him fight in battle, and, therefore, partly guessed
+how it would be if he had any chance with the bridegroom. I'm glad he
+has won the lady."
+
+It was true, the Lady Bertha was won, and Sir Arthur Home claimed his
+bride, and then they attempted to defeat his claim; yet Bertha at once
+expressed herself in his favour, to strongly that they were, however
+reluctantly compelled, to consent at last.
+
+At this moment, a loud shout as from a multitude of persons came upon
+their ears and Flora started from her seat in alarm. The cause of the
+alarm we shall proceed to detail.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXX.
+
+THE FUNERAL OF THE STRANGER OF THE INN.--THE POPULAR COMMOTION, AND MRS.
+CHILLINGWORTH'S APPEAL TO THE MOB.--THE NEW RIOT.--THE HALL IN DANGER.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+As yet the town was quiet; and, though there was no appearance of riot
+or disturbance, yet the magistracy had taken every precaution they
+deemed needful, or their position and necessities warranted, to secure
+the peace of the town from the like disturbance to that which had been,
+of late, a disgrace and terror of peaceably-disposed persons.
+
+The populace were well advertised of the fact, that the body of the
+stranger was to be buried that morning in their churchyard; and that, to
+protect the body, should there be any necessity for so doing, a large
+body of constables would be employed.
+
+There was no disposition to riot; at least, none was visible. It looked
+as if there was some event about to take place that was highly
+interesting to all parties, who were peaceably assembling to witness the
+interment of nobody knew who.
+
+The early hour at which persons were assembling, at different points,
+clearly indicated that there was a spirit of curiosity about the town,
+so uncommon that none would have noticed it but for the fact of the
+crowd of people who hung about the streets, and there remained, listless
+and impatient.
+
+The inn, too, was crowded with visitors, and there were many who, not
+being blessed with the strength of purse that some were, were hanging
+about in the distance, waiting and watching the motions of those who
+were better provided.
+
+"Ah!" said one of the visitors, "this is a disagreeable job in your
+house, landlord."--"Yes, sir; I'd sooner it had happened elsewhere, I
+assure you. I know it has done me no good."
+
+"No; no man could expect any, and yet it is none the less unfortunate
+for that."--"I would sooner anything else happen than that, whatever it
+might be. I think it must be something very bad, at all events; but I
+dare say I shall never see the like again."
+
+"So much the better for the town," said another; "for, what with
+vampyres and riots, there has been but little else stirring than
+mischief and disturbances of one kind and another."
+
+"Yes; and, what between Varneys and Bannerworths, we have had but little
+peace here."
+
+"Precisely. Do you know it's my opinion that the least thing would upset
+the whole town. Any one unlucky word would do it, I am sure," said a
+tall thin man.
+
+"I have no doubt of it," said another; "but I hope the military would do
+their duty under such circumstances, for people's lives and property are
+not safe in such a state of things."--"Oh, dear no."
+
+"I wonder what has become of Varney, or where he can have gone
+to."--"Some thought he must have been burned when they burned his
+house," replied the landlord.
+
+"But I believe it generally understood he's escaped, has he not? No
+traces of his body were found in the ruins."--"None. Oh! he's escaped,
+there can be no doubt of that. I wish I had some fortune depending upon
+the fact; it would be mine, I am sure."
+
+"Well, the lord keep us from vampyres and suchlike cattle," said an old
+woman. "I shall never sleep again in my bed with any safety. It
+frightens one out of one's life to think of it. What a shame the men
+didn't catch him and stake him!"
+
+The old woman left the inn as soon as she had spoke this Christian
+speech.
+
+"Humane!" said a gentleman, with a sporting coat on. "The old woman is
+no advocate for half measures!"
+
+"You are right, sir," said the landlord; "and a very good look-out she
+keeps upon the pot, to see it's full, and carefully blows the froth
+off!"--"Ah! I thought as much."
+
+"How soon will the funeral take place, landlord?" inquired a person, who
+had at that moment entered the inn.--"In about an hour's time, sir."
+
+"Oh! the town seems pretty full, though it is very quiet. I suppose it
+is more as a matter of curiosity people congregate to see the funeral of
+this stranger?"
+
+"I hope so, sir."
+
+"The time is wearing on, and if they don't make a dust, why then the
+military will not be troubled."
+
+"I do not expect anything more, sir," said the landlord; "for you see
+they must have had their swing out, as the saying is, and be fully
+satisfied. They cannot have much more to do in the way of exhibiting
+their anger or dislike to vampyres--they all have done enough."
+
+"So they have--so they have."
+
+"Granted," said an old man with a troublesome cough; "but when did you
+ever know a mob to be satisfied? If they wanted the moon and got it,
+they'd find out it would be necessary to have the stars also."
+
+"That's uncommonly true," said the landlord. "I shouldn't be surprised
+if they didn't do something worse than ever."--"Nothing more likely,"
+said the little old man. "I can believe anything of a mob--anything--no
+matter what."
+
+The inn was crowded with visitors, and several extra hands were employed
+to wait upon the customers, and a scene of bustle and activity was
+displayed that was never before seen. It would glad the heart of a
+landlord, though he were made of stone, and landlords are usually of
+much more malleable materials than that.
+
+However, the landlord had hardly time to congratulate himself, for the
+bearers were come now, and the undertaker and his troop of
+death-following officials.
+
+There was a stir among the people, who began now to awaken from the
+lethargy that seemed to have come over them while they were waiting for
+the moment when it should arrive, that was to place the body under the
+green sod, against which so much of their anger had been raised. There
+was a decent silence that pervaded the mob of individuals who had
+assembled.
+
+Death, with all its ghastly insignia, had an effect even upon the
+unthinking multitude, who were ever ready to inflict death or any
+violent injury upon any object that came in their way--they never
+hesitated; but even these, now the object of their hatred was no more,
+felt appalled.
+
+'Tis strange what a change comes over masses of men as they gaze upon a
+dead body. It may be that they all know that to that complexion they
+must come at last. This may be the secret of the respect offered to the
+dead.
+
+The undertakers are men, however, who are used to the presence of
+death--it is their element; they gain a living by attending upon the
+last obsequies of the dead; they are used to dead bodies, and care not
+for them. Some of them are humane men, that is, in their way; and even
+among them are men who wouldn't be deprived of the joke as they screwed
+down the last screw. They could not forbear, even on this occasion, to
+hold their converse when left alone.
+
+"Jacobs," said one who was turning a long screw, "Jacobs, my boy, do you
+take the chair to-night?"--"Yes," said Jacobs who was a long
+lugubrious-looking man, "I do take the chair, if I live over this
+blessed event."
+
+"You are not croaking, Jacobs, are you? Well, you are a lively customer,
+you are."--"Lively--do you expect people to be lively when they are full
+dressed for a funeral? You are a nice article for your profession. You
+don't feel like an undertaker, you don't."
+
+"Don't, Jacobs, my boy. As long as I look like one when occasion
+demands; when I have done my job I puts my comfort in my pocket, and
+thinks how much more pleasanter it is to be going to other people's
+funerals than to our own, and then only see the difference as regards
+the money."
+
+"True," said Jacobs with a groan; "but death's a melancholy article, at
+all events."--"So it is."
+
+"And then when you come to consider the number of people we have
+buried--how many have gone to their last homes--and how many more will
+go the same way."--"Yes, yes; that's all very well, Jacob. You are
+precious surly this morning. I'll come to-night. You're brewing a
+sentimental tale as sure as eggs is eggs."
+
+"Well, that is pretty certain; but as I was saying how many more are
+there--"
+
+"Ah, don't bother yourself with calculations that have neither beginning
+nor end, and which haven't one point to go. Come, Jacob, have you
+finished yet?"--"Quite," said Jacob.
+
+They now arranged the pall, and placed all in readiness, and returned to
+a place down stairs where they could enjoy themselves for an odd half
+hour, and pass that time away until the moment should arrive when his
+reverence would be ready to bury the deceased, upon consideration of the
+fees to be paid upon the occasion.
+
+The tap-room was crowded, and there was no room for the men, and they
+were taken into the kitchen, where they were seated, and earnestly at
+work, preparing for the ceremony that had so shortly to be performed.
+
+"Any better, Jacobs?"--"What do you mean?" inquired Jacobs, with a
+groan. "It's news to me if I have been ill."
+
+"Oh, yes, you were doleful up stairs, you know."--"I've a proper regard
+for my profession--that's the difference between you and I, you know."
+
+"I'll wager you what you like, now, that I'll handle a corpse and drive
+a screw in a coffin as well as you, now, although you are so solid and
+miserable."--"So you may--so you may."
+
+"Then what do you mean by saying I haven't a proper regard for my
+profession?"--"I say you haven't, and there's the thing that shall prove
+it--you don't look it, and that's the truth."
+
+"I don't look like an undertaker! indeed I dare say I don't if I ain't
+dressed like one."--"Nor when you are," reiterated Jacob.
+
+"Why not, pray?"--"Because you have always a grin on your face as broad
+as a gridiron--that's why."
+
+This ended the dispute, for the employer of the men suddenly put his
+head in, saying,--
+
+"Come, now, time's up; you are wanted up stairs, all of you. Be quick;
+we shall have his reverence waiting for us, and then we shall lose his
+recommendation."
+
+"Ready sir," said the round man, taking up his pint and finishing it off
+at a draught, at the same moment he thrust the remains of some bread and
+cheese into his pocket.
+
+Jacob, too, took his pot, and, having finished it, with great gravity
+followed the example of his more jocose companion, and they all left the
+kitchen for the room above, where the corpse was lying ready for
+interment.
+
+There was an unusual bustle; everybody was on the tip-top of
+expectation, and awaiting the result in a quiet hurry, and hoped to have
+the first glimpse of the coffin, though why they should do so it was
+difficult to define. But in this fit of mysterious hope and expectation
+they certainly stood.
+
+"Will they be long?" inquired a man at the door of one inside,--"will
+they be long before they come?"--"They are coming now," said the man.
+"Do you all keep quiet; they are knocking their heads against the top of
+the landing. Hark! There, I told you so."
+
+The man departed, hearing something, and being satisfied that he had got
+some information.
+
+"Now, then," said the landlord, "move out of the way, and allow the
+corpse to pass out. Let me have no indecent conduct; let everything be
+as it should be."
+
+The people soon removed from the passage and vicinity of the doorway,
+and then the mournful procession--as the newspapers have it--moved
+forward. They were heard coming down stairs, and thence along the
+passage, until they came to the street, and then the whole number of
+attendants was plainly discernible.
+
+How different was the funeral of one who had friends. He was alone; none
+followed, save the undertaker and his attendants, all of whom looked
+solemn from habit and professional motives. Even the jocose man was as
+supernaturally solemn as could be well imagined; indeed, nobody knew he
+was the same man.
+
+"Well," said the landlord, as he watched them down the street, as they
+slowly paced their way with funereal, not sorrowful, solemnity--"well, I
+am very glad that it is all over."
+
+"It has been a sad plague to you," said one.
+
+"It has, indeed; it must be to any one who has had another such a job as
+this. I don't say it out of any disrespect to the poor man who is dead
+and gone--quite the reverse; but I would not have such another affair on
+my hands for pounds."
+
+"I can easily believe you, especially when we come to consider the
+disagreeables of a mob."
+
+"You may say that. There's no knowing what they will or won't do,
+confound them! If they'd act like men, and pay for what they have, why,
+then I shouldn't care much about them; but it don't do to have other
+people in the bar."
+
+"I should think not, indeed; that would alter the scale of your profits,
+I reckon."
+
+"It would make all the difference to me. Business," added the landlord,
+"conducted on that scale, would become a loss; and a man might as well
+walk into a well at once."
+
+"So I should say. Have many such occurrences as these been usual in this
+part of the country?" inquired the stranger.
+
+"Not usual at all," said the landlord; "but the fact is, the whole
+neighbourhood has run distracted about some superhuman being they call a
+vampyre."
+
+"Indeed!"--"Yes; and they suspected the unfortunate man who has been
+lying up-stairs, a corpse, for some days."
+
+"Oh, the man they have just taken in the coffin to bury?" said the
+stranger.
+
+"Yes, sir, the same."
+
+"Well, I thought perhaps somebody of great consequence had suddenly
+become defunct."--"Oh, dear no; it would not have caused half the
+sensation; people have been really mad."
+
+"It was a strange occurrence, altogether, I believe, was it?" inquired
+the stranger.--"Indeed it was, sir. I hardly know the particulars, there
+have been so many tales afloat; though they all concur in one point, and
+that is, it has destroyed the peace of one family."
+
+"Who has done so?"--"The vampyre."
+
+"Indeed! I never heard of such an animal, save as a fable, before; it
+seems to me extraordinary."
+
+"So it would do to any one, sir, as was not on the spot, to see it; I'm
+sure I wouldn't."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the meantime, the procession, short as it was of itself, moved along
+in slow time through a throng of people who ran out of their houses on
+either side of the way, and lined the whole length of the town.
+
+Many of these closed in behind, and followed the mourners until they
+were near the church, and then they made a rush to get into the
+churchyard.
+
+As yet all had been conducted with tolerable propriety, the funeral met
+with no impediment. The presence of death among so many of them seemed
+some check upon the licence of the mob, who bowed in silence to the
+majesty of death.
+
+Who could bear ill-will against him who was now no more? Man, while he
+is man, is always the subject of hatred, fear, or love. Some one of
+these passions, in a modified state, exists in all men, and with such
+feelings they will regard each other; and it is barely possible that any
+one should not be the object of some of these, and hence the stranger's
+corpse was treated with respect.
+
+In silence the body proceeded along the highway until it came to the
+churchyard, and followed by an immense multitude of people of all
+grades.
+
+The authorities trembled; they knew not what all this portended. They
+thought it might pass off; but it might become a storm first; they hoped
+and feared by turns, till some of them fell sick with apprehension.
+
+There was a deep silence observed by all those in the immediate vicinity
+of the coffin, but those farther in the rear found full expression for
+their feelings.
+
+"Do you think," said an old man to another, "that he will come to life
+again, eh?"--"Oh, yes, vampyres always do, and lay in the moonlight, and
+then they come to life again. Moonlight recovers a vampyre to life
+again."
+
+"And yet the moonlight is cold."--"Ah, but who's to tell what may happen
+to a vampyre, or what's hot or what's cold?"
+
+"Certainly not; oh, dear, no."--"And then they have permission to suck
+the blood of other people, to live themselves, and to make other people
+vampyres, too."
+
+"The lord have mercy upon us!"--"Ay, but they have driven a stake
+through this one, and he can't get in moonlight or daylight; it's all
+over--he's certainly done for; we may congratulate ourselves on this
+point."
+
+"So we may--so we may."
+
+They now neared the grave, the clergyman officiating as usual on such
+occasions. There was a large mob of persons on all sides, with serious
+faces, watching the progress of the ceremony, and who listened in
+quietness.
+
+There was no sign of any disturbance amongst the people, and the
+authorities were well pleased; they congratulated themselves upon the
+quietness and orderliness of the assemblage.
+
+The service was ended and the coffin lowered, and the earth was thrown
+on the coffin-lid with a hollow sound. Nobody could hear that sound
+unmoved. But in a short while the sound ceased as the grave became
+filled; it was then trodden carefully down.
+
+There were no relatives there to feel affected at the last scene of all.
+They were far away, and, according to popular belief upon the subject,
+they must have been dead some ages.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The mob watched the last shovel-full of earth thrown upon the coffin,
+and witnessed the ramming down of the soil, and the heaping of it over
+at top to make the usual monument; for all this was done speedily and
+carefully, lest there should be any tendency to exhume the body of the
+deceased.
+
+The people were now somewhat relieved, as to their state of solemnity
+and silence. They would all of them converse freely on the matter that
+had so long occupied their thoughts.
+
+They seemed now let loose, and everybody found himself at liberty to say
+or do something, no matter if it were not very reasonable; that is not
+always required of human beings who have souls, or, at least it is
+unexpected; and were it expected, the expectation would never be
+realized.
+
+The day was likely to wear away without a riot, nay, even without a
+fight; a most extraordinary occurrence for such a place under the
+existing circumstances; for of late the populace, or, perhaps, the
+townspeople, were extremely pugnacious, and many were the disputes that
+were settled by the very satisfactory application of the knuckles to the
+head of the party holding a contrary opinion.
+
+Thus it was they were ready to take fire, and a hubbub would be the
+result of the slightest provocation. But, on the present occasion, there
+was a remarkable dearth of, all subjects of the nature described.
+
+Who was to lead Israel out to battle? Alas! no one on the present
+occasion.
+
+Such a one, however, appeared, at least, one who furnished a ready
+excuse for a disturbance.
+
+Suddenly, Mrs Chillingworth appeared in the midst of a large concourse
+of people. She had just left her house, which was close at hand, her
+eyes red with weeping, and her children around her on this occasion.
+
+The crowd made way for her, and gathered round her to see what was going
+to happen.
+
+"Friends and neighbours," she said "can any of you relieve the tears of
+a distressed wife and mother, have any of you seen anything of my
+husband, Mr. Chillingworth?"
+
+"What the doctor?" exclaimed one.--"Yes; Mr. Chillingworth, the surgeon.
+He has not been home two days and a night. I'm distracted!--what can
+have become of him I don't know, unless--"
+
+Here Mrs Chillingworth paused, and some person said,--
+
+"Unless what, Mrs Chillingworth? there are none but friends here, who
+wish the doctor well, and would do anything to serve him--unless what?
+speak out."
+
+"Unless he's been destroyed by the vampyre. Heaven knows what we may all
+come to! Here am I and my children deprived of our protector by some
+means which we cannot imagine. He never, in all his life, did the same
+before."
+
+"He must have been spirited away by some of the vampyres. I'll tell you
+what, friend," said one to another, "that something must be done;
+nobody's safe in their bed."
+
+"No; they are not, indeed. I think that all vampyres ought to be burned
+and a stake run through them, and then we should be safe."
+
+"Ay; but you must destroy all those who are even suspected of being
+vampyres, or else one may do all the mischief."--"So he might."
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the mob. "Chillingworth for ever! We'll find the
+doctor somewhere, if we pull down the whole town."
+
+There was an immense commotion among the populace, who began to start
+throwing stones, and do all sorts of things without any particular
+object, and some, as they said, to find the doctor, or to show how
+willing they were to do so if they knew how.
+
+Mrs. Chillingworth, however, kept on talking to the mob, who continued
+shouting; and the authorities anticipated an immediate outbreak of
+popular opinion, which is generally accompanied by some forcible
+demonstration, and on this occasion some one suggested the propriety of
+burning down Bannerworth Hall; because they had burned down the
+vampyre's home, and they might as well burn down that of the injured
+party, which was carried by acclamation; and with loud shouts they
+started on their errand.
+
+This was a mob's proceeding all over, and we regret very much to say,
+that it is very much the characteristic of English mobs. What an
+uncommonly strange thing it is that people in multitudes seem completely
+to get rid of all reason--all honour--all common ordinary honesty;
+while, if you were to take the same people singly, you would find that
+they were reasonable enough, and would shrink with a feeling quite
+approaching to horror from anything in the shape of very flagrant
+injustice.
+
+This can only be accounted for by a piece of cowardice in the human
+race, which induces them when alone, and acting with the full
+responsibility of their actions, to shrink from what it is quite evident
+they have a full inclination to do, and will do when, having partially
+lost their individuality in a crowd, they fancy, that to a certain
+extent they can do so with impunity.
+
+The burning of Sir Francis Varney's house, although it was one of those
+proceedings which would not bear the test of patient examination, was
+yet, when we take all the circumstances into consideration, an act
+really justifiable and natural in comparison with the one which was now
+meditated.
+
+Bannerworth Hall had never been the residence even of anyone who had
+done the people any injury or given them any offence, so that to let it
+become a prey to the flames was but a gratuitous act of mischief.
+
+It was, however, or seemed to be, doomed, for all who have had any
+experience in mobs, must know how extremely difficult it is to withdraw
+them from any impulse once given, especially when that impulse, as in
+the present instance, is of a violent character.
+
+"Down with Bannerworth Hall!" was the cry. "Burn it--burn it," and
+augmented by fresh numbers each minute, the ignorant, and, in many
+respects, ruffianly assemblage, soon arrived within sight of what had
+been for so many years the bane of the Bannerworths, and whatever may
+have been the fault of some of that race, those faults had been of a
+domestic character, and not at all such as would interfere with the
+public weal.
+
+The astonished, and almost worn-out authorities, hastily, now, after
+having disposed of their prisoners, collected together what troops they
+could, and by the time the misguided, or rather the not guided at all
+populace, had got halfway to Bannerworth Hall, they were being
+outflanked by some of the dragoons, who, by taking a more direct route,
+hoped to reach Bannerworth Hall first, and so perhaps, by letting the
+mob see that it was defended, induce them to give up the idea of its
+destruction on account of the danger attendant upon the proceeding by
+far exceeding any of the anticipated delight of the disturbance.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXI.
+
+THE STRANGE MEETING AT THE HALL BETWEEN MR. CHILLINGWORTH AND THE
+MYSTERIOUS FRIEND OF VARNEY.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When we praise our friend Mr. Chillingworth for not telling his wife
+where he was going, in pursuance of a caution and a discrimination so
+highly creditable to him, we are quite certain that he has no such
+excuse as regards the reader. Therefore we say at once that he had his
+own reasons now for taking up his abode at Bannerworth Hall for a time.
+These reasons seemed to be all dependant upon the fact of having met the
+mysterious man at Sir Francis Varney's; and although we perhaps would
+have hoped that the doctor might have communicated to Henry Bannerworth
+all that he knew and all that he surmised, yet have we no doubt that
+what he keeps to himself he has good reasons for so keeping, and that
+his actions as regards it are founded upon some very just conclusions.
+
+He has then made a determination to take possession of, and remain in,
+Bannerworth Hall according to the full and free leave which the admiral
+had given him so to do. What results he anticipated from so lonely and
+so secret a watch we cannot say, but probably they will soon exhibit
+themselves. It needed no sort of extraordinary discrimination for any
+one to feel it once that not the least good, in the way of an ambuscade,
+was likely to be effected by such persons as Admiral Bell or Jack
+Pringle. They were all very well when fighting should actually ensue,
+but they both were certainly remarkably and completely deficient in
+diplomatic skill, or in that sort of patience which should enable them
+at all to compete with the cunning, the skill, and the nice
+discrimination of such a man as Sir Francis Varney.
+
+If anything were to be done in that way it was unquestionably to be done
+by some one alone, who, like the doctor, would, and could, remain
+profoundly quiet and await the issue of events, be they what they might,
+and probably remain a spy and attempt no overt act which should be of a
+hostile character. This unquestionably was the mode, and perhaps we
+should not be going too far when we say it was the only mode which could
+be with anything like safety relied upon as one likely to lead really to
+a discovery of Sir Francis Varney's motives in making such determined
+exertions to get possession of Bannerworth Hall.
+
+That night was doomed to be a very eventful one, indeed; for on it had
+Charles Holland been, by a sort of wild impulsive generosity of Sir
+Francis Varney, rescued from the miserable dungeon in which he had been
+confined, and on that night, too, he, whom we cannot otherwise describe
+than as the villain Marchdale, had been, in consequence of the evil that
+he himself meditated, and the crime with which he was quite willing to
+stain his soul, been condemned to occupy Charles's position.
+
+On that night, too, had the infuriated mob determined upon the
+destruction of Bannerworth Hall, and on that night was Mr. Chillingworth
+waiting with what patience he could exert, at the Hall, for whatever in
+the chapter of accidents might turn up of an advantageous character to
+that family in whose welfare and fortunes he felt so friendly and so
+deep an interest.
+
+Let us look, then, at the worthy doctor as he keeps his solitary watch.
+
+He did not, as had been the case when the admiral shared the place with
+him in the hope of catching Varney on that memorable occasion when he
+caught only his boot, sit in a room with a light and the means and
+appliances for making the night pass pleasantly away; but, on the
+contrary, he abandoned the house altogether, and took up a station in
+that summer-house which has been before mentioned as the scene of a
+remarkable interview between Flora Bannerworth and Varney the vampyre.
+
+Alone and in the dark, so that he could not be probably seen, he watched
+that one window of the chamber where the first appearance of the hideous
+vampyre had taken place, and which seemed ever since to be the special
+object of his attack.
+
+By remaining from twilight, and getting accustomed to the gradually
+increasing darkness of the place, no doubt the doctor was able to see
+well enough without the aid of any artificial light whether any one was
+in the place besides himself.
+
+"Night after night," he said, "will I watch here until I have succeeded
+in unravelling this mystery; for that there is some fearful and undreamt
+of mystery at the bottom of all these proceedings I am well convinced."
+
+When he made such a determination as this, Dr. Chillingworth was not at
+all a likely man to break it, so there, looking like a modern statue in
+the arbour, he sat with his eyes fixed upon the balcony and the window
+of what used to be called Flora's room for some hours.
+
+The doctor was a contemplative man, and therefore he did not so acutely
+feel the loneliness of his position as many persons would have done;
+moreover, he was decidedly not of a superstitious turn of mind, although
+certainly we cannot deny an imagination to him. However, if he really
+had harboured some strange fears and terrors they would have been
+excusable, when we consider how many circumstances had combined to make
+it almost a matter of demonstration that Sir Francis Varney was
+something more than mortal.
+
+What quantities of subjects the doctor thought over during his vigil in
+that garden it is hard to say, but never in his whole life, probably,
+had he such a glorious opportunity for the most undisturbed
+contemplation of subjects requiring deep thought to analyze, than as he
+had then. At least he felt that since his marriage he had never been so
+thoroughly quiet, and left so completely to himself.
+
+It is to be hoped that he succeeded in settling any medical points of a
+knotty character that might be hovering in his brain, and certain it is
+that he had become quite absorbed in an abstruse matter connected with
+physiology, when his ears were startled, and he was at once aroused to a
+full consciousness of where he was, and why he had come there, by the
+distant sound of a man's footstep.
+
+It was a footstep which seemed to be that of a person who scarcely
+thought it at all necessary to use any caution, and the doctor's heart
+leaped within him as in the lowest possible whisper he said to
+himself,--
+
+"I am successful--I am successful. It is believed now that the Hall is
+deserted, and no doubt that is Sir Francis Varney come with confidence,
+to carry out his object in so sedulously attacking it, be that object
+what it may."
+
+Elated with this idea, the doctor listened intently to the advancing
+footstep, which each moment sounded more clearly upon his ears.
+
+It was evidently approaching from the garden entrance towards the house,
+and he thought, by the occasional deadened sound of the person's feet,
+be he whom he might, that he could not see his way very well, and,
+consequently, frequently strayed from the path, on to some of the
+numerous flower-beds which were in the way.
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, exultingly, "it must be Varney; and now I have
+but to watch him, and not to resist him; for what good on earth is it to
+stop him in what he wishes to do, and, by such means, never wrest his
+secret from him. The only way is to let him go on, and that will I do,
+most certainly."
+
+Now he heard the indistinct muttering of the voice of some one, so low
+that he could not catch what words were uttered; but he fancied that, in
+the deep tones, he recognised, without any doubt, the voice of Sir
+Francis Varney.
+
+"It must be he," he said, "it surely must be he. Who else would come
+here to disturb the solitude of an empty house? He comes! he comes!"
+
+Now the doctor could see a figure emerge from behind some thick beeches,
+which had before obstructed his vision, and he looked scrutinisingly
+about, while some doubts stole slowly over his mind now as to whether it
+was the vampyre or not. The height was in favour of the supposition that
+it was none other than Varney; but the figure looked so much stouter,
+that Mr. Chillingworth felt a little staggered upon the subject, and
+unable wholly to make up his mind upon it.
+
+The pausing of this visitor, too, opposite that window where Sir Francis
+Varney had made his attempts, was another strong reason why the doctor
+was inclined to believe it must be him, and yet he could not quite make
+up his mind upon the subject, so as to speak with certainty.
+
+A very short time, however, indeed, must have sufficed to set such a
+question as that at rest; and patience seemed the only quality of mind
+necessary under those circumstances for Mr. Chillingworth to exert.
+
+The visitor continued gazing either at that window, or at the whole
+front of the house, for several minutes, and then he turned away from a
+contemplation of it, and walked slowly along, parallel with the windows
+of that dining-room, one of which had been broken so completely on the
+occasion of the admiral's attempt to take the vampyre prisoner.
+
+The moment the stranger altered his position, from looking at the
+window, and commenced walking away from it, Mr. Chillingworth's mind was
+made up. It was not Varney--of that he felt now most positively assured,
+and could have no doubt whatever upon the subject.
+
+The gait, the general air, the walk, all were different; and then arose
+the anxious question of who could it be that had intruded upon that
+lonely place, and what could be the object of any one else but Varney
+the vampyre to do so.
+
+The stranger looked a powerful man, and walked with a firm tread, and,
+altogether he was an opponent that, had the doctor been ever so
+belligerently inclined, it would have been the height of indiscretion
+for him to attempt to cope with.
+
+It was a very vexatious thing, too, for any one to come there at such a
+juncture, perhaps only from motives of curiosity, or possibly just to
+endeavour to commit some petty depredations upon the deserted building,
+if possible; and most heartily did the doctor wish that, in some way, he
+could scare away the intruder.
+
+The man walked along very slowly, indeed, and seemed to be quite taking
+his time in making his observations of the building; and this was the
+more provoking, as it was getting late, and if having projected a visit
+at all, it would surely soon be made, and then, when he found any one
+there, of course, he would go.
+
+Amazed beyond expression, the doctor felt about on the ground at his
+feet, until he found a tolerably large stone, which he threw at the
+stranger with so good an aim, that it hit him a smart blow on the back,
+which must have been anything but a pleasant surprise.
+
+That it was a surprise, and that, too, a most complete one, was evident
+from the start which the man gave, and then he uttered a furious oath,
+and rubbed his back, as he glanced about him to endeavour to ascertain
+from whence the missile had come.
+
+"I'll try him again with that," thought the doctor; "it may succeed in
+scaring him away;" and he stooped to watch for another stone.
+
+It was well that he did so at that precise moment; for, before he rose
+again, he heard the sharp report of a pistol, and a crashing sound among
+some of the old wood work of which the summer-house was composed, told
+him that a shot had there taken effect. Affairs were now getting much
+too serious; and, accordingly, Dr. Chillingworth thought that, rather
+than stay there to be made a target of, he would face the intruder.
+
+"Hold--hold!" he cried. "Who are you, and what do you mean by
+that?"--"Oh! somebody is there," cried the man, as he advanced. "My
+friend, whoever you are, you were very foolish to throw a stone at me."
+
+"And, my friend, whoever you are," responded the doctor, "you were very
+spiteful to fire a pistol bullet at me in consequence."--
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"But I say yes; for, probably, I can prove a right to be here, which you
+cannot."--"Ah!" said the stranger, "that voice--why--you are Dr.
+Chillingworth?"
+
+"I am; but I don't know you," said the doctor, as he emerged now from
+the summer-house, and confronted the stranger who was within a few paces
+of the entrance to it. Then he started, as he added,--
+
+"Yes, I do know you, though. How, in the name of Heaven, came you here,
+and what purpose have you in so coming?"
+
+"What purpose have you? Since we met at Varney's, I have been making
+some inquiries about this neighbourhood, and learn strange
+things."--"That you may very easily do here; and, what is more
+extraordinary, the strange things are, for the most part, I can assure
+you, quite true."
+
+The reader will, from what has been said, now readily recognise this man
+as Sir Francis Varney's mysterious visitor, to whom he gave, from some
+hidden cause or another, so large a sum of money, and between whom and
+Dr. Chillingworth a mutual recognition had taken place, on the occasion
+when Sir Francis Varney had, with such cool assurance, invited the
+admiral to breakfast with him at his new abode.
+
+"You, however," said the man, "I have no doubt, are fully qualified to
+tell me of more than I have been able to learn from other people; and,
+first of all, let me ask you why you are here?"--"Before I answer you
+that question, or any other," said the doctor, "let me beg of you to
+tell me truly, is Sir Francis Varney--"
+
+The doctor whispered in the ear of the stranger some name, as if he
+feared, even there, in the silence of that garden, where everything
+conspired to convince him that he could not be overheard, to pronounce
+it in an audible tone.
+
+"He is," said the other.--"You have no manner of doubt of it?"
+
+"Doubt?--certainly not. What doubt can I have? I know it for a positive
+certainty, and he knows, of course, that I do know it, and has purchased
+my silence pretty handsomely, although I must confess that nothing but
+my positive necessities would have induced me to make the large demands
+upon him that I have, and I hope soon to be able to release him
+altogether from them."
+
+The doctor shook his head repeatedly, as he said,--
+
+"I suspected it; I suspected it, do you know, from the first moment that
+I saw you there in his house. His face haunted me ever since--awfully
+haunted me; and yet, although I felt certain that I had once seen it
+under strange circumstances, I could not identify it with--but no
+matter, no matter. I am waiting here for him."
+
+"Indeed!"--"Ay, that I am; and I flung a stone at you, not knowing you,
+with hope that you would be, by such means, perhaps, scared away, and so
+leave the coast clear for him."
+
+"Then you have an appointment with him?"--"By no means; but he has made
+such repeated and determined attacks upon this house that the family who
+inhabited it were compelled to leave it, and I am here to watch him, and
+ascertain what can possibly be his object."
+
+"It is as I suspected, then," muttered this man. "Confound him! Now can
+I read, as if in a book, most clearly, the game that he is playing!"
+
+"Can you?" cried the doctor, energetically--"can you? What is it? Tell
+me, for that is the very thing I want to discover."--"You don't say so?"
+
+"It is, indeed; and I assure you that it concerns the peace of a whole
+family to know it. You say you have made inquiries about this
+neighbourhood, and, if you have done so, you have discovered how the
+family of the Bannerworths have been persecuted by Varney, and how, in
+particular, Flora Bannerworth, a beautiful and intelligent girl, has
+been most cruelly made to suffer."
+
+"I have heard all that, and I dare say with many exaggerations."--"It
+would be difficult for any one really to exaggerate the horrors that
+have taken place in this house, so that any information which you can
+give respecting the motives of Varney will tend, probably, to restore
+peace to those who have been so cruelly persecuted, and be an act of
+kindness which I think not altogether inconsistent with your nature."
+
+"You think so, and yet know who I am."--"I do, indeed."
+
+"And what I am. Why, if I were to go into the market-place of yon town,
+and proclaim myself, would not all shun me--ay, even the very lowest and
+vilest; and yet you talk of an act of kindness not being altogether
+inconsistent with my nature!"--"I do, because I know something more of
+you than many."
+
+There was a silence of some moments' duration, and then the stranger
+spoke in a tone of voice which looked as if he were struggling with some
+emotion.
+
+"Sir, you do know more of me than many. You know what I have been, and
+you know how I left an occupation which would have made me loathed. But
+you--even you--do not know what made me take to so terrible a
+trade."--"I do not."
+
+"Would it suit you for me now to tell you?"--"Will you first promise me
+that you will do all you can for this persecuted family of the
+Bannerworths, in whom I take so strange an interest?"
+
+"I will. I promise you that freely. Of my own knowledge, of course, I
+can say but little concerning them, but, upon that warranting, I well
+believe they deserve abundant sympathy, and from me they shall have it."
+
+"A thousand thanks! With your assistance, I have little doubt of being
+able to extricate them from the tangled web of dreadful incidents which
+has turned them from their home; and now, whatever you may choose to
+tell me of the cause which drove you to be what you became, I shall
+listen to with abundant interest. Only let me beseech you to come into
+this summer-house, and to talk low."
+
+"I will, and you can pursue your watch at the same time, while I beguile
+its weariness."--"Be it so."
+
+"You knew me years ago, when I had all the chances in the world of
+becoming respectable and respected. I did, indeed; and you may,
+therefore, judge of my surprise when, some years since, being in the
+metropolis, I met you, and you shunned my company."--"Yes; but, at last,
+you found out why it was that I shunned your company."
+
+"I did. You yourself told me once that I met you, and would not leave
+you, but insisted upon your dining with me. Then you told me, when you
+found that I would take no other course whatever, that you were no other
+than the--the----"--
+
+"Out with it! I can bear to hear it now better than I could then! I told
+you that I was the common hangman of London!"
+
+"You did, I must confess, to my most intense surprise."
+
+"Yes, and yet you kept to me; and, but that I respected you too much to
+allow you to do so, you would, from old associations, have countenanced
+me; but I could not, and I would not, let you do so. I told you then
+that, although I held the terrible office, that I had not been yet
+called upon to perform its loathsome functions. Soon--soon--come the
+first effort--it was the last!"
+
+"Indeed! You left the dreadful trade?"
+
+"I did--I did. But what I want to tell you, for I could not then, was
+why I went ever to it. The wounds my heart had received were then too
+fresh to allow me to speak of them, but I will tell you now. The story
+is a brief one, Mr. Chillingworth. I pray you be seated."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXII.
+
+THE STRANGE STORY.--THE ARRIVAL OF THE MOB AT THE HALL, AND THEIR
+DISPERSION.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"You will find that the time which elapsed since I last saw you in
+London, to have been spent in an eventful, varied manner."--"You were in
+good circumstances then," said Mr. Chillingworth.--"I was, but many
+events happened after that which altered the prospect; made it even more
+gloomy than you can well imagine: but I will tell you all candidly, and
+you can keep watch upon Bannerworth Hall at the same time. You are well
+aware that I was well to do, and had ample funds, and inclination to
+spend them."--"I recollect: but you were married then, surely?"--"I
+was," said the stranger, sadly, "I was married then."--"And now?"--"I am
+a widower." The stranger seemed much moved, but, after a moment or so,
+he resumed--"I am a widower now; but how that event came about is partly
+my purpose to tell you. I had not married long--that is very long--for I
+have but one child, and she is not old, or of an age to know much more
+than what she may be taught; she is still in the course of education. I
+was early addicted to gamble; the dice had its charms, as all those who
+have ever engaged in play but too well know; it is perfectly
+fascinating."--"So I have heard," said Mr. Chillingworth; "though, for
+myself, I found a wife and professional pursuits quite incompatible with
+any pleasure that took either time or resources."--
+
+"It is so. I would I had never entered one of those houses where men are
+deprived of their money and their own free will, for at the
+gambling-table you have no liberty, save that in gliding down the stream
+in company with others. How few have ever escaped destruction--none, I
+believe--men are perfectly fascinated; it is ruin alone that enables a
+man to see how he has been hurried onwards without thought or
+reflection; and how fallacious were all the hopes he ever entertained!
+Yes, ruin, and ruin alone, can do this; but, alas! 'tis then too
+late--the evil is done. Soon after my marriage I fell in with a
+Chevalier St. John. He was a man of the world in every sense of the
+word, and one that was well versed in all the ways of society. I never
+met with any man who was so perfectly master of himself, and of perfect
+ease and self-confidence as he was. He was never at a loss, and, come
+what would, never betrayed surprise or vexation--two qualities, he
+thought, never ought to be shown by any man who moved in society."--
+
+"Indeed!"--"He was a strange man--a very strange man."--
+
+"Did he gamble?"--
+
+"It is difficult to give you a correct and direct answer. I should say
+he did, and yet he never lost or won much; but I have often thought he
+was more connected with those who did than was believed."--
+
+"Was that a fact?" inquired Mr. Chillingworth.--
+
+"You shall see as we go on, and be able to judge for yourself. I have
+thought he was. Well, he first took me to a handsome saloon, where
+gambling was carried on. We had been to the opera. As we came out, he
+recommended that we should sup at a house where he was well known, and
+where he was in the habit of spending his evenings after the opera, and
+before he retired. I agreed to this. I saw no reason why I should not.
+We went there, and bitterly have I repented of so doing for years since,
+and do to this day."--
+
+"Your repentance has been sincere and lasting," said Mr. Chillingworth;
+"the one proves the other."--"It does; but I thought not so then. The
+place was glittering, and the wine good. It was a kind of earthly
+paradise; and when we had taken some wine, the chevalier said to me,--
+
+"'I am desirous of seeing a friend backwards; he is at the hazard-table.
+Will you go with me?'--I hesitated. I feared to see the place where a
+vice was carried on. I knew myself inclined to prudential motives. I
+said to him,--'No, St. John, I'll wait here for you; it may be as
+well--the wine is good, and it will content me?'
+
+"'Do so,' he said, smiling; 'but remember I seldom or never play myself,
+nor is there any reason why you should.'--'I'll go, but I will not
+play.'--'Certainly not; you are free alike to look on, play, or quit the
+place at any moment you please, and not be noticed, probably, by a
+single soul.'
+
+"I arose, and we walked backwards, having called one of the men who were
+waiting about, but who were watchers and door-keepers of the 'hell.' We
+were led along the passage, and passed through the pair of doors, which
+were well secured and rendered the possibility of a surprise almost
+impossible. After these dark places, we were suddenly let into a place
+where we were dazzled by the light and brilliancy of the saloon. It was
+not so large as the one we left, but it was superior to it in all its
+appointments.
+
+"At first I could not well see who was, or who was not, in the room
+where we were. As soon, however, as I found the use of my eyes, I
+noticed many well-dressed men, who were busily engaged in play, and who
+took no notice of any one who entered. We walked about for some minutes
+without speaking to any one, but merely looking on. I saw men engaged in
+play; some with earnestness, others again with great nonchalance, and
+money changed hands without the least remark. There were but few who
+spoke, and only those in play. There was a hum of conversation; but you
+could not distinguish what was said, unless you paid some attention to,
+and was in close vicinity with, the individual who spoke.
+
+"'Well,' said St. John, 'what do you think of this place?'--'Why,' I
+replied, 'I had no notion of seeing a place fitted up as this is.'
+
+"'No; isn't it superb?'--'It is beautifully done. They have many
+visitors,' said I, 'many more than I could have believed.'
+
+"'Yes, they are all _bona fide_ players; men of stamp and rank--none of
+your seedy legs who have only what they can cheat you out
+of.'--'Ah!'--'And besides,' he added, 'you may often form friendships
+here that lead to fortune hereafter. I do not mean in play, because
+there is no necessity for your doing so, or, if you do so, in going
+above a stake which you know won't hurt you.'--'Exactly.'
+
+"'Many men can never approach a table like this, and sit down to an
+hour's play, but, if they do, they must stake not only more than they
+can afford, but all their property, leaving themselves beggars.' 'They
+do?" said I.
+
+"'But men who know themselves, their resources, and choose to indulge
+for a time, may often come and lay the foundation to a very pretty
+fortune.'
+
+"'Do you see your friend?' I inquired.--'No, I do not; but I will
+inquire if he has been here--if not, we will go.'
+
+"He left me for a moment or two to make some inquiry, and I stood
+looking at the table, where there were four players, and who seemed to
+be engaged at a friendly game; and when one party won they looked grave,
+and when the other party lost they smiled and looked happy. I walked
+away, as the chevalier did not return immediately to me; and then I saw
+a gentleman rise up from a table. He had evidently lost. I was standing
+by the seat, unconsciously holding the back in my hand. I sat down
+without thinking or without speaking, and found myself at the hazard
+table.
+
+"'Do you play, sir?'--'Yes,' I said. I had hardly uttered the words when
+I was sorry for them; but I could not recall them. I sat down, and play
+at once commenced.
+
+"In about ten or fifteen minutes, often losing and then winning, I found
+myself about a hundred and twenty pounds in pocket, clear gain by the
+play.
+
+"'Ah!' said the chevalier, who came up at that moment, 'I thought you
+wouldn't play.'--'I really don't know how it happened,' said I, 'but I
+suddenly found myself here without any previous intention.'
+
+"'You are not a loser, I hope?'--'Indeed I am not,' I replied; 'but not
+much a gainer.'
+
+"'Nor need you desire to be. Do you desire to give your adversary his
+revenge now, or take another opportunity.'--'At another time,' I
+replied.
+
+"'You will find me here the day after to-morrow, when I shall be at your
+service;' then bowing, he turned away.
+
+"'He is a very rich man whom you have been playing with,' said the
+chevalier.--"
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"'Yes, and I have known him to lose for three days together; but you may
+take his word for any amount; he is a perfect gentleman and man of
+honour.'--''Tis well to play with such,' I replied; 'but I suppose you
+are about to leave.'
+
+"'Yes, it grows late, and I have some business to transact to-morrow, so
+I must leave.'--'I will accompany you part of the way home,' said I,
+'and then I shall have finished the night.'
+
+"I did leave with him, and accompanied him home, and then walked to my
+own home."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"This was my first visit, and I thought a propitious beginning, but it
+was the more dangerous. Perhaps a loss might have effectually deterred
+me, but it is doubtful to tell how certain events might have been
+altered. It is just possible that I might have been urged on by my
+desire to retrieve any loss I might have incurred, and so made myself at
+once the miserable being it took months to accomplish in bringing me to.
+
+"I went the day but one after this, to meet the same individual at the
+gambling-table, and played some time with varied success, until I left
+off with a trifling loss upon the night's play, which was nothing of any
+consequence.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Thus matters went on; I sometimes won and sometimes lost, until I won a
+few hundreds, and this determined me to play for higher stakes than any
+I had yet played for.
+
+"It was no use going on in the peddling style I had been going on; I had
+won two hundred and fifty pounds in three months, and had I been less
+fearful I might have had twenty-five thousand pounds. Ah! I'll try my
+fortune at a higher game.
+
+"Having once made this resolution, I was anxious to begin my new plan,
+which I hoped would have the effect of placing me far above my then
+present position in society, which was good, and with a little attention
+it would have made me an independent man; but then it required patience,
+and nothing more. However, the other method was so superior since it
+might all be done with good luck in a few months. Ah! good luck; how
+uncertain is good luck; how changeful is fortune; how soon is the best
+prospect blighted by the frosts of adversity. In less than a month I had
+lost more than I could pay, and then I gambled on for a living.
+
+"My wife had but one child; her first and only one; an infant at her
+breast; but there was a change came over her; for one had come over
+me--a fearful one it was too--one not only in manner but in fortune too.
+She would beg me to come home early; to attend to other matters, and
+leave the dreadful life I was then leading.
+
+"'Lizzy,' said I, 'we are ruined.'--'Ruined!' she exclaimed, and
+staggered back, until she fell into a seat. 'Ruined!'
+
+"'Ay, ruined. It is a short word, but expressive.'--'No, no, we are not
+ruined. I know what you mean, you would say, we cannot live as we have
+lived; we must retrench, and so we will, right willingly.'
+
+"'You must retrench most wonderfully,' I said, with desperate calmness,
+'for the murder must out.'--'And so we will; but you will be with us;
+you will not go out night after night, ruining your health, our
+happiness, and destroying both peace and prospects.'
+
+"'No, no, Lizzy, we have no chance of recovering ourselves; house and
+home--all gone--all, all.'--'My God!' she exclaimed.
+
+"'Ay, rail on,' said I; 'you have cause enough; but, no matter--we have
+lost all.'--'How--how?'
+
+"'It is useless to ask how; I have done, and there is an end of the
+matter; you shall know more another day; we must leave this house for a
+lodging.'--'It matters little,' she said; 'all may be won again, if you
+will but say you will quit the society of those who have ruined you.'
+
+"'No one,' said I, 'has ruined me; I did it; it was no fault of any one
+else's; I have not that excuse.'--'I am sure you can recover.'
+
+"'I may; some day fortune will shower her favours upon me, and I live on
+in that expectation.'--'You cannot mean that you will chance the
+gaming-table? for I am sure you must have lost all there?'
+
+"'I have.'--'God help me,' she said; 'you have done your child a wrong,
+but you may repair it yet.'
+
+"'Never!'--''Tis a long day! let me implore you, on my knees, to leave
+this place, and adopt some other mode of life; we can be careful; a
+little will do, and we shall, in time, be equal to, and better than what
+we have been.'
+
+"'We never can, save by chance.'--'And by chance we never shall,' she
+replied; 'if you will exert yourself, we may yet retrieve ourselves.'
+
+"'And exert myself I will.'--'And quit the gaming-table?'
+
+"'Ask me to make no promises,' said I; 'I may not be able to keep them;
+therefore, ask me to make none.'--'I do ask you, beg of, entreat of you
+to promise, and solemnly promise me that you will leave that fearful
+place, where men not only lose all their goods, but the feelings of
+nature also.'
+
+"'Say no more, Lizzy; if I can get a living elsewhere I will, but if
+not, I must get it there.'
+
+"She seemed to be cast down at this, and she shed tears. I left the
+room, and again went to the gambling-house, and there that night, I won
+a few pounds, which enabled me to take my wife and child away from the
+house they had so long lived in, and took them afterwards to a miserable
+place,--one room, where, indeed, there were a few articles of furniture
+that I had saved from the general wreck of my own property.
+
+"She took things much less to heart than I could have anticipated; she
+seemed cheerful and happy,--she endeavoured to make my home as
+comfortable as she could.
+
+"Her whole endeavour was to make me as much as possible, forget the
+past. She wanted, as much as possible, to wean me away from my gambling
+pursuits, but that was impossible. I had no hope, no other prospect.
+
+"Thus she strove, but I could see each day she was getting paler, and
+more pale; her figure, before round, was more thin, and betrayed signs
+of emaciation. This preyed upon me; and, when fortune denied me the
+means of carrying home that which she so much wanted, I could never
+return for two days at a time. Then I would find her shedding tears, and
+sighing; what could I say? If I had anything to take her, then I used to
+endeavour to make her forget that I had been away.
+
+"'Ah!' she would exclaim, 'you will find me dead one of these days; what
+you do now for one or two days, you will do by-and-bye for many days,
+perhaps weeks.'--'Do not anticipate evil.'
+
+"'I cannot do otherwise; were you in any other kind of employment but
+that of gambling,' she said, 'I should have some hope of you; but, as it
+is, there is none.'--'Speak not of it; my chances may turn out
+favourable yet, and you may be again as you were.'
+
+"'Never.'--'But fortune is inconstant, and may change in my favour as
+much as she has done in others.'
+
+"'Fortune is indeed constant, but misfortune is as inconstant.'--'You
+are prophetic of evil."
+
+"'Ah! I would to Heaven I could predict good; but who ever yet heard of
+a ruined gambler being able to retrieve himself by the same means that
+he was ruined?'
+
+"Thus we used to converse, but our conversation was usually of but
+little comfort to either of us, for we could give neither any comfort to
+the other; and as that was usually the case, our interviews became less
+frequent, and of less duration. My answer was always the same.
+
+"'I have no other chance; my prospects are limited to that one place;
+deprive me of that, and I never more should be able to bring you a
+mouthful of bread.'
+
+"Day after day,--day after day, the same result followed, and I was as
+far from success as ever I was, and ever should be; I was yet a beggar.
+
+"The time flew by; my little girl was nearly four years old, but she
+knew not the misery her father and mother had to endure. The poor little
+thing sometimes went without more than a meal a day; and while I was
+living thus upon the town, upon the chances of the gaming-table, many a
+pang did she cause me, and so did her mother. My constant consolation
+was this,--
+
+"'It is bad luck now,' I would say; 'but will be better by-and-bye;
+things cannot always continue thus. It is all for them--all for them.'
+
+"I thought that by continuing constantly in one course, I must be at
+land at the ebb of the tide. 'It cannot always flow one way,' I thought.
+I had often heard people say that if you could but have the resolution
+to play on, you must in the end seize the turn of fortune.
+
+"'If I could but once do that, I would never enter a hell again as long
+as I drew breath.'
+
+"This was a resolve I could not only make but keep, because I had
+suffered so much that I would never run through the same misery again
+that I had already gone through. However, fortune never seemed inclined
+to take the turn I had hoped for; fortune was as far off as ever, and
+had in no case given me any opportunity of recovering myself.
+
+"A few pounds were the utmost I could at any time muster, and I had to
+keep up something of an appearance, and seem as if I had a thousand a
+year; when, God knows, I could not have mustered a thousandth part of
+that sum, were all done and paid for.
+
+"Day after day passed on, and yet no change. I had almost given myself
+up to despair, when one night when I went home I saw my wife was more
+than usually melancholy and sad, and perhaps ill; I didn't look at
+her--I seldom did, because her looks were always a reproach to me; I
+could not help feeling them so.
+
+"'Well,' said I, 'I have come home to you because I have something to
+bring you; not what I ought--but what I can--you must be satisfied!'--'I
+am,' she said.
+
+"'I know also you want it; how is the child, is she quite well?'--'Yes,
+quite.'
+
+"'Where is she?' inquired I, looking round the room, but I didn't see
+her; she used to be up.--'She has gone to bed,' she said.
+
+"'It is very early.'--'Yes, but she cried so for food that I was obliged
+to get her to sleep to forget her hunger: poor thing, she has wanted
+bread very badly.'
+
+"'Poor thing!' I said, 'let her be awakened and partake of what I have
+brought home.'
+
+"With that my wife waked her up, and the moment she opened her eyes she
+again began to cry for food, which I immediately gave her and saw her
+devour with the utmost haste and hunger. The sight smote my heart, and
+my wife sat by watching, and endeavouring to prevent her from eating so
+fast.
+
+"'This is bad,' I said.--'Yes, but I hope it may be the worst,' she
+replied, in a deep and hollow voice.
+
+"'Lizzy,' I exclaimed, 'what is the matter--are you ill?'--'Yes, very
+ill.'
+
+"'What is the matter with you? For God's sake tell me,' I said, for I
+was alarmed.--'I am very ill,' she said, 'very ill indeed; I feel my
+strength decreasing every day. I must drink.'
+
+"You, too, want food?'--'I have and perhaps do, though the desire to eat
+seems almost to have left me.'
+
+"'For Heaven's sake eat,' said I; 'I will bring you home something more
+by to-morrow; eat and drink Lizzy. I have suffered; but for you and your
+child's sake, I will do my best.'--'Your best,' she said, 'will kill us
+both; but, alas, there is no other aid at hand. You may one day,
+however, come here too late to find us living.'
+
+"'Say no more, Lizzy, you know not my feelings when you speak thus;
+alas, I have no hope--no aid--no friend.'--'No,' she replied, 'your love
+of gaming drove them from you, because they would not aid a gambler.'
+
+"'Say no more, Lizzy,' I said; 'if there be not an end to this life
+soon, there will be an end to me. In two days more I shall return to
+you. Good bye; God bless you. Keep up your heart and the child.'--'Good
+bye,' she said, sorrowfully. She shed tears, and wrung her hands
+bitterly. I hastened away--my heart was ready to burst, and I could not
+speak.
+
+"I walked about to recover my serenity, but could not do so sufficiently
+well to secure anything like an appearance that would render me fit to
+go to the gaming-house. That night I remained away, but I could not
+avoid falling into a debauch to drown my misfortunes, and shift the
+scene of misery that was continually before my eyes."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The next night I was at the gaming-house. I went there in better than
+usual spirits. I saw, I thought, a change in fortune, and hailed that as
+the propitious moment of my life, when I was to rise above my present
+misfortunes.
+
+"I played and won--played and lost--played and won, and then lost again;
+thus I went on, fluctuating more and more, until I found I was getting
+money in my pocket. I had, at one moment more than three hundred pounds
+in my pocket, and I felt that then was my happy moment--then the tide of
+fortune was going in my favour. I ought to have left off with that--to
+have been satisfied with such an amount of money; but the demon of
+avarice seemed to have possessed me, and I went on and on with
+fluctuating fortune, until I lost the whole of it.
+
+"I was mad--desperate, and could have destroyed myself; but I thought of
+the state my wife and child were in; I thought that that night they
+would want food; but they could not hurt for one day--they must have
+some, or would procure some.
+
+"I was too far gone to be able to go to them, even if I were possessed
+of means; but I had none, and daylight saw me in a deep sleep, from
+which I awoke not until the next evening let in, and then I once more
+determined that I would make a desperate attempt to get a little money.
+I had always paid, and thought my word would be taken for once; and, if
+I won, all well and good; if not, then I was no worse off than before.
+
+"This was easy to plan, but not to execute. I went there, but there were
+none present in whom I had sufficient interest to dare make the attempt.
+I walked about, and felt in a most uncomfortable state. I feared I
+should not succeed at all, then what was to become of me--of my wife and
+child? This rendered me almost mad. I could not understand what I was to
+do, what to attempt, or where to go. One or two persons came up, and
+asked me if I were ill. My answers were, that I was well enough. Good
+God! how far from the truth was that; but I found I must place more
+control on my feelings, else I should cause much conversation, and then
+I should lose all hope of recovering myself, and all prospect of living,
+even.
+
+"At length some one did come in, and I remarked I had been there all the
+evening and had not played. I had an invitation to play with him, which
+ended, by a little sleight of hand, in my favour; and on that I had
+calculated as much as on any good fortune I might meet. The person I
+played with observed it not, and, when we left off playing, I had some
+six or seven pounds in pocket. This, to me, was a very great sum; and,
+the moment I could decently withdraw myself, I ran off home.
+
+"I was fearful of the scene that awaited me. I expected something; worse
+than I had yet seen. Possibly Lizzy might be angry, and scold as well
+as complain. I therefore tapped at the door gently, but heard no one
+answer; but of this I took no notice, as I believed that they might be,
+and were, most probably, fast asleep. I had provided myself with a
+light, and I therefore opened the door, which was not fastened.
+
+"'Lizzy!' said I, 'Lizzy!' There was no answer given, and I paused.
+Everything was as still as death. I looked on the bed--there lay my wife
+with her clothes on.
+
+"'Lizzy! Lizzy!' said I. But still she did not answer me.
+
+"'Well,' said I, 'she sleeps sound;' and I walked towards the bed, and
+placed my hand upon her shoulder, and began to shake her, saying, as I
+did so,--
+
+"'Lizzy! Lizzy! I'm come home.' But still no answer, or signs of
+awaking.
+
+"I went on the other side of the bed to look at her face, and some
+misgivings overtook me. I trembled much. She lay on the bed, with her
+back towards the spot where I stood.
+
+"I came towards her face. My hand shook violently as I endeavoured to
+look at her. She had her eyes wide open, as if staring at me.
+
+"'Lizzy,' said I. No answer was returned. I then placed my hand upon her
+cheek. It was enough, and I started back in great horror. She was dead!
+
+"This was horror itself. I staggered back and fell into a chair. The
+light I placed down, Heaven knows how or why; but there I sat staring at
+the corpse of my unfortunate wife. I can hardly tell you the tremendous
+effect this had upon me. I could not move. I was fascinated to the spot.
+I could not move and could not turn."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"It was morning, and the rays of the sun illumined the apartment; but
+there sat I, still gazing upon the face of my unfortunate wife, I saw, I
+knew she was dead; but yet I had not spoken, but sat looking at her.
+
+"I believe my heart was as cold as she was; but extreme horror and dread
+had dried up all the warm blood in my body, and I hardly think there was
+a pulsation left. The thoughts of my child never once seemed to cross my
+mind. I had, however, sat there long--some hours before I was
+discovered, and this was by the landlady.
+
+"I had left the door open behind me, and she, in passing down, had the
+curiosity to peep, and saw me sitting in what she thought to be a very
+strange attitude, and could hear no sounds.
+
+"After some time she discovered my wife was dead, and, for some time,
+she thought me so, too. However, she was convinced to the contrary, and
+then began to call for assistance. This awoke the child, which was
+nearly famished. The landlady, to become useful, and to awaken me from
+my lethargy, placed the child in my hands, telling me I was the best
+person now to take care of it.
+
+"And so I was; there was no doubt of the truth of that, and I was
+compelled to acknowledge it. I felt much pride and pleasure in my
+daughter, and determined she should, if I starved, have the benefit of
+all I could do for her in the way of care, &c."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The funeral over, I took my child and carried it to a school, where I
+left her, and paid in advance, promising to do so as often as the
+quarter came round. My wife I had seen buried by the hands of man, and I
+swore I would do the best for my child, and to keep this oath was a work
+of pleasure.
+
+"I determined also I would never more enter a gaming-house, be the
+extremity what it might; I would suffer even death before I would permit
+myself to enter the house in which it took place.
+
+"'I will,' I thought, 'obtain some employment of some kind or other. I
+could surely obtain that. I have only to ask and I have it,
+surely--something, however menial, that would keep me and my child. Yes,
+yes--she ought, she must have her charges paid at once."
+
+"The effect of my wife's death was a very great shock to me, and such a
+one I could not forget--one I shall ever remember, and one that at least
+made a lasting impression upon me."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Strange, but true, I never entered a gambling-house; it was my horror
+and my aversion. And yet I could obtain no employment. I took my
+daughter and placed her at a boarding-school, and tried hard to obtain
+bread by labour; but, do what would, none could be had; if my soul
+depended upon it, I could find none. I cared not what it was--anything
+that was honest.
+
+"I was reduced low--very low; gaunt starvation showed itself in my
+cheeks; but I wandered about to find employment; none could be found,
+and the world seemed to have conspired together to throw me back to the
+gaming-table.
+
+"But this I would not. At last employment was offered; but what was it?
+The situation of common hangman was offered me. The employment was
+disgusting and horrible; but, at the same time, it was all I could get,
+and that was a sufficient inducement for me to accept of it. I was,
+therefore, the common executioner; and in that employment for some time
+earned a living. It was terrible; but necessity compelled me to accept
+the only thing I could obtain. You now know the reason why I became what
+I have told you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXIII.
+
+THE VISIT OF THE VAMPIRE.--THE GENERAL MEETING.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The mysterious friend of Mr. Chillingworth finished his narrative, and
+then the doctor said to him,--
+
+"And that, then, is the real cause why you, a man evidently far above
+the position of life which is usually that of those who occupy the
+dreadful post of executioner, came to accept of it."--"The real reason,
+sir. I considered, too, that in holding such a humiliating situation
+that I was justly served for the barbarity of which I had been guilty;
+for what can be a greater act of cruelty than to squander, as I did, in
+the pursuit of mad excitement, those means which should have rendered my
+home happy, and conduced to the welfare of those who were dependant upon
+me?"
+
+"I do not mean to say that your self-reproaches are unjust altogether,
+but--What noise is that? do you hear anything?"--
+
+"Yes--yes."
+
+"What do you take it to be?"--"It seemed like the footsteps of a number
+of persons, and it evidently approaches nearer and nearer. I know not
+what to think."
+
+"Shall I tell you?" said a deep-toned voice, and some one, through the
+orifice in the back of the summer-house, which, it will be recollected,
+sustained some damage at the time that Varney escaped from it, laid a
+hand upon Mr. Chillingworth's shoulder. "God bless me!" exclaimed the
+doctor; "who's that?" and he sprang from his seat with the greatest
+perturbation in the world.
+
+"Varney, the vampyre!" added the voice, and then both the doctor and his
+companion recognised it, and saw the strange, haggard features, that now
+they knew so well, confronting them. There was a pause of surprise, for
+a moment or two, on the part of the doctor, and then he said, "Sir
+Francis Varney, what brings you here? I conjure you to tell me, in the
+name of common justice and common feeling, what brings you to this house
+so frequently? You have dispossessed the family, whose property it is,
+of it, and you have caused great confusion and dismay over a whole
+county. I implore you now, not in the language of menace or as an enemy,
+but as the advocate of the oppressed, and one who desires to see justice
+done to all, to tell me what it is you require."
+
+"There is no time now for explanation," said Varney, "if explanations
+were my full and free intent. You wished to know what noise was that you
+heard?"
+
+"I did; can you inform me?"--"I can. The wild and lawless mob which you
+and your friends first induced to interfere in affairs far beyond their
+or your control, are now flushed with the desire of riot and of plunder.
+The noise you hear is that of their advancing footsteps; they come to
+destroy Bannerworth Hall."
+
+"Can that be possible? The Bannerworth family are the sufferers from all
+that has happened, and not the inflictors of suffering."--"Ay, be it so;
+but he who once raises a mob has raised an evil spirit, which, in the
+majority of cases, it requires a far more potent spell than he is master
+of to quell again."
+
+"It is so. That is a melancholy truth; but you address me, Sir Francis
+Varney, as if I led on the mob, when in reality I have done all that lay
+in my power, from the very first moment of their rising on account of
+this affair, which, in the first instance, was your work, to prevent
+them from proceeding to acts of violence."--"It may be so; but if you
+have now any regard for your own safety you will quit this place. It
+will too soon become the scene of a bloody contention. A large party of
+dragoons are even now by another route coming towards it, and it will be
+their duty to resist the aggressions of the mob; then should the rioters
+persevere, you can guess the result."--"I can, indeed."
+
+"Retire then while you may, and against the bad deeds of Sir Francis
+Varney at all events place some of his good ones, that he may not seem
+wholly without one redeeming trait."--"I am not accustomed," said the
+doctor, "to paint the devil blacker than he really is; but yet the cruel
+persecutions that the Bannerworth family have endured call aloud for
+justice. You still, with a perseverance which shows you regardless of
+what others suffer so that you compass your own ends, hover round a spot
+which you have rendered desolate."
+
+"Hark, sir; do you not hear the tramp of horses' feet?"--"I do."
+
+The noise made by the feet of the insurgents was now almost drowned in
+the louder and more rapid tramp of the horses' feet of the advancing
+dragoons, and, in a few moments more, Sir Francis Varney waved his arm,
+exclaiming,--
+
+"They are here. Will you not consult your safety by flight?"--"No," said
+Mr. Chillingworth's companion; "we prefer remaining here at the risk
+even of whatever danger may accrue to us."
+
+"Fools, would you die in a chance _melee_ between an infuriated populace
+and soldiery?"--"Do not leave," whispered the ex-hangman to Mr.
+Chillingworth; "do not leave, I pray you. He only wants to have the Hall
+to himself."
+
+There could be no doubt now of the immediate appearance of the cavalry,
+and, before Sir Francis Varney could utter another word, a couple of the
+foremost of the soldiers cleared the garden fence at a part where it was
+low, and alighted not many feet from the summer-house in which this
+short colloquy was taking place. Sir Francis Varney uttered a bitter
+oath, and immediately disappeared in the gloom.
+
+"What shall we do?" said the hangman.--"You can do what you like, but I
+shall avow my presence to the military, and claim to be on their side in
+the approaching contest, if it should come to one, which I sincerely
+hope it will not."
+
+The military detachment consisted of about twenty-five dragoons, who now
+were all in the gardens. An order was given by the officer in command
+for them to dismount, which was at once obeyed, and the horses were
+fastened by their bridles to the various trees with which the place
+abounded.
+
+"They are going to oppose the mob on foot, with their carbines," said
+the hangman; "there will be sad work here I am afraid."--"Well, at all
+events," said Mr. Chillingworth, "I shall decline acting the part of a
+spy here any longer; so here goes."
+
+"Hilloa! a friend,--a friend here, in the summer-house!"
+
+"Make it two friends," cried the hangman, "if you please, while you are
+about it."
+
+A couple of the dragoons immediately appeared, and the doctor, with his
+companion, were marched, as prisoners, before the officer in command.
+
+"What do you do here?" he said; "I was informed that the Hall was
+deserted. Here, orderly, where is Mr. Adamson, the magistrate, who came
+with me?"--"Close at hand sir, and he says he's not well."
+
+"Well, or ill, he must come here, and do something with these people."
+
+A magistrate of the district who had accompanied the troops, and been
+accommodated with a seat behind one of the dragoons, which seemed very
+much to have disagreed with him, for he was as pale as death, now
+stepped forward.
+
+"You know me, Mr. Adamson?" said the doctor; "I am Mr.
+Chillingworth."--"Oh! yes; Lord bless you! how came you here?"
+
+"Never mind that just now; you can vouch for my having no connection
+with the rioters."--"Oh! dear, yes; certainly. This is a respectable
+gentleman, Captain Richardson, and a personal friend of mine."
+
+"Oh! very good."--"And I," said the doctor's companion, "am likewise a
+respectable and useful member of society, and a great friend of Mr.
+Chillingworth."
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said the captain in command, "you may remain here, if
+you like, and take the chances, or you may leave."
+
+They intimated that they preferred remaining, and, almost at the moment
+that they did so, a loud shout from many throats announced the near
+approach of the mob.--"Now, Mr. Magistrate, if you please," said the
+officer; "you will be so good as to tell the mob that I am here with my
+troop, under your orders, and strongly advise them to be off while they
+can, with whole skins, for if they persevere in attacking the place, we
+must persevere in defending it; and, if they have half a grain of sense
+among them, they can surely guess what the result of that will be."
+
+"I will do the best I can, as Heaven is, my judge," said the magistrate,
+"to produce a peaceable recall,--more no man can do."
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!"' shouted the mob, "down with the Vampyre! down with
+the Hall!" and then one, more candid than his fellows, shouted,--"Down
+with everything and everybody!"
+
+"Ah!" remarked the officer; "that fellow now knows what he came about."
+
+A great number of torches and links were lighted by the mob, but the
+moment the glare of light fell upon the helmets and accoutrements of the
+military, there was a pause of consternation on the part of the
+multitude, and Mr. Adamson, urged on by the officer, who, it was
+evident, by no means liked the service he was on, took advantage of the
+opportunity, and, stepping forward, he said,--
+
+"My good people, and fellow townsmen, let me implore you to listen to
+reason, and go to your homes in peace. If you do not, but, on the
+contrary, in defiance of law and good order, persist in attacking this
+house, it will become my painful duty to read the riot act, and then the
+military and you will have to fight it out together, which I beg you
+will avoid, for you know that some of you will be killed, and a lot more
+of you receive painful wounds. Now disperse, let me beg of you, at
+once."
+
+There seemed for a moment a disposition among the mob to give up the
+contest, but there were others among them who were infuriated with
+drink, and so regardless of all consequences. Those set up a shout of
+"Down with the red coats; we are Englishmen, and will do what we like."
+Some one then threw a heavy stone, which struck one of the soldiers, and
+brought blood from his cheek. The officer saw it, but he said at once,--
+
+"Stand firm, now, stand firm. No anger--steady."
+
+"Twenty pounds for the man who threw that stone," said the
+magistrate.--"Twenty pound ten for old Adamson, the magistrate," cried a
+voice in the crowd, which, no doubt came from him who had cast the
+missile.
+
+Then, at least fifty stones were thrown, some of which hit the
+magistrate, and the remainder came rattling upon the helmets of the
+dragoons, like a hail shower.
+
+"I warn you, and beg of you to go," said Mr. Adamson; "for the sake of
+your wives and families, I beg of you not to pursue this desperate
+game."
+
+Loud cries now arose of "Down with the soldiers; down with the vampyre.
+He's in Bannerworth Hall. Smoke him out." And then one or two links were
+hurled among the dismounted dragoons. All this was put up with
+patiently; and then again the mob were implored to leave, which being
+answered by fresh taunts, the magistrate proceeded to read the riot act,
+not one word of which was audible amid the tumult that prevailed.
+
+"Put out all the lights," cried a voice among the mob. The order was
+obeyed, and the same voice added; "they dare not fire on us. Come on:"
+and a rush was made at the garden wall.
+
+"Make ready--present," cried the officer. And then he added, in an under
+tone, "above their heads, now--fire."
+
+There was a blaze of light for a moment, a stunning noise, a shout of
+dismay from the mob, and in another moment all was still.
+
+"There," said Dr. Chillingworth, "that this is, at all events, a
+bloodless victory."
+
+"You may depend upon that," said his companion; "but is not there some
+one yet remaining? Look there, do you not see a figure clambering over
+the fence?"
+
+"Yes, I do, indeed. Ah, they have him a prisoner, at all events. Those
+two dragoons have him, fast enough; we shall now, perhaps, hear from
+this fellow who is the actual ringleader in such an affair, which, but
+for the pusillanimity of the mob, might have turned out to be really
+most disastrous."
+
+It was strange how one man should think it expedient to attack the
+military post after the mob had been so completely routed at the first
+discharge of fire-arms, but so it was. One man did make an attempt to
+enter the garden, and it was so rapid and so desperate an one, that he
+rather seemed to throw himself bodily at the fence, which separated it
+from the meadows without, than to clamber over it, as any one under
+ordinary circumstances, who might wish to effect an entrance by that
+means, would have done.
+
+He was no sooner, however, perceived, than a couple of the dismounted
+soldiers stepped forward and made a prisoner of him.
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed Mr. Chillingworth, as they approached nearer with
+him. "Good God! what is the meaning of that? Do my eyes deceive me, or
+are they, indeed, so blessed?"
+
+"Blessed by what?" exclaimed the hangman.
+
+"By a sight of the long lost, deeply regretted Charles Holland.
+Charles--Charles, is that indeed you, or some unsubstantial form in your
+likeness?"
+
+Charles Holland, for it was, indeed, himself, heard the friendly voice
+of the doctor, and he called out to him.
+
+"Speak to me of Flora. Oh, speak to me of Flora, if you would not have
+me die at once of suspense, and all the torture of apprehension."
+
+"She lives and is well."
+
+"Thank Heaven. Do with me what you please."
+
+Dr. Chillingworth sprang forward, and addressing the magistrate, he
+said,--
+
+"Sir, I know this gentleman. He is no one of the rioters, but a dear
+friend of the family of the Bannerworths. Charles Holland, what in the
+name of Heaven had become of you so long, and what brought you here at
+such a juncture as this?"
+
+"I am faint," said Charles; "I--I only arrived as the crowd did. I had
+not strength to fight my way through them, and was compelled to pause
+until they had dispersed Can--can you give me water?"
+
+"Here's something better," said one of the soldiers, as he handed a
+flask to Charles, who partook of some of the contents, which greatly
+revived him, indeed.
+
+"I am better now," he said. "Thank you kindly. Take me into the house.
+Good God! why is it made a point of attack? Where are Flora and Henry?
+Are they all well? And my uncle? Oh! what must you all have thought of
+my absence! But you cannot have endured a hundredth part of what I have
+suffered. Let me look once again upon the face of Flora. Take me into
+the house."
+
+"Release him," said the officer, as he pointed to his head, and looked
+significantly, as much as to say, "Some mad patient of yours, I
+suppose."
+
+"You are much mistaken, sir," said Dr. Chillingworth; "this gentleman
+has been cruelly used, I have no doubt. He has, I am inclined to
+believe, been made the victim, for a time, of the intrigues of that very
+Sir Francis Varney, whose conduct has been the real cause of all the
+serious disturbances that have taken place in the country."
+
+"Confound Sir Francis Varney," muttered the officer; "he is enough to
+set a whole nation by the ears. However, Mr. Magistrate, if you are
+satisfied that this young man is not one of the rioters, I have, of
+course, no wish to hold him a prisoner."
+
+"I can take Mr. Chillingworth's word for more than that," said the
+magistrate.
+
+Charles Holland was accordingly released, and then the doctor, in
+hurried accents, told him the principal outlines of what had occurred.
+
+"Oh! take me to Flora," he said; "let me not delay another moment in
+seeking her, and convincing her that I could not have been guilty of the
+baseness of deserting her."
+
+"Hark you, Mr. Holland, I have quite made up my mind that I will not
+leave Bannerworth Hall yet; but you can go alone, and easily find them
+by the directions which I will give you; only let me beg of you not to
+go abruptly into the presence of Flora. She is in an extremely delicate
+state of health, and although I do not take upon myself to say that a
+shock of a pleasurable nature would prove of any paramount bad
+consequence to her, yet it is as well not to risk it."
+
+"I will be most careful, you may depend."
+
+At this moment there was a loud ringing at the garden bell, and, when it
+was answered by one of the dragoons, who was ordered to do so by his
+officer, he came back, escorting no other than Jack Pringle, who had
+been sent by the admiral to the Hall, but who had solaced himself so
+much on the road with divers potations, that he did not reach it till
+now, which was a full hour after the reasonable time in which he ought
+to have gone the distance.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jack was not to say dumb, but he had had enough to give him a very jolly
+sort of feeling of independence, and so he came along quarrelling with
+the soldier all the way, the latter only laughing and keeping his temper
+admirably well, under a great deal of provocation.
+
+"Why, you land lubbers," cried Jack, "what do you do here, all of you, I
+wonder! You are all wamphighers, I'll be bound, every one of you. You
+mind me of marines, you do, and that's quite enough to turn a proper
+seaman's stomach, any day in the week."
+
+The soldier only laughed, and brought Jack up to the little group of
+persons consisting of Dr. Chillingworth, the hangman, Charles Holland,
+and the officer.
+
+"Why, Jack Pringle," said Dr. Chillingworth, stepping before Charles, so
+that Jack should not see him,--"why, Jack Pringle, what brings you
+here?"
+
+"A slight squall, sir, to the nor'west. Brought you something to eat."
+
+Jack produced a bottle.
+
+"To drink, you mean?"
+
+"Well, it's all one; only in this here shape, you see, it goes down
+better, I'm thinking, which does make a little difference somehow."
+
+"How is the admiral?"
+
+"Oh, he's as stupid as ever; Lord bless you, he'd be like a ship without
+a rudder without me, and would go swaying about at the mercy of winds
+and waves, poor old man. He's bad enough as it is, but if so be I wasn't
+to give the eye to him as I does, bless my heart if I thinks as he'd be
+above hatches long. Here's to you all."
+
+Jack took the cork from the bottle he had with him, and there came from
+it a strong odour of rum. Then he placed it to his lips, and was
+enjoying the pleasant gurgle of the liquor down his throat, when Charles
+stepped up to him, and laying hold of the lower end of the bottle, he
+dragged it from his mouth, saying,--
+
+"How dare you talk in the way you have of my uncle, you drunken,
+mutinous rascal, and behind his back too!"
+
+The voice of Charles Holland was as well known to Jack Pringle as that
+of the admiral, and his intense astonishment at hearing himself so
+suddenly addressed by one, of whose proximity he had not the least idea,
+made some of the rum go, what is popularly termed, the wrong way, and
+nearly choked him.
+
+He reeled back, till he fell over some obstruction, and then down he sat
+on a flower bed, while his eyes seemed ready to come out of his head.
+
+"Avast heavings," he cried, "Who's that?"
+
+"Come, come," said Charles Holland, "don't pretend you don't know me; I
+will not have my uncle spoken of in a disrespectful manner by you."
+
+"Well, shiver my timbers, if that ain't our nevey. Why, Charley, my boy,
+how are you? Here we are in port at last. Won't the old commodore pipe
+his eye, now. Whew! here's a go. I've found our nevey, after all."
+
+"You found him," said Dr. Chillingworth; "now, that is as great a piece
+of impudence as ever I heard in all my life. You mean that he has found
+you, and found you out, too, you drunken fellow. Jack, you get worse and
+worse every day."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"What, you admit it?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir. Now, Master Charley, I tell you what it is, I shall take
+you off to your old uncle, you shore going sneak and you'll have to
+report what cruise you've been upon all this while, leaving the ship to
+look after itself. Lord love you all, if it hadn't been for me I don't
+know what anybody would have done."
+
+"I only know of the result," said Dr Chillingworth, "that would ensue,
+if it were not for you, and that would consist in a great injury to the
+revenue, in consequence of the much less consumption of rum and other
+strong liquors."
+
+"I'll be hanged up at the yard if I understands what you mean," said
+Jack; "as if I ever drunk anything--I, of all people in the world. I am
+ashamed of you. You are drunk."
+
+Several of the dragoons had to turn aside to keep themselves from
+laughing, and the officer himself could not forbear from a smile as he
+said to the doctor,--
+
+"Sir, you seem to have many acquaintances, and by some means or another
+they all have an inclination to come here to-night. If, however, you
+consider that you are bound to remain here from a feeling that the Hall
+is threatened with any danger, you may dismiss that fear, for I shall
+leave a picquet here all night."
+
+"No, sir," replied Dr. Chillingworth, "it is not that I fear now, after
+the manner in which they have been repulsed, any danger to the Hall from
+the mob; but I have reasons for wishing to be in it or near it for some
+time to come."
+
+"As you please."
+
+"Charles, do not wait for or accept the guidance of that drunken fellow,
+but go yourself with a direction which I will write down for you in a
+leaf of my pocket-book."
+
+"Drunken fellow," exclaimed Jack, who had now scrambled to his feet,
+"who do you call a drunken fellow?"
+
+"Why you, unquestionably."
+
+"Well, now, that is hard. Come along, nevey; I'll shew you where they
+all are. I could walk a plank on any deck with any man in the service, I
+could. Come along, my boy, come along."
+
+"You can accept of him as a guide if you like, of course," said the
+doctor; "he may be sober enough to conduct you."
+
+"I think he can," said Charles. "Lead on, Jack; but mark me, I shall
+inform my uncle of this intemperance, as well as of the manner in which
+you let your tongue wag about him behind his back, unless you promise to
+reform."
+
+"He is long past all reformation," remarked Dr. Chillingworth; "it is
+out of the question."
+
+"And I am afraid my uncle will not have courage to attempt such an
+ungrateful task, when there is so little chance of success," replied
+Charles Holland, shaking the worthy doctor by the hand. "Farewell, for
+the present, sir; the next time I see you, I hope we shall both be more
+pleasantly situated."
+
+"Come along, nevey," interrupted Jack Pringle; "now you've found your
+way back, the first thing you ought to do, is to report yourself as
+having come aboard. Follow me, and I'll soon show yer the port where the
+old hulk's laid hisself up."
+
+Jack walked on first, tolerably steady, if one may take into account his
+divers deep potations, and Charles Holland, anticipating with delight
+again looking upon the face of his much loved Flora, followed closely
+behind him.
+
+We can well imagine the world of delightful thoughts that came crowding
+upon him when Jack, after rather a long walk, announced that they were
+now very near the residence of the object of his soul's adoration.
+
+We trust that there is not one of our readers who, for one moment, will
+suppose that Charles Holland was the sort of man to leave even such a
+villain and double-faced hypocrite as Marchdale, to starve amid the
+gloomy ruins where he was immured.
+
+Far from Charles's intentions was any such thing; but he did think that
+a night passed there, with no other company than his own reflections,
+would do him a world of good, and was, at all events, no very great
+modicum of punishment for the rascality with which he had behaved.
+
+Besides, even during that night there were refreshments in the shape of
+bread and water, such as had been presented to Charles himself, within
+Marchdale's reach as they had been within his.
+
+That individual now, Charles thought, would have a good opportunity of
+testing the quality of that kind of food, and of finding out what an
+extremely light diet it was for a strong man to live upon.
+
+But in the morning it was Charles's intention to take Henry Bannerworth
+and the admiral with him to the ruins, and then and there release the
+wretch from his confinement, on condition that he made a full confession
+of his villanies before those persons.
+
+Oh, how gladly would Marchdale have exchanged the fate which actually
+befell him for any amount of personal humiliation, always provided that
+it brought with it a commensurate amount of personal safety.
+
+But that fate was one altogether undreamt of by Charles Holland, and
+wholly without his control.
+
+It was a fate which would have been his, but for the murderous purpose
+which had brought Marchdale to the dungeon, and those happy accidents
+which had enabled Charles to change places with him, and breathe the
+free, cool, fresh air; while he left his enemy loaded with the same
+chains that had encumbered his limbs so cruelly, and lying on that same
+damp dungeon floor, which he thought would be his grave.
+
+We mentioned that as Charles left the ruins, the storm, which had been
+giving various indications of its coming, seemed to be rapidly
+approaching.
+
+It was one of these extremely local tempests which expend all their
+principal fury over a small space of country; and, in this instance, the
+space seemed to include little more than the river, and the few meadows
+which immediately surrounded it, and lent it so much of its beauty.
+
+Marchdale soon found that his cries were drowned by the louder voices of
+the elements. The wailing of the wind among the ancient ruins was much
+more full of sound than his cries; and, now and then, the full-mouthed
+thunder filled the air with such a volume of roaring, and awakened so
+many echoes among the ruins, that, had he possessed the voices of fifty
+men, he could not have hoped to wage war with it.
+
+And then, although we know that Charles Holland would have encountered
+death himself, rather than he would have willingly left anything human
+to expire of hunger in that dungeon, yet Marchdale, judging of others by
+himself, felt by no means sure of any such thing, and, in his horror of
+apprehension, fancied that that was just the sort of easy, and pleasant,
+and complete revenge that it was in Charles Holland's power to take, and
+just the one which would suggest itself, under the circumstances, to his
+mind.
+
+Could anything be possibly more full of horror than such a thought?
+Death, let it come in any shape it may, is yet a most repulsive and
+unwelcome guest; but, when it comes, so united with all that can add to
+its terrors, it is enough to drive reason from its throne, and fill the
+mind with images of absolute horror.
+
+Tired of shrieking, for his parched lips and clogged tongue would
+scarcely now permit him to utter a sound higher than a whisper.
+Marchdale lay, listening to the furious storm without, in the last
+abandonment of despair.
+
+"Oh! what a death is this," he groaned. "Here, alone--all alone--and
+starvation to creep on me by degrees, sapping life's energies one by
+one. Already do I feel the dreadful sickening weakness growing on me.
+Help, oh! help me Heav--no, no! Dare I call on Heaven to help me? Is
+there no fiend of darkness who now will bid me a price for a human soul?
+Is there not one who will do so--not one who will rescue me from the
+horror that surrounds me, for Heaven will not? I dare not ask mercy
+there."
+
+The storm continued louder and louder. The wind, it is true, was nearly
+hushed, but the roar and the rattle of the echo-awakening thunder fully
+made up for its cessation, while, now and then, even there, in that
+underground abode, some sudden reflection of the vivid lightning's light
+would find its way, lending, for a fleeting moment, sufficient light to
+Marchdale, wherewith he could see the gloomy place in which he was.
+
+At times he wept, and at times he raved, while ever and anon he made
+such frantic efforts to free himself from the chains that were around
+him, that, had they not been strong, he must have succeeded; but, as it
+was, he only made deep indentations into his flesh, and gave himself
+much pain.
+
+"Charles Holland!" he shouted; "oh! release me! Varney! Varney! why do
+you not come to save me? I have toiled for you most unrequitedly--I have
+not had my reward. Let it all consist in my release from this dreadful
+bondage. Help! help! oh, help!"
+
+There was no one to hear him. The storm continued, and now, suddenly, a
+sudden and a sharper sound than any awakened by the thunder's roar came
+upon his startled ear, and, in increased agony, he shouted,--
+
+"What is that? oh! what is that? God of heaven, do my fears translate
+that sound aright? Can it be, oh! can it be, that the ruins which have
+stood for so many a year are now crumbling down before the storm of
+to-night?"
+
+The sound came again, and he felt the walls of the dungeon in which he
+was shake. Now there could be no doubt but that the lightning had struck
+some part of the building, and so endangered the safety of all that was
+above ground. For a moment there came across his brain such a rush of
+agony, that he neither spoke nor moved. Had that dreadful feeling
+continued much longer, he must have lapsed into insanity; but that
+amount of mercy--for mercy it would have been--was not shown to him. He
+still felt all the accumulating horrors of his situation, and then, with
+such shrieks as nothing but a full appreciation of such horrors could
+have given him strength to utter, he called upon earth, upon heaven and
+upon all that was infernal, to save him from his impending doom.
+
+All was in vain. It was an impending doom which nothing but the direct
+interposition of Heaven could have at all averted; and it was not likely
+that any such perversion of the regular laws of nature would take place
+to save such a man as Marchdale.
+
+Again came the crashing sound of falling stones, and he was certain that
+the old ruins, which had stood for so many hundred years the storm, and
+the utmost wrath of the elements, was at length yielding, and crumbling
+down.
+
+What else could he expect but to be engulphed among the
+fragments--fragments still weighty and destructive, although in decay.
+How fearfully now did his horrified imagination take in at one glance,
+as it were, a panoramic view of all his past life, and how absolutely
+contemptible, at that moment, appeared all that he had been striving
+for.
+
+But the walls shake again, and this time the vibration is more fearful
+than before. There is a tremendous uproar above him--the roof yields to
+some superincumbent pressure--there is one shriek, and Marchdale lies
+crushed beneath a mass of masonry that it would take men and machinery
+days to remove from off him.
+
+All is over now. That bold, bad man--that accomplished hypocrite--that
+mendacious, would-be murderer was no more. He lies but a mangled,
+crushed, and festering corpse.
+
+May his soul find mercy with his God!
+
+The storm, from this moment, seemed to relax in its violence, as if it
+had accomplished a great purpose, and, consequently, now, need no longer
+"vex the air with its boisterous presence." Gradually the thunder died
+away in the distance. The wind no longer blew in blustrous gusts, but,
+with a gentle murmuring, swept around the ancient pile, as if singing
+the requiem of the dead that lay beneath--that dead which mortal eyes
+were never to look upon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXIV.
+
+THE MEETING OF CHARLES AND FLORA.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Charles Holland followed Jack Pringle for some time in silence from
+Bannerworth Hall; his mind was too full of thought concerning the past
+to allow him to indulge in much of that kind of conversation in which
+Jack Pringle might be fully considered to be a proficient.
+
+As for Jack, somehow or another, he had felt his dignity offended in the
+garden of Bannerworth Hall, and he had made up his mind, as he
+afterwards stated in his own phraseology, not to speak to nobody till
+somebody spoke to him.
+
+A growing anxiety, however, to ascertain from one who had seen her
+lately, how Flora had borne his absence, at length induced Charles
+Holland to break his self-imposed silence.
+
+"Jack," he said, "you have had the happiness of seeing her lately, tell
+me, does Flora Bannerworth look as she was wont to look, or have all the
+roses faded from her cheeks?"
+
+"Why, as for the roses," said Jack, "I'm blowed if I can tell, and
+seeing as how she don't look at me much, I doesn't know nothing about
+her; I can tell you something, though, about the old admiral that will
+make you open your eyes."
+
+"Indeed, Jack, and what may that be?"
+
+"Why, he's took to drink, and gets groggy about every day of his life,
+and the most singular thing is, that when that's the case with the old
+man, he says it's me."
+
+"Indeed, Jack! taken to drinking has my poor old uncle, from grief, I
+suppose, Jack, at my disappearance."
+
+"No, I don't think it's grief," said Jack; "it strikes me it's
+rum-and-water."
+
+"Alas, alas, I never could have imagined he could have fallen into that
+habit of yours; he always seemed so far from anything of this kind."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack, "I know'd you'd be astonished. It will be the
+death of him, that's my opinion; and the idea, you know, Master Charles,
+of accusing me when he gets drunk himself."
+
+"I believe that is a common delusion of intemperate persons," said
+Charles.
+
+"Is it, sir; well, it's a very awkward I thing, because you know, sir,
+as well as most people, that I'm not the fellow to take a drop too
+much."
+
+"I cannot say, Jack, that I know so much, for I have certainly heard my
+uncle accuse you of intoxication."
+
+"Lor', sir, that was all just on account of his trying it hisself; he
+was a thinking on it then, and wanted to see how I'd take it."
+
+"But tell me of Flora; are you quite certain that she has had no more
+alarms from Varney?"
+
+"What, that ere vampyre fellow? not a bit of it, your honour. Lor' bless
+you, he must have found out by some means or another that I was on the
+look out, and that did the business. He'll never come near Miss Flora
+again, I'll be bound, though to be sure we moved away from the Hall on
+account of him; but not that I saw the good of cruising out of one's own
+latitude, but somehow or another you see the doctor and the admiral got
+it into their heads to establish a sort of blockade, and the idea of the
+thing was to sail away in the night quite quiet, and after that take up
+a position that would come across the enemy on the larboard tack, if so
+be as he made his appearance."
+
+"Oh, you allude to watching the Hall, I presume?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, just so; but would you believe it, Master Charlie, the
+admiral and the doctor got so blessed drunk that I could do nothing with
+'em."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, they did indeed, and made all kinds of queer mistakes, so that the
+end of all that was, that the vampyre did come; but he got away again."
+
+"He did come then; Sir Francis Varney came again after the house was
+presumed to be deserted?"
+
+"He did, sir."
+
+"That is very strange; what on earth could have been his object? This
+affair is most inexplicably mysterious. I hope the distance, Jack, is
+not far that you're taking me, for I'm incapable of enduring much
+fatigue."
+
+"Not a great way, your honour; keep two points to the westward, and sail
+straight on; we'll soon come to port. My eye, won't there be a squall
+when you get in. I expect as Miss Flora will drop down as dead as a
+herring, for she doesn't think you're above the hatches."
+
+"A good thought, Jack; my sudden appearance may produce alarm. When we
+reach the place of abode of the Bannerworths, you shall precede me, and
+prepare them in some measure for my reception."
+
+"Very good, sir; do you see that there little white cottage a-head,
+there in the offing?"
+
+"Yes, yes; is that the place?"
+
+"Yes, your honour, that's the port to which we are bound."
+
+"Well, then, Jack, you hasten a-head, and see Miss Flora, and be sure
+you prepare her gently and by degrees, you know, Jack, for my
+appearance, so that she shall not be alarmed."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, I understand; you wait here, and I'll go and do it; there
+would be a squall if you were to make your appearance, sir, all at once.
+She looks upon you as safely lodged in Davy's locker; she minds me, all
+the world, of a girl I knew at Portsmouth, called Bet Bumplush. She was
+one of your delicate little creatures as don't live long in this here
+world; no, blow me; when I came home from a eighteen months' cruise,
+once I seed her drinking rum out of a quart pot, so I says, 'Hilloa,
+what cheer?' And only to think now of the wonderful effect that there
+had upon her; with that very pot she gives the fellow as was standing
+treat a knobber on the head as lasted him three weeks. She was too good
+for this here world, she was, and too rummantic. 'Go to blazes,' she
+says to him, 'here's Jack Pringle come home.'"
+
+"Very romantic indeed," said Charles.
+
+"Yes, I believe you, sir; and that puts me in mind of Miss Flora and
+you."
+
+"An extremely flattering comparison. Of course I feel much obliged."
+
+"Oh, don't name it, sir. The British tar as can't oblige a feller-cretor
+is unworthy to tread the quarter-deck, or to bear a hand to the distress
+of a woman."
+
+"Very well," said Charles. "Now, as we are here, precede me, if you
+please, and let me beg of you to be especially cautious in your manner
+of announcing me."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack: and away he walked towards the cottage,
+leaving Charles some distance behind.
+
+Flora and the admiral were sitting together conversing. The old man, who
+loved her as if she had been a child of his own, was endeavouring, to
+the extent of his ability, to assuage the anguish of her thoughts, which
+at that moment chanced to be bent upon Charles Holland.
+
+"Nevermind, my dear," he said; "he'll turn up some of these days, and
+when he does, I sha'n't forget to tell him that it was you who stood out
+for his honesty and truth, when every one else was against him,
+including myself, an old wretch that I was."
+
+"Oh, sir, how could you for one moment believe that those letters could
+have been written by your nephew Charles? They carried, sir, upon the
+face of them their own refutation; and I'm only surprised that for one
+instant you, or any one who knew him, could have believed him capable of
+writing them."
+
+"Avast, there," said the admiral; "that'll do. I own you got the better
+of the old sailor there. I think you and Jack Pringle were the only two
+persons who stood out from the first."
+
+"Then I honour Jack for doing so."
+
+"And here he is," said the admiral, "and you'd better tell him. The
+mutinous rascal! he wants all the honour he can get, as a set-off
+against his drunkenness and other bad habits."
+
+Jack walked into the room, looked about him in silence for a moment,
+thrust his hands in his breeches pockets, and gave a long whistle.
+
+"What's the matter now?" said the admiral.
+
+"D--me, if Charles Holland ain't outside, and I've come to prepare you
+for the blessed shock," said Jack. "Don't faint either of you, because
+I'm only going to let you know it by degrees, you know."
+
+A shriek burst from Flora's lips, and she sprung to the door of the
+apartment.
+
+"What!" cried the admiral, "my nephew--my nephew Charles! Jack, you
+rascal, if you're joking, it's the last joke you shall make in this
+world; and if it's true, I--I--I'm an old fool, that's all."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack; "didn't you know that afore?"
+
+"Charles--Charles!" cried Flora. He heard the voice. Her name escaped
+his lips, and rang with a pleasant echo through the house.
+
+In another moment he was in the room, and had clasped her to his breast.
+
+"My own--my beautiful--my true!"
+
+"Charles, dear Charles!"
+
+"Oh, Flora, what have I not endured since last we met; but this repays
+me--more than repays me for all."
+
+"What is the past now," cried Flora--"what are all its miseries placed
+against this happy, happy moment?"
+
+"D--me, nobody thinks of me," said the admiral.
+
+"My dear uncle," said Charles, looking over Flora's shoulder, as he
+still held her in his arms, "is that you?"
+
+"Yes, yes, swab, it is me, and you know it; but give us your five, you
+mutinous vagabond; and I tell you what, I'll do you the greatest favour
+I've had an opportunity of doing you some time--I'll leave you alone,
+you dog. Come along, Jack."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack; and away they went out of the apartment.
+
+And now those two loving hearts were alone--they who had been so long
+separated by malignant destiny, once again were heart to heart, looking
+into each other's faces with all the beaming tenderness of an affection
+of the truest, holiest character.
+
+The admiral had done a favour to them both to leave them alone, although
+we much doubt whether his presence, or the presence of the whole world,
+would have had the effect of controlling one generous sentiment of noble
+feeling.
+
+They would have forgotten everything but that they were together, and
+that once again each looked into the other's eyes with all the
+tenderness of a love purer and higher than ordinarily belongs to mortal
+affections.
+
+Language was weak to give utterance to the full gust of happy feelings
+that now were theirs. It was ecstasy enough to feel, to know that the
+evil fortune which had so long separated them, depriving each existence
+of its sunniest aspect, was over. It was enough for Charles Holland to
+feel that she loved him still. It was enough for Flora Bannerworth to
+know, as she looked into his beaming countenance, that that love was not
+misplaced, but was met by feelings such as she herself would have
+dictated to be the inhabitants of the heart of him whom she would have
+chosen from the mass of mankind as her own.
+
+"Flora--dear Flora," said Charles, "and you have never doubted me?"
+
+"I've never doubted, Charles, Heaven or you. To doubt one would have
+been, to doubt both."
+
+"Generous and best of girls, what must you have thought of my enforced
+absence! Oh! Flora, I was unjust enough to your truth to make my
+greatest pang the thought that you might doubt me, and cast me from your
+heart for ever."
+
+"Ah! Charles, you ought to have known me better. I stood amid sore
+temptation to do so much. There were those who would have urged me on to
+think that you had cast me from your heart for ever. There were those
+ready and willing to place the worst construction upon your conduct, and
+with a devilish ingenuity to strive to make me participate in such a
+feeling; but, no, Charles, no--I loved you, and I trusted you, and I
+could not so far belie my own judgment as to tell you other than what
+you always seemed to my young fancy."
+
+"And you are right, my Flora, right; and is it not a glorious triumph to
+see that love--that sentiment of passion--has enabled you to have so
+enduring and so noble a confidence in aught human?"
+
+"Ay, Charles, it is the sentiment of passion, for our love has been more
+a sentiment than a passion. I would fain think that we had loved each
+other with an affection not usually known, appreciated, or understood,
+and so, in the vanity of my best affections, I would strive to think
+them something exclusive, and beyond the common feelings of humanity."
+
+"And you are right, my Flora; such love as yours is the exception; there
+may be preferences, there may be passions, and there may be sentiments,
+but never, never, surely, was there a heart like yours."
+
+"Nay, Charles, now you speak from a too poetical fancy; but is it
+possible that I have had you here so long, with your hand clasped in
+mine, and asked you not the causes of your absence?"
+
+"Oh, Flora, I have suffered much--much physically, but more mentally. It
+was the thought of you that was at once the bane and the antidote of my
+existence."
+
+"Indeed, Charles! Did I present myself in such contradictory colours to
+you?"
+
+"Yes, dearest, as thus. When I thought of you, sometimes, in the deep
+seclusion of a dungeon, that thought almost goaded me to madness,
+because it brought with it the conviction--a conviction peculiar to a
+lover--that none could so effectually stand between you and all evil as
+myself."
+
+"Yes, yes, Charles; most true."
+
+"It seemed to me as if all the world in arms could not have protected
+you so well as this one heart, clad in the triple steel of its
+affections, could have shielded you from evil."
+
+"Ay, Charles; and then I was the bane of your existence, because I
+filled you with apprehension?"
+
+"For a time, dearest; and then came the antidote; for when exhausted
+alike in mind and body--when lying helpless, with chains upon my
+limbs--when expecting death at every visit of those who had dragged me
+from light and from liberty, and from love; it was but the thought of
+thy beauty and thy affection that nerved me, and gave me a hope even
+amidst the cruellest disaster."
+
+"And then--and then, Charles?"
+
+"You were my blessing, as you have ever been--as you are, and as you
+will ever be--my own Flora, my beautiful--my true!"
+
+We won't go so far as to say it is the fact; but, from a series of
+singular sounds which reached even to the passage of the cottage, we
+have our own private opinion to the effect, that Charles began kissing
+Flora at the top of her forehead, and never stopped, somehow or another,
+till he got down to her chin--no, not her chin--her sweet lips--he could
+not get past them. Perhaps it was wrong; but we can't help it--we are
+faithful chroniclers. Reader, if you be of the sterner sex, what would
+you have done?--if of the gentler, what would you have permitted?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXV.
+
+MUTUAL EXPLANATIONS, AND THE VISIT TO THE RUINS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+During the next hour, Charles informed Flora of the whole particulars of
+his forcible abduction; and to his surprise he heard, of course, for the
+first time, of those letters, purporting to be written by him, which
+endeavoured to give so bad an aspect to the fact of his sudden
+disappearance from Bannerworth Hall.
+
+Flora would insist upon the admiral, Henry, and the rest of the family,
+hearing all that Charles had to relate concerning Mr. Marchdale; for
+well she knew that her mother, from early associations, was so far
+impressed in the favour of that hypocritical personage, that nothing but
+damning facts, much to his prejudice, would suffice to convince her of
+the character he really was.
+
+But she was open to conviction, and when she really found what a villain
+she had cherished and given her confidence to, she shed abundance of
+tears, and blamed herself exceedingly as the cause of some of the
+misfortunes which had fallen upon her children.
+
+"Very good," said the admiral; "I ain't surprised a bit. I knew he was a
+vagabond from the first time I clapped eyes upon him. There was a down
+look about the fellow's figure-head that I didn't like, and be hanged to
+him, but I never thought he would have gone the length he has done. And
+so you say you've got him safe in the ruins, Charles?"
+
+"I have, indeed, uncle."
+
+"And then there let him remain, and a good place, too, for him."
+
+"No, uncle, no. I'm sure you speak without thought. I intend to release
+him in a few hours, when I have rested from my fatigues. He could not
+come to any harm if he were to go without food entirely for the time
+that I leave him; but even that he will not do, for there is bread and
+water in the dungeon."
+
+"Bread and water! that's too good for him. But, however, Charles, when
+you go to let him out, I'll go with you, just to tell him what I think
+of him, the vagabond."
+
+"He must suffer amazingly, for no doubt knowing well, as he does, his
+own infamous intentions, he will consider that if I were to leave him to
+starve to death, I should be but retailing upon him the injuries he
+would have inflicted upon me."
+
+"The worst of it is," said the admiral, "I can't think what to do with
+him."
+
+"Do nothing, uncle, but just let him go; it will be a sufficient
+punishment for such a man to feel that, instead of succeeding in his
+designs, he has only brought upon himself the bitterest contempt of
+those whom he would fain have injured. I can have no desire for revenge
+on such a man as Marchdale."
+
+"You are right, Charles," said Flora; "let him go, and let him go with a
+feeling that he has acquired the contempt of those whose best opinions
+might have been his for a far less amount of trouble than he has taken
+to acquire their worst."
+
+Excitement had kept up Charles to this point, but now, when he arose and
+expressed his intention of going to the ruins, for the purpose of
+releasing Marchdale, he exhibited such unequivocal symptoms of
+exhaustion and fatigue that neither his uncle nor Flora would permit him
+to go, so, in deference to them, he gave up the point, and commissioned
+the admiral and Jack, with Henry, to proceed to the place, and give the
+villain his freedom; little suspecting what had occurred since he had
+himself left the neighbourhood of those ruins.
+
+Of course Charles Holland couldn't be at all accountable for the work of
+the elements, and it was not for him to imagine that when he left
+Marchdale in the dungeon that so awful a catastrophe as that we have
+recorded to the reader was to ensue.
+
+The distance to the ruins was not so great from this cottage even as it
+was from Bannerworth Hall, provided those who went knew the most direct
+and best road to take; so that the admiral was not gone above a couple
+of hours, and when he returned he sat down and looked at Charles with
+such a peculiar expression, that the latter could not for the life of
+him tell what to make of it.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Something has happened, uncle," he said, "I am certain; tell me at once
+what it is."
+
+"Oh! nothing, nothing," said the admiral, "of any importance."
+
+"Is that what you call your feelings?" said Jack Pringle. "Can't you
+tell him as there came on a squall last night, and the ruins have come
+in with a dab upon old Marchdale, crushing his guts, so that we smelt
+him as soon as we got nigh at hand?"
+
+"Good God!" said Charles, "has such a catastrophe occurred?"
+
+"Yes, Charles, that's just about the catastrophe that has occurred. He's
+dead; and rum enough it is that it should happen on the very night that
+you escaped."
+
+"Rum!" said Jack, suddenly; "my eye, who mentions rum? What a singular
+sort of liquor rum must be. I heard of a chap as used to be fond of it
+once on board a ship; I wonder if there's any in the house."
+
+"No!" said the admiral; "but there's a fine pump of spring water outside
+if you feel a little thirsty, Jack; and I'll engage it shall do you more
+good than all the rum in the world."
+
+"Uncle," said Charles, "I'm glad to hear you make that observation."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Why, to deal candidly with you, uncle, Jack informed me that you had
+lately taken quite a predilection for drinking."
+
+"Me!" cried the admiral; "why the infernal rascal, I've had to threaten
+him with his discharge a dozen times, at least, on that very ground, and
+no other."
+
+"There's somebody calling me," said Jack. "I'm a coming! I'm a coming!"
+and, so he bolted out of the room, just in time to escape an inkstand,
+which the admiral caught up and flung after him.
+
+"I'll strike that rascal off the ship's books this very day," muttered
+Admiral Bell. "The drunken vagabond, to pretend that I take anything,
+when all the while it's himself!"
+
+"Well, well, I ought certainly to have suspected the quarter from whence
+the intelligence came; but he told it to me so circumstantially, and
+with such an apparent feeling of regret for the weakness into which he
+said you had fallen, that I really thought there might be some truth in
+it."
+
+"The rascal! I've done with him from this moment; I have put up with too
+much from him for years past."
+
+"I think now that you have given him a great deal of liberty, and that,
+with a great deal more he has taken, makes up an amount which you find
+it difficult to endure."
+
+"And I won't endure it."
+
+"Let me talk to him, and I dare say I shall be able to convince him that
+he goes too far, and when he finds that such is the case he will mend."
+
+"Speak to him, if you like, but I have done with such a mutinous rascal,
+I have. You can take him into your service, if you like, till you get
+tired of him; and that won't be very long."
+
+"Well, well, we shall see. Jack will apologise to you I have no doubt;
+and then I shall intercede for him, and advise you to give him another
+trial."
+
+"If you get him into the apology, then there's no doubt about me giving
+him another trial. But I know him too well for that; he's as obstinate
+as a mule, he is, and you won't get a civil word out of him; but never
+mind that, now. I tell you what, Master Charley, it will take a good lot
+of roast beef to get up your good looks again."
+
+"It will, indeed, uncle; and I require, now, rest, for I am thoroughly
+exhausted. The great privations I have undergone, and the amount of
+mental excitement which I have experienced, in consequence of the sudden
+and unexpected release from a fearful confinement, have greatly weakened
+all my energies. A few hours' sleep will make quite a different being of
+me."
+
+"Well, my boy, you know best," returned the admiral; "and I'll take
+care, if you sleep till to-morrow, that you sha'n't be disturbed. So now
+be off to bed at once."
+
+The young man shook his uncle's hand in a cordial manner, and then
+repaired to the apartment which had been provided for him.
+
+Charles Holland did, indeed, stand in need of repose; and for the first
+time now for many days he laid down with serenity at his heart, and
+slept for many hours. And was there not now a great and a happy change
+in Flora Bannerworth! As if by magic, in a few short hours, much of the
+bloom of her before-fading beauty returned to her. Her step again
+recovered its springy lightness; again she smiled upon her mother, and
+suffered herself to talk of a happy future; for the dread even of the
+vampyre's visitations had faded into comparative insignificance against
+the heart's deep dejection which had come over her at the thought that
+Charles Holland must surely be murdered, or he would have contrived to
+come to her.
+
+And what a glorious recompense she had now for the trusting confidence
+with which she had clung to a conviction of his truth! Was it not great,
+now, to feel that when he was condemned by others, and when strong and
+unimpeachable evidence seemed to be against him, she had clung to him
+and declared her faith in his honour, and wept for him instead of
+condemning?
+
+Yes, Flora; you were of that order of noble minds that, where once
+confidence is given, give it fully and completely, and will not harbour
+a suspicion of the faith of the loved one, a happy disposition when
+verified, as in this instance, by an answering truthfulness.
+
+But when such a heart trusts not with judgment--when that pure, exalted,
+and noble confidence is given to an object unworthy of it--then comes,
+indeed, the most fearful of all mental struggles; and if the fond heart,
+that has hugged to its inmost core so worthless a treasure, do not break
+in the effort to discard it, we may well be surprised at the amount of
+fortitude that has endured so much.
+
+Although the admiral had said but little concerning the fearful end
+Marchdale had come to, it really did make some impression upon him; and,
+much as he held in abhorrence the villany of Marchdale's conduct, he
+would gladly in his heart have averted the fate from him that he had
+brought upon himself.
+
+On the road to the ruins, he calculated upon taking a different kind of
+vengeance.
+
+When they had got some distance from the cottage, Admiral Bell made a
+proposal to Henry to be his second while he fought Marchdale, but Henry
+would not hear of it for a moment.
+
+"My dear sir," he said, "could I, do you think, stand by and see a
+valuable, revered, and a respected life like yours exposed to any hazard
+merely upon the chance of punishing a villain? No, no; Marchdale is too
+base now to be met in honourable encounter. If he is dealt with in any
+way let it be by the laws."
+
+This was reasonable enough, and after some argument the admiral
+coincided in it, and then they began to wonder how, without Charles,
+they should be able to get an entrance to the dungeons, for it had been
+his intention originally, had he not felt so fatigued, to go with them.
+
+As soon, however, as they got tolerably near to the ruins, they saw what
+had happened. Neither spoke, but they quickened their pace, and soon
+stood close to the mass of stone-work which now had assumed so different
+a shape to what it had a few short hours before.
+
+It needed little examination to let them feel certain that whoever might
+have been in any of the underground dungeons must have been crushed to
+death.
+
+"Heaven have mercy upon his soul!" said Henry.
+
+"Amen!" said the admiral.
+
+They both turned away, and for some time they neither of them spoke, for
+their thoughts were full of reflection upon the horrible death which
+Marchdale must have endured. At length the admiral said--
+
+"Shall we tell this or not?"
+
+"Tell it at once," said Henry; "let us have no secrets."
+
+"Good. Then I will not make one you may depend. I only wish that while
+he was about it, Charley could have popped that rascal Varney as well in
+the dungeon, and then there would have been an end and a good riddance
+of them both."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXVI.
+
+THE SECOND NIGHT-WATCH OF MR. CHILLINGWORTH AT THE HALL.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The military party in the morning left Bannerworth Hall, and the old
+place resumed its wonted quiet. But Dr. Chillingworth found it difficult
+to get rid of his old friend, the hangman, who seemed quite disposed to
+share his watch with him.
+
+The doctor, without being at all accused of being a prejudiced man,
+might well object to the continued companionship of one, who, according
+to his own account, was decidedly no better than he should be, if he
+were half so good.
+
+Moreover, it materially interfered with the proceedings of our medical
+friend, whose object was to watch the vampyre with all imaginable
+quietness and secrecy, in the event of his again visiting Bannerworth
+Hall.
+
+"Sir," he said, to the hangman, "now that you have so obligingly related
+to me your melancholy history, I will not detain you."
+
+"Oh, you are not detaining me."
+
+"Yes, but I shall probably remain here for a considerable time."
+
+"I have nothing to do; and one place is about the same as another to
+me."
+
+"Well, then, if I must speak plainly, allow me to say, that as I came
+here upon a very important and special errand, I desire most
+particularly to be left alone. Do you understand me now?"
+
+"Oh! ah!--I understand; you want me to go?"
+
+"Just so."
+
+"Well, then, Dr. Chillingworth, allow me to tell you, I have come here
+on a very special errand likewise."
+
+"You have?"
+
+"I have. I have been putting one circumstance to another, and drawing a
+variety of conclusions from a variety of facts, so that I have come to
+what I consider an important resolve, namely, to have a good look at
+Bannerworth Hall, and if I continue to like it as well as I do now, I
+should like to make the Bannerworth family an offer for the purchase of
+it."
+
+"The devil you would! Why all the world seems mad upon the project of
+buying this old building, which really is getting into such a state of
+dilapidation, that it cannot last many years longer."
+
+"It is my fancy."
+
+"No, no; there is something more in this than meets the eye. The same
+reason, be it what may, that has induced Varney the vampyre to become so
+desirous of possessing the Hall, actuates you."
+
+"Possibly."
+
+"And what is that reason? You may as well be candid with me."
+
+"Yes, I will, and am. I like the picturesque aspect of the place."
+
+"No, you know that that is a disingenuous answer, that you know well. It
+is not the aspect of the old Hall that has charms for you. But I feel,
+only from your conduct, more than ever convinced, that some plot is
+going on, having the accomplishment of some great object as its climax,
+a something of which you have guessed."
+
+"How much you are mistaken!"
+
+"No, I am certain I am right; and I shall immediately advise the
+Bannerworth family to return, and to take up their abode again here, in
+order to put an end to the hopes which you, or Varney, or any one else
+may have, of getting possession of the place."
+
+"If you were a man," said the hangman, "who cared a little more for
+yourself, and a little less for others, I would make a confidant of
+you."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, I mean, candidly, that you are not selfish enough to be entitled
+to my confidence."
+
+"That is a strange reason for withholding confidence from any man."
+
+"It is a strange reason; but, in this case, a most abundantly true one.
+I cannot tell you what I would tell you, because I cannot make the
+agreement with you that I would fain make."
+
+"You talk in riddles."
+
+"To explain which, then, would be to tell my secret."
+
+Dr. Chillingworth was, evidently, much annoyed, and yet he was in an
+extremely helpless condition; for as to forcing the hangman to leave the
+Hall, if he did not feel disposed to do so, that was completely out of
+the question, and could not be done. In the first place, he was a much
+more powerful man than the doctor, and in the second, it was quite
+contrary to all Mr. Chillingworth's habits, to engage in anything like
+personal warfare.
+
+He could only, therefore, look his vexation, and say,--
+
+"If you are determined upon remaining, I cannot help it; but, when some
+one, as there assuredly will, comes from the Bannerworths, here, to me,
+or I shall be under the necessity of stating candidly that you are
+intruding."
+
+"Very good. As the morning air is keen, and as we now are not likely to
+be as good company to each other as we were, I shall go inside the
+house."
+
+This was a proposition which the doctor did not like, but he was
+compelled to submit to it; and he saw, with feelings of uneasiness, the
+hangman make his way into the Hall by one of the windows.
+
+Then Dr. Chillingworth sat down to think. Much he wondered what could be
+the secret of the great desire which Varney, Marchdale, and even this
+man had, all of them to be possessors of the old Hall.
+
+That there was some powerful incentive he felt convinced, and he longed
+for some conversation with the Bannerworths, or with Admiral Bell, in
+order that he might state what had now taken place. That some one would
+soon come to him, in order to bring fresh provisions for the day, he was
+certain, and all he could do, in the interim, was, to listen to what the
+hangman was about in the Hall.
+
+Not a sound, for a considerable time, disturbed the intense stillness of
+the place; but, now, suddenly, Mr. Chillingworth thought he heard a
+hammering, as if some one was at work in one of the rooms of the Hall.
+
+"What can be the meaning of that?" he said, and he was about to proceed
+at once to the interior of the building, through the same window which
+had enabled the hangman to gain admittance, when he heard his own name
+pronounced by some one at the back of the garden fence, and upon casting
+his eyes in that direction, he, to his great relief, saw the admiral and
+Henry Bannerworth.
+
+"Come round to the gate," said the doctor. "I am more glad to see you
+than I can tell you just now. Do not make more noise than you can help;
+but, come round to the gate at once."
+
+They obeyed the injunction with alacrity, and when the doctor had
+admitted them, the admiral said, eagerly,--
+
+"You don't mean to tell us that he is here?"
+
+"No, no, not Varney; but he is not the only one who has taken a great
+affection for Bannerworth Hall; you may have another tenant for it, and
+I believe at any price you like to name."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Hush! creep along close to the house, and then you will not be seen.
+There! do you hear that noise in the hall?"
+
+"Why it sounds," said the admiral, "like the ship's carpenter at work."
+
+"It does, indeed, sound like a carpenter; it's only the new tenant
+making, I dare say, some repairs."
+
+"D--n his impudence!"
+
+"Why, it certainly does look like a very cool proceeding, I must admit."
+
+"Who, and what is he?"
+
+"Who he is now, I cannot tell you, but he was once the hangman of
+London, at a time when I was practising in the metropolis, and so I
+became acquainted with him. He knows Sir Francis Varney, and, if I
+mistake not, has found out the cause of that mysterious personage's
+great attachment to Bannerworth Hall, and has found the reasons so
+cogent, that he has got up an affection for it himself."
+
+"To me," said Henry, "all this is as incomprehensible as anything can
+possibly be. What on earth does it all mean?"
+
+"My dear Henry," said the doctor, "will you be ruled by me?"
+
+"I will be ruled by any one whom I know I can trust; for I am like a man
+groping his way in the dark."
+
+"Then allow this gentleman who is carpentering away so pleasantly within
+the house, to do so to his heart's content, but don't let him leave it.
+Show yourselves now in the garden, he has sufficient prudence to know
+that three constitute rather fearful odds against one, and so he will be
+careful, and remain where he is. If he should come out, we need not let
+him go until we thoroughly ascertain what he has been about."
+
+"You shall command the squadron, doctor," said the admiral, "and have it
+all your own way, you know, so here goes! Come along, Henry, and let's
+show ourselves; we are both armed too!"
+
+They walked out into the centre of the garden, and they were soon
+convinced that the hangman saw them, for a face appeared at the window,
+and was as quickly withdrawn again.
+
+"There," said the doctor, "now he knows he is a prisoner, and we may as
+well place ourselves in some position which commands a good view of the
+house, as well as of the garden gate, and so see if we cannot starve him
+out, though we may be starved out ourselves."
+
+"Not at all!" said Admiral Bell, producing from his ample pockets
+various parcels,--"we came to bring you ample supplies."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; we have been as far as the ruins."
+
+"Oh, to release Marchdale. Charles told me how the villain had fallen
+into the trap he had laid for him."
+
+"He has, indeed, fallen into the trap, and it's one he won't easily get
+out of again. He's dead."
+
+"Dead!--dead!"
+
+"Yes; in the storm of last night the ruins have fallen, and he is by
+this time as flat as a pancake."
+
+"Good God! and yet it is but a just retribution upon him. He would have
+assassinated poor Charles Holland in the cruelest and most cold-blooded
+manner, and, however we may shudder at the manner of his death, we
+cannot regret it."
+
+"Except that he has escaped your friend the hangman," said the admiral.
+
+"Don't call him my friend, if you please," said Dr. Chillingworth, "but,
+hark how he is working away, as if he really intended to carry the house
+away piece by piece, as opportunity may serve, if you will not let it to
+him altogether, just as it stands."
+
+"Confound him! he is evidently working on his own account," said the
+admiral, "or he would not be half so industrious."
+
+There was, indeed, a tremendous amount of hammering and noise, of one
+sort and another, from the house, and it was quite clear that the
+hangman was too heart and soul in his work, whatever may have been the
+object of it, to care who was listening to him, or to what conjecture he
+gave rise.
+
+He thought probably that he could but he stopped in what he was about,
+and, until he was so, that he might as well go on.
+
+And on he went, with a vengeance, vexing the admiral terribly, who
+proposed so repeatedly to go into the house and insist upon knowing what
+he was about, that his, wishes were upon the point of being conceded to
+by Henry, although they were combatted by the doctor, when, from the
+window at which he had entered, out stepped the hangman.
+
+"Good morning, gentlemen! good morning," he said, and he moved towards
+the garden gate. "I will not trouble you any longer. Good morning!"
+
+"Not so fast," said the admiral, "or we may bring you up with a round
+turn, and I never miss my mark when I can see it, and I shall not let it
+get out of sight, you may depend."
+
+He drew a pistol from his pocket, as he spoke, and pointed it at the
+hangman, who, thereupon paused and said:--
+
+"What! am I not to be permitted to go in peace? Why it was but a short
+time since the doctor was quarrelling with me because I did not go, and
+now it seems that I am to be shot if I do."
+
+"Yes," said the admiral, "that's it."
+
+"Well! but,--"
+
+"You dare," said he, "stir another inch towards the gate, and you are a
+dead man!"
+
+The hangman hesitated a moment, and looked at Admiral Bell; apparently
+the result of the scrutiny was, that he would keep his word, for he
+suddenly turned and dived in at the window again without saying another
+word.
+
+"Well; you have certainly stopped him from leaving," said Henry; "but
+what's to be done now?"
+
+"Let him be, let him be," said the doctor; "he must come out again, for
+there are no provisions in the place, and he will be starved out."
+
+"Hush! what is that?" said Henry.
+
+There was a very gentle ring at the bell which hung over the garden
+gate.
+
+"That's an experiment, now, I'll be bound," said the doctor, "to
+ascertain if any one is here; let us hide ourselves, and take no
+notice."
+
+The ring in a few moments was repeated, and the three confederates hid
+themselves effectually behind some thick laurel bushes and awaited with
+expectation what might next ensue.
+
+Not long had they occupied their place of concealment, before they heard
+a heavy fall upon the gravelled pathway, immediately within the gate, as
+if some one had clambered to the top from the outside, and then jumped
+down.
+
+That this was the case the sound of footsteps soon convinced them, and
+to their surprise as well as satisfaction, they saw through the
+interstices of the laurel bush behind which they were concealed, no less
+a personage that Sir Francis Varney himself.
+
+"It is Varney," said Henry.
+
+"Yes, yes," whispered the doctor. "Let him be, do not move for any
+consideration, for the first time let him do just what he likes."
+
+"D--n the fellow!" said the admiral; "there are some points about him
+that like, after all, and he's quite an angel compared to that rascal
+Marchdale."
+
+"He is,--he saved Charles."
+
+"He did, and not if I know it shall any harm come to him, unless he were
+terribly to provoke it by becoming himself the assailant."
+
+"How sad he looks!"
+
+"Hush! he comes nearer; it is not safe to talk. Look at him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXVII.
+
+VARNEY IN THE GARDEN.--THE COMMUNICATION OF DR. CHILLINGWORTH TO THE
+ADMIRAL AND HENRY.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Kind reader, it was indeed Varney who had clambered over the garden
+wall, and thus made his way into the garden of Bannerworth Hall; and
+what filled those who looked at him with the most surprise was, that he
+did not seem in any particular way to make a secret of his presence, but
+walked on with an air of boldness which either arose from a feeling of
+absolute impunity, from his thinking there was no one there, or from an
+audacity which none but he could have compassed.
+
+As for the little party that was there assembled, and who looked upon
+him, they seemed thunderstricken by his presence; and Henry, probably,
+as well as the admiral, would have burst out into some sudden
+exclamation, had they not been restrained by Dr. Chillingworth, who,
+suspecting that they might in some way give an alarm, hastened to speak
+first, saying in a whisper,--
+
+"For Heaven's sake, be still, fortune, you see, favours us most
+strangely. Leave Varney alone. You have no other mode whatever of
+discovering what he really wants at Bannerworth Hall."
+
+"I am glad you have spoken," said Henry, as he drew a long breath. "If
+you had not, I feel convinced that in another moment I should have
+rushed forward and confronted this man who has been the very bane of my
+life."
+
+"And so should I," said the admiral; "although I protest against any
+harm being done to him, on account of some sort of good feeling that he
+has displayed, after all, in releasing Charles from that dungeon in
+which Marchdale has perished."
+
+"At the moment," said Henry, "I had forgotten that; but I will own that
+his conduct has been tinctured by a strange and wild kind of generosity
+at times, which would seem to bespeak, at the bottom of his heart, some
+good feelings, the impulses of which were only quenched by
+circumstances."
+
+"That is my firm impression of him, I can assure you," said Dr.
+Chillingworth.
+
+They watched Varney now from the leafy covert in which they were
+situated, and, indeed, had they been less effectually concealed, it did
+not seem likely that the much dreaded vampyre would have perceived them;
+for not only did he make no effort at concealment himself, but he took
+no pains to see if any one was watching him in his progress to the
+house.
+
+His footsteps were more rapid than they usually were, and there was
+altogether an air and manner about him, as if he were moved to some
+purpose which of itself was sufficiently important to submerge in its
+consequences all ordinary risks and all ordinary cautions.
+
+He tried several windows of the house along that terrace of which we
+have more than once had occasion to speak, before he found one that
+opened; but at length he did succeed, and stepped at once into the Hall,
+leaving those, who now for some moments in silence had regarded his
+movements, to lose themselves in a fearful sea of conjecture as to what
+could possibly be his object.
+
+"At all events," said the admiral, "I'm glad we are here. If the vampyre
+should have a fight with that other fellow, that we heard doing such a
+lot of carpentering work in the house, we ought, I think, to see fair
+play."
+
+"I, for one," said the doctor, "would not like to stand by and see the
+vampyre murdered; but I am inclined to think he is a good match for any
+mortal opponent."
+
+"You may depend he is," said Henry.
+
+"But how long, doctor, do you purpose that we should wait here in such a
+state of suspense as to what is going on within the house?"
+
+"I hope not long; but that something will occur to make us have food for
+action. Hark! what is that?"
+
+There was a loud crash within the building, as of broken glass. It
+sounded as if some window had been completely dashed in; but although
+they looked carefully over the front of the building, they could see no
+evidences of such a thing having happened, and were compelled,
+consequently, to come to the opinion that Varney and the other man must
+have met in one of the back rooms, and that the crash of glass had
+arisen from some personal conflict in which they had engaged.
+
+"I cannot stand this," said Henry.
+
+"Nay, nay," said the doctor; "be still, and I will tell you something,
+than which there can be no more fitting time than this to reveal it."
+
+"Refers it to the vampyre?"
+
+"It does--it does."
+
+"Be brief, then; I am in an agony of impatience."
+
+"It is a circumstance concerning which I can be brief; for, horrible as
+it is, I have no wish to dress it in any adventitious colours. Sir
+Francis Varney, although under another name, is an old acquaintance of
+mine."
+
+"Acquaintance!" said Henry.
+
+"Why, you don't mean to say you are a vampyre?" said the admiral; "or
+that he has ever visited you?"
+
+"No; but I knew him. From the first moment that I looked upon him in
+this neighbourhood, I thought I knew him; but the circumstance which
+induced me to think so was of so terrific a character, that I made some
+efforts to chase it from my mind. It has, however, grown upon me day by
+day, and, lately, I have had proof sufficient to convince me of his
+identity with one whom I first saw under most singular circumstances of
+romance."
+
+"Say on,--you are agitated."
+
+"I am, indeed. This revelation has several times, within the last few
+days, trembled on my lips, but now you shall have it; because you ought
+to know all that it is possible for me to tell you of him who has caused
+you so serious an amount of disturbance."
+
+"You awaken, doctor," said Henry, "all my interest."
+
+"And mine, too," remarked the admiral. "What can it be all about? and
+where, doctor, did you first see this Varney the vampyre?"
+
+"In his coffin."
+
+Both the admiral and Henry gave starts of surprise as, with one accord,
+they exclaimed,--
+
+"Did you say coffin?"
+
+"Yes: I tell you, on my word of honour, that the first time in my life I
+saw ever Sir Francis Varney, was in his coffin."
+
+"Then he is a vampyre, and there can be no mistake," said the admiral.
+
+"Go on, I pray you, doctor, go on," said Henry, anxiously.
+
+"I will. The reason why he became the inhabitant of a coffin was simply
+this:--he had been hanged,--executed at the Old Bailey, in London,
+before ever I set eyes upon that strange countenance of his. You know
+that I was practising surgery at the London schools some years ago, and
+that, consequently, as I commenced the profession rather late in life, I
+was extremely anxious to do the most I could in a very short space of
+time."
+
+"Yes--yes."
+
+"Arrived, then, with plenty of resources, which I did not, as the young
+men who affected to be studying in the same classes as myself, spend in
+the pursuit of what they considered life in London, I was
+indefatigable in my professional labours, and there was nothing
+connected with them which I did not try to accomplish.
+
+"At that period, the difficulty of getting a subject for anatomization
+was very great, and all sorts of schemes had to be put into requisition
+to accomplish so desirable, and, indeed, absolutely necessary a purpose.
+
+"I became acquainted with the man who, I have told you, is in the Hall,
+at present, and who then filled the unenviable post of public
+executioner. It so happened, too, that I had read a learned treatise, by
+a Frenchman, who had made a vast number of experiments with galvanic and
+other apparatus, upon persons who had come to death in different ways,
+and, in one case, he asserted that he had actually recovered a man who
+had been hanged, and he had lived five weeks afterwards.
+
+"Young as I then was, in comparison to what I am now, in my profession,
+this inflamed my imagination, and nothing seemed to me so desirable as
+getting hold of some one who had only recently been put to death, for
+the purpose of trying what I could do in the way of attempting a
+resuscitation of the subject. It was precisely for this reason that I
+sought out the public executioner, and made his acquaintance, whom every
+one else shunned, because I thought he might assist me by handing over
+to me the body of some condemned and executed man, upon whom I could try
+my skill.
+
+"I broached the subject to him, and found him not averse. He said, that
+if I would come forward and claim, as next of kin and allow the body to
+be removed to his house, the body of the criminal who was to be executed
+the first time, from that period, that he could give me a hint that I
+should have no real next of kin opponents, he would throw every facility
+in my way.
+
+"This was just what I wanted; and, I believe, I waited with impatience
+for some poor wretch to be hurried to his last account by the hands of
+my friend, the public executioner.
+
+"At length a circumstance occurred which favoured my designs most
+effectually,--A man was apprehended for a highway robbery of a most
+aggravated character. He was tried, and the evidence against him was so
+conclusive, that the defence which was attempted by his counsel, became
+a mere matter of form.
+
+"He was convicted, and sentenced. The judge told him not to flatter
+himself with the least notion that mercy would be extended to him. The
+crime of which he had been found guilty was on the increase it was
+highly necessary to make some great public example, to show evil doers
+that they could not, with impunity, thus trample upon the liberty of the
+subject, and had suddenly, just as it were, in the very nick of time,
+committed the very crime, attended with all the aggravated circumstances
+which made it easy and desirable to hang him out of hand.
+
+"He heard his sentence, they tell me unmoved. I did not see him, but he
+was represented to me as a man of a strong, and well-knit frame, with
+rather a strange, but what some would have considered a handsome
+expression of countenance, inasmuch as that there was an expression of
+much haughty resolution depicted on it.
+
+"I flew to my friend the executioner.
+
+"'Can you,' I said, 'get me that man's body, who is to be hanged for the
+highway robbery, on Monday?'
+
+"'Yes,' he said; 'I see nothing to prevent it. Not one soul has offered
+to claim even common companionship with him,--far less kindred. I think
+if you put in your claim as a cousin, who will bear the expense of his
+decent burial, you will have every chance of getting possession of the
+body.'
+
+"I did not hesitate, but, on the morning before the execution, I called
+upon one of the sheriffs.
+
+"I told him that the condemned man, I regretted to say, was related to
+me; but as I knew nothing could be done to save him on the trial, I had
+abstained from coming forward; but that as I did not like the idea of
+his being rudely interred by the authorities, I had come forward to ask
+for the body, after the execution should have taken place, in order that
+I might, at all events, bestow upon it, in some sequestered spot, a
+decent burial, with all the rites of the church.
+
+"The sheriff was a man not overburthened with penetration. He applauded
+my pious feelings, and actually gave me, without any inquiry, a written
+order to receive the body from the hands of the hangman, after it had
+hung the hour prescribed by the law.
+
+"I did not, as you may well suppose, wish to appear more in the business
+than was absolutely necessary; but I gave the executioner the sheriff's
+order for the body, and he promised that he would get a shell ready to
+place it in, and four stout men to carry it at once to his house, when
+he should cut it down.
+
+"'Good!' I said; 'and now as I am not a little anxious for the success
+of my experiment, do you not think that you can manage so that the fall
+of the criminal shall not be so sudden as to break his neck?'
+
+"'I have thought of that,' he said, 'and I believe that I can manage to
+let him down gently, so that he shall die of suffocation, instead of
+having his neck put out of joint. I will do my best."
+
+"'If you can but succeed in that,' said I, for I was quite in a state of
+mania upon the subject, 'I shall be much indebted to you, and will
+double the amount of money which I have already promised.'
+
+"This was, as I believed it would be, a powerful stimulus to him to do
+all in his power to meet my wishes, and he took, no doubt, active
+measures to accomplish all that I desired.
+
+"You can imagine with what intense impatience I waited the result. He
+resided in an old ruinous looking house, a short distance on the Surrey
+side of the river, and there I had arranged all my apparatus for making
+experiments upon the dead man, in an apartment the windows of which
+commanded a view of the entrance."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"I was completely ready by half-past eight, although a moment's
+consideration of course told me that at least another hour must elapse
+before there could be the least chance of my seeing him arrive, for whom
+I so anxiously longed.
+
+"I can safely say so infatuated was I upon the subject, that no fond
+lover ever looked with more nervous anxiety for the arrival of the
+chosen object of his heart, than I did for that dead body, upon which I
+proposed to exert all the influences of professional skill, to recall
+back the soul to its earthly dwelling-place.
+
+"At length I heard the sound of wheels. I found that my friend the
+hangman had procured a cart, in which he brought the coffin, that being
+a much quicker mode of conveyance than by bearers so that about a
+quarter past nine o'clock the vehicle, with its ghastly content, stopped
+at the door of his house.
+
+"In my impatience I ran down stairs to meet that which ninety-nine men
+out of a hundred would have gone some distance to avoid the sight of,
+namely, a corpse, livid and fresh from the gallows. I, however, heralded
+it as a great gift, and already, in imagination I saw myself imitating
+the learned Frenchman, who had published such an elaborate treatise on
+the mode of restoring life under all sorts of circumstances, to those
+who were already pronounced by unscientific persons to be dead.
+
+"To be sure, a sort of feeling had come over me at times, knowing as I
+did that the French are a nation that do not scruple at all to sacrifice
+truth on the altar of vanity, that it might be after all a mere
+rhodomontade; but, however, I could only ascertain so much by actually
+trying, so the suspicion that such might, by a possibility, be the end
+of the adventure, did not deter me.
+
+"I officiously assisted in having the coffin brought into the room where
+I had prepared everything that was necessary in the conduction of my
+grand experiment; and then, when no one was there with me but my friend
+the executioner, I, with his help, the one of us taking the head and the
+other the feet, took the body from the coffin and laid it upon a table.
+
+"Hastily I placed my hand upon the region of the heart, and to my great
+delight I found it still warm. I drew off the cap that covered the face,
+and then, for the first time, my eyes rested upon the countenance of him
+who now calls himself--Heaven only knows why--Sir Francis Varney."
+
+"Good God!" said Henry, "are you certain?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+"It may have been some other rascal like him," said the admiral.
+
+"No, I am quite sure now; I have, as I have before mentioned to you,
+tried to get out of my own conviction upon the subject, but I have been
+actually assured that he is the man by the very hangman himself."
+
+"Go on, go on! Your tale certainly is a strange one, and I do not say it
+either to compliment you or to cast a doubt upon you, but, except from
+the lips of an old, and valued friend, such as you yourself are, I
+should not believe it.'
+
+"I am not surprised to hear you say that," replied the doctor; "nor
+should I be offended even now if you were to entertain a belief that I
+might, after all, be mistaken."
+
+"No, no; you would not be so positive upon the subject, I well know, if
+there was the slightest possibility of an error."
+
+"Indeed I should not."
+
+"Let us have the sequel, then."
+
+"It is this. I was most anxious to effect an immediate resuscitation, if
+it were possible, of the hanged man. A little manipulation soon
+convinced me that the neck was not broken, which left me at once every
+thing to hope for. The hangman was more prudent than I was, and before I
+commenced my experiments, he said,--
+
+"'Doctor, have you duly considered what you mean to do with this fellow,
+in case you should be successful in restoring him to life?'
+
+"'Not I,' said I.
+
+"'Well,' he said, 'you can do as you like; but I consider that it is
+really worth thinking of.'
+
+"I was headstrong on the matter, and could think of nothing but the
+success or the non-success, in a physiological point of view, of my plan
+for restoring the dead to life; so I set about my experiments without
+any delay, and with a completeness and a vigour that promised the most
+completely successful results, if success could at all be an ingredient
+in what sober judgment would doubtless have denominated a mad-headed and
+wild scheme.
+
+"For more than half an hour I tried in vain, by the assistance of the
+hangman, who acted under my directions. Not the least symptom of
+vitality presented itself; and he had a smile upon his countenance, as
+he said in a bantering tone,--
+
+"'I am afraid, sir, it is much easier to kill than to restore their
+patients with doctors.'
+
+"Before I could make him any reply, for I felt that his observation had
+a good amount of truth in it, joined to its sarcasm the hanged man
+uttered a loud scream, and opened his eyes.
+
+"I must own I was myself rather startled; but I for some moments longer
+continued the same means which had produced such an effect, when
+suddenly he sprang up and laid hold of me, at the same time
+exclaiming,--
+
+"'Death, death, where is the treasure?'
+
+"I had fully succeeded--too fully; and while the executioner looked on
+with horror depicted in his countenance, I fled from the room and the
+house, taking my way home as fast as I possibly could.
+
+"A dread came over me, that the restored man would follow me if he
+should find out, to whom it was he was indebted for the rather
+questionable boon of a new life. I packed up what articles I set the
+greatest store by, bade adieu to London, and never have I since set foot
+within that city."
+
+"And you never met the man you had so resuscitated?"
+
+"Not till I saw Varney, the vampyre; and, as I tell you, I am now
+certain that he is the man."
+
+"That is the strangest yarn that ever I heard," said the admiral.
+
+"A most singular circumstance," said Henry.
+
+"You may have noticed about his countenance," said Dr. Chillingworth, "a
+strange distorted look?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"Well, that has arisen from a spasmodic contraction of the muscles, in
+consequence of his having been hanged. He will never lose it, and it has
+not a little contributed to give him the horrible look he has, and to
+invest him with some of the seeming outward attributes of the vampyre."
+
+"And that man who is now in the hall with him, doctor," said Henry, "is
+the very hangman who executed him?"
+
+"The same. He tells me that after I left, he paid attention to the
+restored man, and completed what I had nearly done. He kept him in his
+house for a time, and then made a bargain with him, for a large sum of
+money per annum, all of which he has regularly been paid, although he
+tells me he has no more idea where Varney gets it, than the man in the
+moon."
+
+"It is very strange; but, hark! do you not hear the sound of voices in
+angry altercation?"
+
+"Yes, yes, they have met. Let us approach the windows now. We may chance
+to hear something of what they say to each other."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXVIII.
+
+THE ALTERCATION BETWEEN VARNEY AND THE EXECUTIONER IN THE HALL.--THE
+MUTUAL AGREEMENT.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+There was certainly a loud wrangling in the Hall, just as the doctor
+finished his most remarkable revelation concerning Sir Francis Varney, a
+revelation which by no means attacked the fact of his being a vampyre or
+not; but rather on the contrary, had a tendency to confirm any opinion
+that might arise from the circumstance of his being restored to life
+after his execution, favourable to that belief.
+
+They all three now carefully approached the windows of the Hall, to
+listen to what was going on, and after a few moments they distinctly
+heard the voice of the hangman, saying in loud and rather angry
+accents,--
+
+"I do not deny but that you have kept your word with me--our bargain has
+been, as you say, a profitable one: but, still I cannot see why that
+circumstance should give you any sort of control over my actions."
+
+"But what do you here?" said Varney, impatiently.
+
+"What do you?" cried the other.
+
+"Nay, to ask another question, is not to answer mine. I tell you that I
+have special and most important business in this house; you can have no
+motive but curiosity."
+
+"Can I not, indeed? What, too, if I have serious and important business
+here?"
+
+"Impossible."
+
+"Well, I may as easily use such a term as regards what you call
+important business, but here I shall remain."
+
+"Here you shall not remain."
+
+"And will you make the somewhat hazardous attempt to force me to leave?"
+
+"Yes, much as I dislike lifting my hand against you, I must do so; I
+tell you that I must be alone in this house. I have most special
+reasons--reasons which concern my continued existence.
+
+"Your continued existence you talk of.--Tell me, now, how is it that you
+have acquired so frightful a reputation in this neighbourhood? Go where
+I will, the theme of conversation is Varney, the vampyre! and it is
+implicitly believed that you are one of those dreadful characters that
+feed upon the life-blood of others, only now and then revisiting the
+tomb to which you ought long since to have gone in peace."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; what, in the name of all that's inexplicable, has induced you to
+enact such a character?"
+
+"Enact it! you say. Can you, then, from all you have heard of me, and
+from all you know of me, not conceive it possible that I am not enacting
+any such character? Why may it not be real? Look at me. Do I look like
+one of the inhabitants of the earth?"
+
+"In sooth, you do not."
+
+"And yet I am, as you see, upon it. Do not, with an affected philosophy,
+doubt all that may happen to be in any degree repugnant to your usual
+experiences."
+
+"I am not one disposed to do so; nor am I prepared to deny that such
+dreadful beings may exist as vampyres. However, whether or not you
+belong to so frightful a class of creatures, I do not intend to leave
+here; but, I will make an agreement with you."
+
+Varney was silent; and after a few moments' pause, the other
+exclaimed,--
+
+"There are people, even now, watching the place, and no doubt you have
+been seen coming into it."
+
+"No, no, I was satisfied no one was here but you."
+
+"Then you are wrong. A Doctor Chillingworth, of whom you know something,
+is here; and him, you have said, you would do no harm to, even to save
+your life."
+
+"I do know him. You told me that it was to him that I was mainly
+indebted for my mere existence; and although I do not consider human
+life to be a great boon, I cannot bring myself to raise my hand against
+the man who, whatever might have been the motives for the deed, at all
+events, did snatch me from the grave."
+
+"Upon my word," whispered the admiral, "there is something about that
+fellow that I like, after all."
+
+"Hush!" said Henry, "listen to them. This would all have been
+unintelligible to us, if you had not related to us what you have."
+
+"I have just told you in time," said Chillingworth, "it seems."
+
+"Will you, then," said the hangman, "listen to proposals?"
+
+"Yes," said Varney.
+
+"Come along, then, and I will show you what I have been about; and I
+rather think you have already a shrewd guess as to my motive. This
+way--this way."
+
+They moved off to some other part of the mansion, and the sound of their
+voices gradually died away, so that after all, the friends had not got
+the least idea of what that motive was, which still induced the vampyre
+and the hangman, rather than leave the other on the premises, to make an
+agreement to stay with each other.
+
+"What's to be done now?" said Henry.
+
+"Wait," said Dr. Chillingworth, "wait, and watch still. I see nothing
+else that can be done with any degree of safety."
+
+"But what are we to wait for?" said the admiral.
+
+"By waiting, we shall, perhaps, find out," was the doctor's reply; "but
+you may depend that we never shall by interfering."
+
+"Well, well, be it so. It seems that we have no other resource. And when
+either or both of those fellows make their appearance, and seem about to
+leave, what is to be done with them?"
+
+"They must be seized then, and in order that that may be done without
+any bloodshed, we ought to have plenty of force here. Henry, could you
+get your brother, and Charles, if he be sufficiently recovered, to
+come?"
+
+"Certainly, and Jack Pringle."
+
+"No," said the admiral, "no Jack Pringle for me; I have done with him
+completely, and I have made up my mind to strike him off the ship's
+books, and have nothing more to do with him."
+
+"Well, well," added the doctor, "we will not have him, then; and it is
+just as well, for, in all likelihood, he would come drunk, and we shall
+be--let me see--five strong without him, which ought to be enough to
+take prisoners two men."
+
+"Yes," said Henry, "although one of them may be a vampyre."
+
+"That makes no difference," said the admiral. "I'd as soon take a ship
+manned with vampyres as with Frenchmen."
+
+Henry started off upon his errand, certainly leaving the admiral and the
+doctor in rather a critical situation while he was gone; for had Varney
+the vampyre and the hangman chosen, they could certainly easily have
+overcome so inefficient a force.
+
+The admiral would, of course, have fought, and so might the doctor, as
+far as his hands would permit him; but if the others had really been
+intent upon mischief, they could, from their downright superior physical
+power, have taken the lives of the two that were opposed to them.
+
+But somehow the doctor appeared to have a great confidence in the
+affair. Whether that confidence arose from what the vampyre had said
+with regard to him, or from any hidden conviction of his own that they
+would not yet emerge from the Hall, we cannot say; but certain it is, he
+waited the course of events with great coolness.
+
+No noise for some time came from the house; but then the sounds, as if
+workmen were busy within it, were suddenly resumed, and with more vigour
+than before.
+
+It was nearly two hours before Henry made the private signal which had
+been agreed upon as that which should proclaim his return; and then he
+and his brother, with Charles, who, when he heard of the matter, would,
+notwithstanding the persuasions of Flora to the contrary, come, got
+quietly over the fence at a part of the garden which was quite hidden
+from the house by abundant vegetation, and the whole three of them took
+up a position that tolerably well commanded a view of the house, while
+they were themselves extremely well hidden behind a dense mass of
+evergreens.
+
+"Did you see that rascal, Jack Pringle?" said the admiral.
+
+"Yes," said Henry; "he is drunk."
+
+"Ah, to be sure."
+
+"And we had no little difficulty in shaking him off. He suspected where
+we were going; but I think, by being peremptory, we got fairly rid of
+him."
+
+"The vagabond! if he comes here, I'll brain him, I will, the swab. Why,
+lately he's done nothing but drink. That's the way with him. He'll go on
+sometimes for a year and more, and not take more than enough to do him
+good, and then all at once, for about six or eight weeks, he does
+nothing but drink."
+
+"Well, well, we can do without him," said Henry.
+
+"Without him! I should think so. Do you hear those fellows in the Hall
+at work? D--n me, if I haven't all of a sudden thought what the reason
+of it all is."
+
+"What--what?" said the doctor, anxiously.
+
+"Why, that rascal Varney, you know, had his house burnt down."
+
+"Yes; well?"
+
+"Yes, well. I dare say he didn't think it well. But, however, he no
+doubt wants another; so, you see, my idea is, that he's stealing the
+material from Bannerworth Hall."
+
+"Oh, is that your notion?"
+
+"Yes, and a very natural one, I think, too, Master Doctor, whatever you
+may think of it. Come, now, have you a better?"
+
+"Oh, dear, no, certainly not; but I have a notion that something to eat
+would comfort the inward man much."
+
+"And so would something to drink, blow me if it wouldn't," said Jack
+Pringle, suddenly making his appearance.
+
+The admiral made a rush upon him; but he was restrained by the others,
+and Jack, with a look of triumph, said,--
+
+"Why, what's amiss with you now? I ain't drunk now. Come, come, you have
+something dangerous in the wind, I know, so I've made up my mind to be
+in it, so don't put yourself out of the way. If you think I don't know
+all about it, you are mistaken, for I do. The vampyre is in the house
+yonder, and I'm the fellow to tackle him, I believe you, my boys."
+
+"Good God!" said the doctor, "what shall we do?"
+
+"Nothing," said Jack, as he took a bottle from his pocket and applied
+the neck of it to his lips--"nothing--nothing at all."
+
+"There's something to begin with," said the admiral, as with his stick
+he gave the bottle a sudden blow that broke it and spilt all its
+contents, leaving Jack petrified, with the bit of the neck of it still
+in his mouth.
+
+"My eye, admiral," he said, "was that done like a British seaman? My
+eye--was that the trick of a lubber, or of a thorough-going first-rater?
+first-rater? My eye--"
+
+"Hold your noise, will you; you are not drunk yet, and I was determined
+that you should not get so, which you soon would with that rum-bottle,
+if I had not come with a broadside across it. Now you may stay; but,
+mark me, you are on active service now, and must do nothing without
+orders."
+
+"Ay, ay, your honour," said Jack, as he dropped the neck of the bottle,
+and looked ruefully upon the ground, from whence arose the aroma of
+rum--"ay, ay; but it's a hard case, take it how you will, to have your
+grog stopped; but, d--n it, I never had it stopped yet when it was in my
+mouth."
+
+Henry and Charles could not forbear a smile at Jack's discomfiture,
+which, however, they were very glad of, for they knew full well his
+failing, and that in the course of another half hour he would have been
+drunk, and incapable of being controlled, except, as on some former
+occasions, by the exercise of brute force.
+
+But Jack was evidently displeased, and considered himself to be
+grievously insulted, which, after all, was the better, inasmuch as,
+while he was brooding over his wrongs, he was quiet; when, otherwise, it
+might have been a very difficult matter to make him so.
+
+They partook of some refreshments, and, as the day advanced, the
+brothers Bannerworth, as well as Charles Holland, began to get very
+anxious upon the subject of the proceedings of Sir Francis Varney in the
+Hall.
+
+They conversed in low tones, exhausting every, as they considered,
+possible conjecture to endeavour to account for his mysterious
+predilection for that abode, but nothing occurred to them of a
+sufficiently probable motive to induce them to adopt it as a conclusion.
+
+They more than suspected Dr. Chillingworth, because he was so silent,
+and hazarded no conjecture at all of knowing something, or of having
+formed to himself some highly probable hypothesis upon the subject; but
+they could not get him to agree that such was the case.
+
+When they challenged him upon the subject, all he would say was,--
+
+"My good friends, you perceive that, there is a great mystery somewhere,
+and I do hope that to-night it will be cleared up satisfactorily."
+
+With this they were compelled to be satisfied; and now the soft and
+sombre shades of evening began to creep over the scene, enveloping all
+objects in the dimness and repose of early night.
+
+The noise from the house had ceased, and all was profoundly still. But
+more than once Henry fancied he heard footsteps outside the garden.
+
+He mentioned his suspicions to Charles Holland, who immediately said,--
+
+"The same thing has come to my ears."
+
+"Indeed! Then it must be so; we cannot both of us have merely imagined
+such a thing. You may depend that this place is beleaguered in some way,
+and that to-night will be productive of events which will throw a great
+light upon the affairs connected with this vampyre that have hitherto
+baffled conjecture."
+
+"Hush!" said Charles; "there, again; I am quite confident I heard a
+sound as of a broken twig outside the garden-wall. The doctor and the
+admiral are in deep discussion about something,--shall we tell them?"
+
+"No; let us listen, as yet."
+
+They bent all their attention to listening, inclining their ears towards
+the ground, and, after a few moments, they felt confident that more than
+one footstep was creeping along, as cautiously as possible, under the
+garden wall. After a few moments' consultation, Henry made up his
+mind--he being the best acquainted with the localities of the place--to
+go and reconnoitre, so he, without saying anything to the doctor or the
+admiral, glided from where he was, in the direction of a part of the
+fence which he knew he could easily scale.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXIX.
+
+THE VAMPYRE'S DANGER.--THE LAST REFUGE.--THE RUSE OF HENRY BANNERWORTH.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Yet knowing to what deeds of violence the passions of a lawless mob will
+sometimes lead them, and having the experience of what had been
+attempted by the alarmed and infuriated populace on a former occasion,
+against the Hall, Henry Bannerworth was, reasonably enough, not without
+his fears that something might occur of a nature yet highly dangerous to
+the stability of his ancient house.
+
+He did not actually surmount the fence, but he crept so close to it,
+that he could get over in a moment, if he wished; and, if any one should
+move or speak on the other side, he should be quite certain to hear
+them.
+
+For a few moments all was still, and then suddenly he heard some one
+say, in a low voice,
+
+"Hist! hist! did you hear nothing?"
+
+"I thought I did," said another; "but I now am doubtful."
+
+"Listen again."
+
+"What," thought Henry, "can be the motives of these men lying secreted
+here? It is most extraordinary what they can possibly want, unless they
+are brewing danger for the Hall."
+
+Most cautiously now he raised himself, so that his eyes could just look
+over the fence, and then, indeed, he was astonished.
+
+He had expected to see two or three persons, at the utmost; what was his
+surprise! to find a compact mass of men crouching down under the garden
+wall, as far as his eye could reach.
+
+For a few moments, he was so surprised, that he continued to gaze on,
+heedless of the danger there might be from a discovery that he was
+playing the part of a spy upon them.
+
+When, however, his first sensations of surprise were over, he cautiously
+removed to his former position, and, just as he did, so, he heard those
+who had before spoken, again, in low tones, breaking the stillness of
+the night.
+
+"I am resolved upon it," said one; "I am quite determined. I will,
+please God, rid the country of that dreadful man."
+
+"Don't call him a man," said the oilier.
+
+"Well, well; it is a wrong name to apply to a vampyre."
+
+"It is Varney, after all, then," said Henry. Bannerworth, to
+himself;--"it is his life that they seek. What can be done to save
+him?--for saved he shall be if I can compass such an object. I feel that
+there is yet a something in his character which is entitled to
+consideration, and he shall not be savagely murdered while I have an arm
+to raise in his defence. But if anything is now to be done, it must be
+done by stratagem, for the enemy are, by far, in too great force to be
+personally combatted with."
+
+Henry resolved to take the advice of his friends, and with that view he
+went silently and quietly back to where they were, and communicated to
+them the news that he had so unexpectedly discovered.
+
+They were all much surprised, and then the doctor said,
+
+"You may depend, that since the disappointment of the mob in the
+destruction of this place, they have had their eye upon Varney. He has
+been dogged here by some one, and then by degrees that assemblage has
+sought the spot."
+
+"He's a doomed man, then," remarked the admiral; "for what can save him
+from a determined number of persons, who, by main force, will overcome
+us, let us make what stand we may in his defence."
+
+"Is there no hiding-place in the house," said Charles, "where you might,
+after warning him of his danger, conceal him?"
+
+"There are plenty, but of what avail would that be, if they burn down
+the Hall, which in all probability they will!"
+
+"None, certainly."
+
+"There is but one chance," said Henry, "and that is to throw them off
+the scent, and induce them to think that he whom they seek is not here;
+I think that may possibly be done by boldness."
+
+"But how!"
+
+"I will go among them and make the effort."
+
+He at once left the friends, for he felt that there might be no time to
+lose, and hastening to the same part of the wall, over which he had
+looked so short a time before, he clambered over it, and cried, in a
+loud voice,
+
+"Stop the vampyre! stop the vampyre!"
+
+"Where, where?" shouted a number of persons at once, turning their eyes
+eagerly towards the spot where Henry stood.
+
+"There, across the fields," cried Henry. "I have lain in wait for him
+long; but he has eluded me, and is making his way again towards the old
+ruins, where I am sure he has some hiding-place that he thinks will
+elude all search. There, I see his dusky form speeding onwards."
+
+"Come on," cried several; "to the ruins! to the ruins! We'll smoke him
+out if he will not come by fair means: we must have him, dead or alive."
+
+"Yes, to the ruins!" shouted the throng of persons, who up to this time
+had preserved so cautious a silence, and, in a few moments more, Henry
+Bannerworth had the satisfaction of finding that his ruse had been
+perfectly successful, for Bannerworth Hall and its vicinity were
+completely deserted, and the mob, in a straggling mass, went over hedge
+and ditch towards those ruins in which there was nothing to reward the
+exertions they might choose to make in the way of an exploration of
+them, but the dead body of the villain Marchdale, who had come there to
+so dreadful, but so deserved a death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXX.
+
+THE DISCOVERY OF THE BODY OF MARCHDALE IN THE RUINS BY THE MOB.--THE
+BURNING OF THE CORPSE.--THE MURDER OF THE HANGMAN.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The mob reached the ruins of Bannerworth Hall, and crowded round it on
+all sides, with the view of ascertaining if a human creature, dead or
+alive, were there; various surmises were afloat, and some were for
+considering that everybody but themselves, or their friends, must be
+nothing less than vampyres. Indeed, a strange man, suddenly appearing
+among them, would have caused a sensation, and a ring would no doubt
+have been formed round him, and then a hasty council held, or, what was
+more probable, some shout, or word uttered by some one behind, who could
+not understand what was going on in front, would have determined them to
+commit some desperate outrage, and the sacrifice of life would have been
+the inevitable result of such an unfortunate concurrence of
+circumstances.
+
+There was a pause before anyone ventured among the ruins; the walls were
+carefully looked to, and in more than one instance, but they were found
+dangerous, what were remaining; some parts had been so completely
+destroyed, that there were nothing but heaps of rubbish.
+
+However, curiosity was exerted to such an extraordinary pitch that it
+overcame the fear of danger, in search of the horrible; for they
+believed that if there were any one in the ruins he must be a vampyre,
+of course, and they were somewhat cautious in going near such a
+creature, lest in so doing they should meet with some accident, and
+become vampyres too.
+
+This was a dreadful reflection, and one that every now and then
+impressed itself upon the individuals composing the mob; but at the same
+time any new impulse, or a shout, and they immediately became insensible
+to all fear; the mere impulse is the dominant one, and then all is
+forgotten.
+
+The scene was an impressive one; the beautiful house and grounds looked
+desolate and drear; many of the trees were stripped and broken down, and
+many scorched and burned, while the gardens and flower beds, the delight
+of the Bannerworth family, were rudely trodden under foot by the rabble,
+and all those little beauties so much admired and tended by the
+inhabitants, were now utterly destroyed, and in such a state that their
+site could not even be detected by the former owners.
+
+It was a sad sight to see such a sacrilege committed,--such violence
+done to private feelings, as to have all these places thrown open to the
+scrutiny of the brutal and vulgar, who are incapable of appreciating or
+understanding the pleasures of a refined taste.
+
+The ruins presented a remarkable contrast to what the place had been but
+a very short time before; and now the scene of desolation was complete,
+there was no one spot in which the most wretched could find shelter.
+
+To be sure, under the lee of some broken and crumbling wall, that
+tottered, rather than stood, a huddled wretch might have found shelter
+from the wind, but it would have been at the risk of his life, and not
+there complete.
+
+The mob became quiet for some moments, but was not so long; indeed, a
+mob of people,--which is, in fact, always composed of the most
+disorderly characters to be found in a place, is not exactly the
+assembly that is most calculated for quietness; somebody gave a shout,
+and then somebody else shouted, and the one wide throat of the whole
+concourse was opened, and sent forth a mighty yell.
+
+After this exhibition of power, they began to run about like
+mad,--traverse the grounds from one end to the other, and then the ruins
+were in progress of being explored.
+
+This was a tender affair, and had to be done with some care and caution
+by those who were so engaged; and they walked over crumbling and decayed
+masses.
+
+In one or two places, they saw what appeared to be large holes, into
+which the building materials had been sunk, by their own weight, through
+the flooring, that seemed as roofs to some cellars or dungeons.
+
+Seeing this, they knew not how soon some other part might sink in, and
+carry their precious bodies down with the mass of rubbish; this gave an
+interest to the scene,--a little danger is a sort of salt to an
+adventure, and enables those who have taken part in it to talk of their
+exploits, and of their dangers, which is pleasant to do, and to hear in
+the ale-house, and by the inglenook in the winter.
+
+However, when a few had gone some distance, others followed, when they
+saw them enter the place in safety: and at length the whole ruins were
+covered with living men, and not a few women, who seemed necessary to
+make up the elements of mischief in this case.
+
+There were some shouting and hallooing from one to the other as they
+hurried about the ruins.
+
+At length they had explored the ruins nearly all over, when one man, who
+had stood a few minutes upon a spot, gazing intently upon something,
+suddenly exclaimed,--
+
+"Hilloa! hurrah! here we are, altogether,--come on,--I've found
+him,--I've found--recollect it's me, and nobody else has
+found,--hurrah!"
+
+Then, with a wild kind of frenzy, he threw his hat up into the air, as
+if to attract attention, and call others round him, to see what it was
+he had found.
+
+"What's the matter, Bill?" exclaimed one who came up to him, and who had
+been close at hand.
+
+"The matter? why, I've found him; that's the matter, old man," replied
+the first.
+
+"What, a whale?
+
+"No, a wampyre; the blessed wampyre! there he is,--don't you see him
+under them ere bricks?"
+
+"Oh, that's not him; he got away."
+
+"I don't care," replied the other, "who got away, or who didn't; I know
+this much, that he's a wampyre,--he wouldn't be there if he warn't."
+
+This was an unanswerable argument, and nobody could deny it;
+consequently, there was a cessation of talk, and the people then came
+up, as the two first were looking at the body.
+
+"Whose is it?" inquired a dozen voices.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Not Sir Francis Varney's!" said the second speaker; "the clothes are not
+his--"
+
+"No, no; not Sir Francis's"
+
+"But I tell you what, mates," said the first speaker; "that if it isn't
+Sir Francis Varney's, it is somebody else's as bad. I dare say, now,
+he's a wictim."
+
+"A what!"
+
+"A wictim to the wampyre; and, if he sees the blessed moonlight, he will
+be a wampyre hisself, and so shall we be, too, if he puts his teeth into
+us."
+
+"So we shall,--so we shall," said the mob, and their flesh begin to run
+cold, and there was a feeling of horror creeping over the whole body of
+persons within hearing.
+
+"I tell you what it is; our only plan will be to get him out of the
+ruins, then, remarked another.
+
+"What!" said one; "who's going to handle such cattle? if you've a sore
+about you, and his blood touches you, who's to say you won't be a
+vampyre, too!"
+
+"No, no you won't," said an old woman.
+
+"I won't try," was the happy rejoinder; "I ain't a-going to carry a
+wampyre on my two legs home to my wife and small family of seven
+children, and another a-coming."
+
+There was a pause for a few moments, and then one man more adventurous
+than the rest, exclaimed,--
+
+"Well, vampyre, or no vampyre, his dead body can harm no one; so here
+goes to get it out, help me who will; once have it out, and then we can
+prevent any evil, by burning it, and thus destroying the whole body.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted three or four more, as they jumped down into the hole
+formed by the falling in of the materials which had crushed Marchdale to
+death, for it was his body they had discovered.
+
+They immediately set to work to displace such of the materials as lay on
+the body, and then, having cleared it of all superincumbent rubbish,
+they proceeded to lift it up, but found that it had got entangled, as
+they called it, with some chains: with some trouble they got them off,
+and the body was lifted out to a higher spot.
+
+"Now, what's to be done?" inquired one.
+
+"Burn it," said another.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted a female voice; "we've got the wampyre! run a stake
+through his body, and then place him upon some dry wood,--there's plenty
+to be had about here, I am sure,--and then burn him to a cinder."
+
+"That's right, old woman,--that's right," said a man; "nothing better:
+the devil must be in him if he come to life after that, I should say."
+
+There might be something in that, and the mob shouted its approbation,
+as it was sure to do as anything stupid or senseless, and the proposal
+might be said to have been carried by acclamation, and it required only
+the execution.
+
+This was soon done. There were plenty of laths and rafters, and the
+adjoining wood furnished an abundant supply of dry sticks, so there was
+no want of fuel.
+
+There was a loud shout as each accession of sticks took place, and, as
+each individual threw his bundle into the heap, each man felt all the
+self-devotion to the task as the Scottish chieftain who sacrificed
+himself and seven sons in the battle for his superior; and, when one son
+was cut down, the man filled up his place with the exclamation,--"Another
+for Hector," until he himself fell as the last of his race.
+
+Soon now the heap became prodigious, and it required an effort to get
+the mangled corpse upon this funeral bier; but it was then a shout from
+the mob that rent the air announced, both the fact and their
+satisfaction.
+
+The next thing to be done was to light the pile--this was no easy task;
+but like all others, it was accomplished, and the dead body of the
+vampyre's victim was thrown on to prevent that becoming a vampyre too,
+in its turn.
+
+"There, boys," said one, "he'll not see the moonlight, that's certain,
+and the sooner we put a light to this the better; for it may be, the
+soldiers will be down upon us before we know anything of it; so now,
+who's got a light?"
+
+This was a question that required a deal of searching; but, at length
+one was found by one of the mob coming forward, and after drawing his
+pipe vigorously for some moments, he collected some scraps of paper upon
+which he emptied the contents of the pipe, with the hope they would take
+fire.
+
+In this, however, he was doomed to disappointment; for it produced
+nothing but a deal of smoke, and the paper burned without producing any
+flame.
+
+This act of disinterestedness, however was not without its due
+consequences, for there were several who had pipes, and, fired with the
+hope of emulating the first projector of the scheme for raising the
+flame, they joined together, and potting the contents of their pipes
+together on some paper, straw, and chips, they produced, after some
+little trouble, a flame.
+
+Then there was a shout, and the burning mass was then placed in a
+favourable position nearer the pile of materials collected for burning,
+and then, in a few moments, it began to take light; one piece
+communicated the fire to another, until the whole was in a blaze.
+
+When the first flame fairly reached the top, a loud and tremendous shout
+arose from the mob, and the very welkin re-echoed with its fulness.
+
+Then the forked flames rushed through the wood, and hissed and crackled
+as they flew, throwing up huge masses of black smoke, and casting a
+peculiar reflection around. Not a sound was heard save the hissing and
+roaring of the flames, which seemed like the approaching of a furious
+whirlwind.
+
+At length there was nothing to be seen but the blackened mass; it was
+enveloped in one huge flame, that threw out a great heat, so much so,
+that those nearest to it felt induced to retire from before it.
+
+"I reckon," said one, "that he's pretty well done by this time--he's had
+a warm berth of it up there."
+
+"Yes," said another, "farmer Walkings's sheep he roasted whole at last
+harvest-home hadn't such a fire as this, I'll warrant; there's no such
+fire in the county--why, it would prevent a frost, I do believe it
+would."
+
+"So it would, neighbour," answered another.
+
+"Yes," replied a third, "but you'd want such a one corner of each field
+though."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was much talk and joking going on among the men who stood around,
+in the midst of which, however, they were disturbed by a loud shout, and
+upon looking in the quarter whence it came, they saw stealing from among
+the ruins, the form of a man.
+
+He was a strange, odd looking man, and at the time it was very doubtful
+among the mob as to whom it was--nobody could tell, and more than one
+looked at the burning pile, and then at the man who seemed to be so
+mysteriously present, as if they almost imagined that the body had got
+away.
+
+"Who is it?" exclaimed one.
+
+"Danged if I knows," said another, looking very hard, and very white at
+the same time;--"I hope it ain't the chap what we've burned here jist
+now."
+
+"No," said the female, "that you may be sure of, for he's had a stake
+through his body, and as you said, he can never get over that, for as
+the stake is consumed, so are his vitals, and that's a sure sign he's
+done for."
+
+"Yes, yes, she's right--a vampyre may live upon blood, but cannot do
+without his inside."
+
+This was so obvious to them all, that it was at once conceded, and a
+general impression pervaded the mob that it might be Sir Francis Varney:
+a shout ensued.
+
+"Hurrah!--After him--there's a vampyre--there he goes!--after him--catch
+him--burn him!"
+
+And a variety of other exclamations were uttered, at the same time; the
+victim of popular wrath seemed to be aware that he was now discovered,
+and made off with all possible expedition, towards some wood.
+
+Away went the mob in pursuit, hooting and hallooing like demons, and
+denouncing the unfortunate being with all the terrors that could be
+imagined, and which naturally added greater speed to the unfortunate
+man.
+
+However, some among the mob, seeing that there was every probability of
+the stranger's escaping at a mere match of speed, brought a little
+cunning to bear upon matter, and took a circuit round, and thus
+intercepted him.
+
+This was not accomplished without a desperate effort, and by the best
+runners, who thus reached the spot he made for, before he could get
+there.
+
+When the stranger saw himself thus intercepted, he endeavoured to fly in
+a different direction; but was soon secured by the mob, who made
+somewhat free with his person, and commenced knocking him about.
+
+"Have mercy on me," said the stranger. "What do you want? I am not rich;
+but take all I have."
+
+"What do you do here?" inquired twenty voices. "Come, tell us that--what
+do you do here, and who are you?"
+
+"A stranger, quite a stranger to these parts."
+
+"Oh, yes! he's a stranger; but that's all the worse for him--he's a
+vampyre--there's no doubt about that."
+
+"Good God," said the man, "I am a living and breathing man like
+yourselves. I have done no wrong, and injured no man--be merciful unto
+me; I intend no harm."
+
+"Of course not; send him to the fire--take him back to the ruins--to the
+fire."
+
+"Ay, and run a stake through his body, and then he's safe for life. I am
+sure he has something to do with the vampyre; and who knows, if he ain't
+a vampyre, how soon he may become one?"
+
+"Ah! that's very true; bring him back to the fire, and we'll try the
+effects of the fire upon his constitution."
+
+"I tell you what, neighbour, it's my opinion, that as one fool makes
+many, so one vampyre makes many."
+
+"So it does, so it does; there's much truth and reason in that
+neighbour; I am decidedly of that opinion, too."
+
+"Come along then," cried the mob, cuffing and pulling the unfortunate
+stranger with them.
+
+"Mercy, mercy!"
+
+But it was useless to call for mercy to men whose superstitious feelings
+urged them on; for when the demon of superstition is active, no matter
+what form it may take, it always results in cruelty and wickedness to
+all.
+
+Various were the shouts and menaces of the mob, and the stranger saw no
+hope of life unless he could escape from the hands of the people who
+surrounded him.
+
+They had now nearly reached the ruins, and the stranger, who was
+certainly a somewhat odd and remarkable looking man, and who appeared in
+their eyes the very impersonation of their notions of a vampyre, was
+thrust from one to the other, kicked by one, and then cuffed by the
+other, as if he was doomed to run the gauntlet.
+
+"Down with the vampyre!" said the mob.
+
+"I am no vampyre," said the stranger; "I am new to these parts, and I
+pray you have mercy upon me. I have done you no wrong. Hear me,--I know
+nothing of these people of whom you speak."
+
+"That won't do; you've come here to see what you can do, I dare say;
+and, though you may have been hurt by the vampyre, and may be only your
+misfortune, and not your fault, yet the mischief is as great as ever it
+was or can be, you become, in spite of yourself, a vampyre, and do the
+same injury to others that has been done to you--there's no help for
+you."
+
+"No help,--we can't help it," shouted the mob; "he must die,--throw him
+on the pile."
+
+"Put a stake through him first, though," exclaimed the humane female;
+"put a stake through him, and then he's safe."
+
+This horrible advice had an electric effect on the stranger, who jumped
+up, and eluded the grasp of several hands that were stretched forth to
+seize him.
+
+"Throw him upon the burning wood!" shouted one.
+
+"And a stake through his body," suggested the humane female again, who
+seemed to have this one idea in her heart, and no other, and, upon every
+available opportunity, she seemed to be anxious to give utterance to the
+comfortable notion.
+
+"Seize him!" exclaimed one.
+
+"Never let him go," said another; "we've gone too far to hang back now;
+and, if he escape, he will visit us in our sleep, were it only out of
+spite."
+
+The stranger made a dash among the ruins, and, for a moment,
+out-stripped his pursuers; but a few, more adventurous than the rest,
+succeeded in driving him into an angle formed by two walls, and the
+consequence was, he was compelled to come to a stand.
+
+"Seize him--seize him!" exclaimed all those at a distance.
+
+The stranger, seeing he was now nearly surrounded, and had no chance of
+escape, save by some great effort, seized a long piece of wood, and
+struck two of his assailants down at once, and then dashed through the
+opening.
+
+He immediately made for another part of the ruins, and succeeded in
+making his escape for some short distance, but was unable to keep up the
+speed that was required, for his great exertion before had nearly
+exhausted him, and the fear of a cruel death before his eyes was not
+enough to give him strength, or lend speed to his flight. He had
+suffered too much from violence, and, though he ran with great speed,
+yet those who followed were uninjured, and fresher,--he had no chance.
+
+They came very close upon him at the corner of a field, which he
+endeavoured to cross, and had succeeded in doing, and he made a
+desperate attempt to scramble up the bank that divided the field from
+the next, but he slipped back, almost exhausted, into the ditch, and the
+whole mob came up.
+
+However, he got on the bank, and leaped into the next field, and then he
+was immediately surrounded by those who pursued him, and he was struck
+down.
+
+"Down with the vampyre!--kill him,--he's one of 'em,--run a stake
+through him!" were a few of the cries of the infuriated mob of people,
+who were only infuriated because he attempted to escape their murderous
+intentions.
+
+It was strange to see how they collected in a ring as the unfortunate
+man lay on the ground, panting for breath, and hardly able to
+speak--their infuriated countenances plainly showing the mischief they
+were intent upon.
+
+"Have mercy upon me!" he exclaimed, as he lay on the earth; "I have no
+power to help myself."
+
+The mob returned no answer, but stood collecting their numbers as they
+came up.
+
+"Have mercy on me! it cannot be any pleasure to you to spill my blood. I
+am unable to resist--I am one man among many,--you surely cannot wish to
+beat me to death?"
+
+"We want to hurt no one, except in our own defence, and we won't be made
+vampyres of because you don't like to die."
+
+"No, no; we won't be vampyres," exclaimed the mob, and there arose a
+great shout from the mob.
+
+"Are you men--fathers?--have you families? if so, I have the same ties
+as you have; spare me for their sakes,--do not murder me,--you will
+leave one an orphan if you do; besides, what have I done? I have injured
+no one."
+
+"I tell you what, friends, if we listen to him we shall all be vampyres,
+and all our children will all be vampyres and orphans."
+
+"So we shall, so we shall; down with him!"
+
+The man attempted to get up, but, in doing so, he received a heavy blow
+from a hedge-stake, wielded by the herculean arm of a peasant. The sound
+of the blow was heard by those immediately around, and the man fell
+dead. There was a pause, and those nearest, apparently fearful of the
+consequences, and hardly expecting the catastrophe, began to disperse,
+and the remainder did so very soon afterwards.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXI.
+
+THE VAMPYRE'S FLIGHT.--HIS DANGER, AND THE LAST PLACE OF REFUGE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Leaving the disorderly and vicious mob, who were thus sacrificing human
+life to their excited passions, we return to the brothers Bannerworth
+and the doctor, who together with Admiral Bell, still held watch over
+the hall.
+
+No indication of the coming forth of Varney presented itself for some
+time longer, and then, at least they thought, they heard a window open;
+and, turning their eyes in the direction whence the sound proceeded,
+they could see the form of a man slowly and cautiously emerging from it.
+
+As far as they could judge, from the distance at which they were, that
+form partook much of the appearance and the general aspect of Sir
+Francis Varney, and the more they looked and noticed its movements, the
+more they felt convinced that such was the fact.
+
+"There comes your patient, doctor," said the admiral.
+
+"Don't call him my patient," said the doctor, "if you please."
+
+"Why you know he is; and you are, in a manner of speaking, bound to look
+after him. Well, what is to be done?"
+
+"He must not, on any account," said Dr. Chillingworth, "be allowed to
+leave the place. Believe me, I have the very strongest reasons for
+saying so."
+
+"He shall not leave it then," said Henry.
+
+Even as he spoke, Henry Bannerworth darted forward, and Sir Francis
+Varney dropped from the window, out of which he had clambered, close to
+his feet.
+
+"Hold!" cried Henry, "you are my prisoner."
+
+With the most imperturbable coolness in the world, Sir Francis Varney
+turned upon him, and replied,--
+
+"And pray, Henry Bannerworth, what have I done to provoke your wrath?"
+
+"What have you done?--have you not, like a thief, broken into my house?
+Can you ask what you have done?"
+
+"Ay," said the vampyre, "like a thief, perchance, and yet no thief. May
+I ask you, what there is to steal, in the house?"
+
+By the time this short dialogue had been uttered, the rest of the party
+had come up, and Varney was, so far as regarded numbers, a prisoner.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," he said, with that strange contortion of countenance
+which, now they all understood, arose from the fact of his having been
+hanged, and restored to life again. "Well, gentlemen, now that you have
+beleaguered me in such a way, may I ask you what it is about?"
+
+"If you will step aside with me, Sir Francis Varney, for a moment," said
+Dr. Chillingworth, "I will make to you a communication which will enable
+you to know what it is all about."
+
+"Oh, with pleasure," said the vampyre. "I am not ill at present; but
+still, sir, I have no objection to hear what you have to say."
+
+He stepped a few paces on one side with the doctor, while the others
+waited, not without some amount of impatience for the result of the
+communication. All that they could hear was, that Varney said,
+suddenly--
+
+"You are quite mistaken."
+
+And then the doctor appeared to be insisting upon something, which the
+vampyre listened to patiently; and, at the end, burst out with,--
+
+"Why, doctor, you must be dreaming."
+
+At this, Dr. Chillingworth at once left him, and advancing to his
+friends, he said,--
+
+"Sir Francis Varney denies in toto all that I have related to you
+concerning him; therefore, I can say no more than that I earnestly
+recommend you, before you let him go, to see that he takes nothing of
+value with him."
+
+"Why, what can you mean?" said Varney.
+
+"Search him," said the doctor; "I will tell you why, very shortly."
+
+"Indeed--indeed!" said Sir Francis Varney. "Now, gentlemen, I will give
+you a chance of behaving justly and quietly, so saving yourself the
+danger of acting otherwise. I have made repeated offers to take this
+house, either as a tenant or as a purchaser, all of which offers have
+been declined, upon, I dare say, a common enough principle, namely, one
+which induces people to enhance the value of anything they have for
+disposal, if it be unique, by making it difficult to come at. Seeing
+that you had deserted the place, I could make no doubt but that it was
+to be had, so I came here to make a thorough examination of its
+interior, to see if it would suit me. I find that it will not;
+therefore, I have only to apologise for the intrusion, and to wish you a
+remarkably good evening."
+
+"That won't do," said the doctor.
+
+"What won't do, sir?"
+
+"This excuse will not do, Sir Francis Varney. You are, although you deny
+it, the man who was hanged in London some years ago for a highway
+robbery."
+
+Varney laughed, and held up his hands, exclaiming,--
+
+"Alas! alas! our good friend, the doctor, has studied too hard; his
+wits, probably, at the best of times, none of the clearest, have become
+hopelessly entangled."
+
+"Do you deny," said Henry, "then, that you are that man?"
+
+"Most unequivocally."
+
+"I assert it," said the doctor, "and now, I will tell you all, for I
+perceive you hesitate about searching, Sir Francis Varney, I tell you
+all why it is that he has such an affection for Bannerworth Hall."
+
+"Before you do," said Varney, "there is a pill for you, which you may
+find more nauseous and harder of digestion, than any your shop can
+furnish."
+
+As Varney uttered these words, he suddenly drew from his pocket a
+pistol, and, levelling it at the unfortunate doctor, he fired it full at
+him.
+
+The act was so sudden, so utterly unexpected, and so stunning, that it
+was done before any one could move hand or foot to prevent it. Henry
+Bannerworth and his brother were the furthest off from the vampyre; and,
+unhappily, in the rush which they, as soon us possible, made towards
+him, they knocked down the admiral, who impeded them much; and, before
+they could spring over, or past him, Sir Francis Varney was gone.
+
+So sudden, too, had been his departure, that they had not the least idea
+in which direction he had gone; so that to follow him would have been a
+work of the greatest possible difficulty.
+
+Notwithstanding, however, both the difficulty and the danger, for no
+doubt the vampyre was well enough armed, Henry and his brother both
+rushed after the murderer, as they now believed him to be, in the route
+which they thought it was most probable he would take, namely, that
+which led towards the garden gate.
+
+They reached that spot in a few moments, but all was profoundly still.
+Not the least trace of any one could be seen, high or low, and they were
+compelled, after a cursory examination, to admit that Sir Francis Varney
+had again made his escape, despite the great odds that were against him
+in point of numbers.
+
+"He has gone," said Henry. "Let us go back, and see into the state of
+poor Dr. Chillingworth, who, I fear, is a dead man."
+
+They hurried back to the spot, and there they found the admiral looking
+as composed as possible, and solacing himself with a pinch of snuff, as
+he gazed upon the apparently lifeless form at his feet.
+
+"Is he dead?" said Henry.
+
+"I should say he was," replied the admiral; "such a shot as that was
+don't want to be repeated. Well, I liked the doctor with all his faults.
+He only had one foolish way with him, and that was, that he shirked his
+grog."
+
+"This is an awful catastrophe," said Henry, as he knelt down by the side
+of the body. "Assist me, some of you. Where is Charles?"
+
+"I'll be hanged," said the admiral, "if I know. He disappeared
+somewhere."
+
+"This is a night of mystery as well as terror. Alas! poor Dr.
+Chillingworth! I little thought that you would have fallen a victim to
+the man whom you preserved from death. How strange it is that you should
+have snatched from the tomb the very individual who was, eventually, to
+take your own life."
+
+The brothers gently raised the body of the doctor, and carried it on to
+the glass plot, which was close at hand.
+
+"Farewell, kind and honest-hearted Chillingworth," said Henry; "I shall,
+many and many a time, feel your loss; and now I will rest not until I
+have delivered up to justice your murderer. All consideration, or
+feeling, for what seemed to be latent virtues in that strange and
+inexplicable man, Varney, shall vanish, and he shall reap the
+consequences of the crime he has now committed."
+
+"It was a cold blooded, cowardly murder," said his brother.
+
+"It was; but you may depend the doctor was about to reveal something to
+us, which Varney so much dreaded, that he took his life as the only
+effectual way, at the moment, of stopping him."
+
+"It must be so," said Henry.
+
+"And now," said the admiral, "it's too late, and we shall not know it at
+all. That's the way. A fellow saves up what he has got to tell till it
+is too late to tell it, and down he goes to Davy Jones's locker with all
+his secrets aboard."
+
+"Not always," said Dr. Chillingworth, suddenly sitting bolt
+upright--"not always."
+
+Henry and his brother started back in amazement, and the admiral was so
+taken by surprise, that had not the resuscitated doctor suddenly
+stretched out his hand and laid hold of him by the ankle, he would have
+made a precipitate retreat.
+
+"Hilloa! murder!" he cried. "Let me go! How do I know but you may be a
+vampyre by now, as you were shot by one."
+
+Henry soonest recovered from the surprise of the moment, and with the
+most unfeigned satisfaction, he cried,--
+
+"Thank God you are unhurt, Dr. Chillingworth! Why he must have missed
+you by a miracle."
+
+"Not at all," said the doctor. "Help me up--thank you--all right. I'm
+only a little singed about the whiskers. He hit me safe enough."
+
+"Then how have you escaped?"
+
+"Why from the want of a bullet in the pistol, to be sure. I can
+understand it all well enough. He wanted to create sufficient confusion
+to cover a desperate attempt to escape, and he thought that would be
+best done by seeming so shoot me. The suddenness of the shock, and the
+full belief, at the moment, that he had sent a bullet into my brains,
+made me fall, and produced a temporary confusion of ideas, amounting to
+insensibility."
+
+"From which you are happily recovered. Thank Heaven that, after all, he
+is not such a villain as this act would have made him."
+
+"Ah!" said the admiral, "it takes people who have lived a little in
+these affairs to know the difference in sound between a firearm with a
+bullet in it, and one without. I knew it was all right."
+
+"Then why did you not say so, admiral?"
+
+"What was the use? I thought the doctor might be amused to know what you
+should say of him, so you see I didn't interfere; and, as I am not a
+good hand at galloping after anybody, I didn't try that part of the
+business, but just remained where I was."
+
+"Alas! alas!" cried the doctor, "I much fear that, by his going, I have
+lost all that I expected to be able to do for you, Henry. It's of not
+the least use now telling you or troubling you about it. You may now
+sell or let Bannerworth Hall to whomever you please, for I am afraid it
+is really worthless."
+
+"What on earth do you mean?" said Henry. "Why, doctor, will you keep up
+this mystery among us? If you have anything to say, why not say it at
+once?"
+
+"Because, I tell you it's of no use now. The game is up, Sir Francis
+Varney has escaped; but still I don't know that I need exactly
+hesitate."
+
+"There can be no reason for your hesitating about making a communication
+to us," said Henry. "It is unfriendly not to do so."
+
+"My dear boy, you will excuse me for saying that you don't know what you
+are talking about."
+
+"Can you give any reason?"
+
+"Yes; respect for the living. I should have to relate something of the
+dead which would be hurtful to their feelings."
+
+Henry was silent for a few moments, and then he said,--
+
+"What dead? And who are the living?"
+
+"Another time," whispered the doctor to him; "another time, Henry. Do
+not press me now. But you shall know all another time."
+
+"I must be content. But now let us remember that another man yet lingers
+in Bannerworth Hall. I will endure suspense on his account no longer. He
+is an intruder there; so I go at once to dislodge him."
+
+No one made any opposition to this move, not even the doctor; so Henry
+preceded them all to the house. They passed through the open window into
+the long hall, and from thence into every apartment of the mansion,
+without finding the object of their search. But from one of the windows
+up to which there grew great masses of ivy, there hung a rope, by which
+any one might easily have let himself down; and no doubt, therefore,
+existed in all their minds that the hangman had sufficiently profited by
+the confusion incidental to the supposed shooting of the doctor, to make
+good his escape from the place.
+
+"And so, after all," said Henry, "we are completely foiled?"
+
+"We may be," said Dr. Chillingworth; "but it is, perhaps, going too far
+to say that we actually are. One thing, however, is quite clear; and
+that is, no good can be done here."
+
+"Then let us go home," said the admiral. "I did not think from the first
+that any good would be done here."
+
+They all left the garden together now; so that almost for the first
+time, Bannerworth Hall was left to itself, unguarded and unwatched by
+any one whatever. It was with an evident and a marked melancholy that
+the doctor proceeded with the party to the cottage-house of the
+Bannerworths; but, as after what he had said, Henry forbore to question
+him further upon those subjects which he admitted he was keeping secret;
+and as none of the party were much in a cue for general conversation,
+the whole of them walked on with more silence than usually characterised
+them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXII.
+
+CHARLES HOLLAND'S PURSUIT OF THE VAMPYRE.--THE DANGEROUS INTERVIEW.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It will be recollected that the admiral had made a remark about Charles
+Holland having suddenly disappeared; and it is for us now to account for
+that disappearance and to follow him to the pathway he had chosen.
+
+The fact was, that he, when Varney fired the shot at the doctor, or what
+was the supposed shot, was the farthest from the vampyre; and he, on
+that very account, had the clearest and best opportunity of marking
+which route he took when he had discharged the pistol.
+
+He was not confused by the smoke, as the others were; nor was he stunned
+by the noise of the discharge; but he distinctly saw Varney dart across
+one of the garden beds, and make for the summer-house, instead of for
+the garden gate, as Henry had supposed was the most probable path he had
+chosen.
+
+Now, Charles Holland either had an inclination, for some reasons of his
+own, to follow the vampyre alone; or, on the spur of the moment, he had
+not time to give an alarm to the others; but certain it is that he did,
+unaided, rush after him. He saw him enter the summer-house, and pass out
+of it again at the back portion of it, as he had once before done, when
+surprised in his interview with Flora.
+
+But the vampyre did not now, as he had done on the former occasion, hide
+immediately behind the summer-house. He seemed to be well aware that
+that expedient would not answer twice; so he at once sped onwards,
+clearing the garden fence, and taking to the meadows.
+
+It formed evidently no part of the intentions of Charles Holland to come
+up with him. He was resolved upon dogging his footsteps, to know where
+he should go; so that he might have a knowledge of his hiding-place, if
+he had one.
+
+"I must and will," said Charles to himself, "penetrate the mystery that
+hangs about this most strange and inexplicable being. I will have an
+interview with him, not in hostility, for I forgive him the evil he has
+done me, but with a kindly spirit; and I will ask him to confide in me."
+
+Charles, therefore, did not keep so close upon the heels of the vampyre
+as to excite any suspicions of his intention to follow him; but he
+waited by the garden paling long enough not only for Varney to get some
+distance off, but long enough likewise to know that the pistol which had
+been fired at the doctor had produced no real bad effects, except
+singing some curious tufts of hair upon the sides of his face, which the
+doctor was pleased to call whiskers.
+
+"I thought as much," was Charles's exclamation when he heard the
+doctor's voice. "It would have been strikingly at variance with all
+Varney's other conduct, if he had committed such a deliberate and
+heartless murder."
+
+Then, as the form of the vampyre could be but dimly seen, Charles ran on
+for some distance in the direction he had taken, and then paused again;
+so that if Varney heard the sound of footsteps, and paused to listen
+they had ceased again probably, and nothing was discernible.
+
+In this manner he followed the mysterious individual, if we may really
+call him such, for above a mile; and then Varney made a rapid detour,
+and took his way towards the town.
+
+He went onwards with wonderful precision now in a right line, not
+stopping at any obstruction, in the way of fences, hedges, or ditches,
+so that it took Charles some exertion, to which, just then, he was
+scarcely equal, to keep up with him.
+
+At length the outskirts of the town were gained, and then Varney paused,
+and looked around him, scarcely allowing Charles, who was now closer to
+him than he had been, time to hide himself from observation, which,
+however, he did accomplish, by casting himself suddenly upon the ground,
+so that he could not be detected against the sky, which then formed a
+back ground to the spot where he was.
+
+Apparently satisfied that he had completely now eluded the pursuit, if
+any had been attempted, of those whom he had led in such a state of
+confusion, the vampyre walked hastily towards a house that was to let,
+and which was only to be reached by going up an avenue of trees, and
+then unlocking a gate in a wall which bounded the premises next to the
+avenue. But the vampyre appeared to be possessed of every facility for
+effecting an entrance to the place and, producing from his pocket a key,
+he at once opened the gate, and disappeared within the precincts of
+those premises.
+
+He, no doubt, felt that he was hunted by the mob of the town, and hence
+his frequent change of residence, since his own had been burnt down,
+and, indeed, situated as he was, there can be no manner of doubt that he
+would have been sacrificed to the superstitious fury of the populace, if
+they could but have got hold of him.
+
+He had, from his knowledge, which was no doubt accurate and complete, of
+what had been done, a good idea of what his own fate would be, were he
+to fall into the hands of that ferocious multitude, each individual
+composing which, felt a conviction that there would be no peace, nor
+hope of prosperity or happiness, on the place, until he, the arch
+vampyre of all the supposed vampyres, was destroyed.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Charles did pause for a few moments, after having thus become roused, to
+consider whether he should then attempt to have the interview he had
+resolved upon having by some means or another, or defer it, now that he
+knew where Varney was to be found, until another time.
+
+But when he came to consider how extremely likely it was that, even in
+the course of a few hours, Varney might shift his abode for some good
+and substantial reasons, he at once determined upon attempting to see
+him.
+
+But how to accomplish such a purpose was not the easiest question in the
+world to answer. If he rung the bell that presented itself above the
+garden gate, was it at all likely that Varney, who had come there for
+concealment, would pay any attention to the summons?
+
+After some consideration, he did, however, think of a plan by which, at
+all events, he could ensure effecting an entrance into the premises, and
+then he would take his chance of finding the mysterious being whom he
+sought, and who probably might have no particular objection to meeting
+with him, Charles Holland, because their last interview in the ruins
+could not be said to be otherwise than of a peaceable and calm enough
+character.
+
+He saw by the board, which was nailed in the front of the house, that
+all applications to see it were to be made to a Mr. Nash, residing close
+at hand; and, as Charles had the appearance of a respectable person, he
+thought he might possibly have the key entrusted to him, ostensibly to
+look at the house, preparatory possibly to taking it, and so he should,
+at all events, obtain admission.
+
+He, accordingly, went at once to this Mr. Nash, and asked about the
+house; of course he had to affect an interest in its rental and
+accommodations, which he did not feel, in order to lull any suspicion,
+and, finally, he said,--
+
+"I should like to look over it if you will lend me the key, which I will
+shortly bring back to you."
+
+There was an evident hesitation about the agent when this proposal was
+communicated by Charles Holland, and he said,--
+
+"I dare say, sir, you wonder that I don't say yes, at once; but the fact
+is there came a gentleman here one day when I was out, and got a key,
+for we have two to open the house, from my wife, and he never came back
+again."
+
+That this was the means by which Varney, the vampyre, had obtained the
+key, by the aid of which Charles had seen him effect so immediate an
+entrance to the house, there could be no doubt.
+
+"How long ago were you served that trick?" he said.
+
+"About two days ago, sir."
+
+"Well, it only shows how, when one person acts wrongly, another is at
+once suspected of a capability to do so likewise. There is my name and
+my address; I should like rather to go alone to see the house, because I
+always fancy I can judge better by myself of the accommodation, and I
+can stay as long as I like, and ascertain the sizes of all the rooms
+without the disagreeable feeling upon my mind, which no amount of
+complaisance on your part, could ever get me over, that I was most
+unaccountably detaining somebody from more important business of their
+own."
+
+"Oh, I assure you, sir," said Mr. Nash, "that I should not be at all
+impatient. But if you would rather go alone--"
+
+"Indeed I would."
+
+"Oh, then, sir, there is the key. A gentleman who leaves his name and
+address, of course, we can have no objection to. I only told you of what
+happened, sir, in the mere way of conversation, and I hope you won't
+imagine for a moment that I meant to insinuate that you were going to
+keep the key."
+
+"Oh, certainly not--certainly not," said Charles, who was only too glad
+to get the key upon any terms. "You are quite right, and I beg you will
+say no more about it; I quite understand."
+
+He then walked off to the empty house again, and, proceeding to the
+avenue, he fitted the key to the lock, and had the satisfaction of
+finding the gate instantly yield to him.
+
+When he passed through it, and closed the door after him, which he did
+carefully, he found himself in a handsomely laid-out garden, and saw the
+house a short distance in front of him, standing upon a well got-up
+lawn.
+
+He cared not if Varney should see him before he reached the house,
+because the fact was sufficiently evident to himself that after all he
+could not actually enforce an interview with the vampyre. He only hoped
+that as he had found him out it would be conceded to him.
+
+He, therefore, walked up the lawn without making the least attempt at
+concealment, and when he reached the house he allowed his footsteps to
+make what noise they would upon the stone steps which led up to it. But
+no one appeared; nor was there, either by sight or by sound, any
+indication of the presence of any living being in the place besides
+himself.
+
+Insensibly, as he contemplated the deserted place around him, the solemn
+sort of stillness began to have its effect upon his imagination, and,
+without being aware that he did so, he had, with softness and caution,
+glided onwards, as if he were bent on some errand requiring the utmost
+amount of caution and discrimination in the conduction of it.
+
+And so he entered the hall of the house, where he stood some time, and
+listened with the greatest attention, without, however, being able to
+hear the least sound throughout the whole of the house.
+
+"And yet he must be here," thought Charles to himself; "I was not gone
+many minutes, and it is extremely unlikely that in so short a space of
+time he has left, after taking so much trouble, by making such a detour
+around the meadows to get here, without being observed. I will examine
+every room in the place, but I will find him."
+
+Charles immediately commenced going from room to room of that house in
+his search for the vampyre. There were but four apartments upon the
+ground floor, and these, of course, he quickly ran through. Nothing
+whatever at all indicative of any one having been there met his gaze,
+and with a feeling of disappointment creeping over him, he commenced the
+ascent of the staircase.
+
+The day had now fairly commenced, so that there was abundance of light,
+although, even for the country, it was an early hour, and probably Mr.
+Nash had been not a little surprised to have a call from one whose
+appearance bespoke no necessity for rising with the lark at such an
+hour.
+
+All these considerations, however, sank into insignificance in Charles's
+mind, compared with the object he had in view, namely, the unravelling
+the many mysteries that hung around that man. He ascended to the landing
+of the first story, and then, as he could have no choice, he opened the
+first door that his eyes fell upon, and entered a tolerably large
+apartment. It was quite destitute of furniture, and at the moment
+Charles was about to pronounce it empty; but then his eyes fell upon a
+large black-looking bundle of something, that seemed to be lying jammed
+up under the window on the floor--that being the place of all others in
+the room which was enveloped in the most shadow.
+
+He started back involuntarily at the moment, for the appearance was one
+so shapeless, that there was no such thing as defining, from even that
+distance, what it really was.
+
+Then he slowly and cautiously approached it, as we always approach that
+of the character of which we are ignorant, and concerning the powers of
+which to do injury we can consequently have no defined idea.
+
+That it was a human form there, was the first tangible opinion he had
+about it; and from its profound stillness, and the manner in which it
+seemed to be laid close under the window, he thought that he was surely
+upon the point of finding out that some deed of blood had been
+committed, the unfortunate victim of which was now lying before him.
+
+Upon a nearer examination, he found that the whole body, including the
+greater part of the head and face, was wrapped in a large cloak; and
+there, as he gazed, he soon found cause to correct his first opinion at
+to the form belonging to the dead, for he could distinctly hear the
+regular breathing, as of some one in a sound and dreamless sleep.
+
+Closer he went, and closer still. Then, as he clasped his hands, he
+said, in a voice scarcely above a whisper,--
+
+"It is--it is the vampyre."
+
+Yes, there could be no doubt of the fact. It was Sir Francis Varney who
+lay there, enveloped in the huge horseman's cloak, in which, on two or
+three occasions during the progress of this narrative, he had figured.
+There he lay, at the mercy completely of any arm that might be raised
+against him, apparently so overcome by fatigue that no ordinary noise
+would have awakened him.
+
+Well might Charles Holland gaze at him with mingled feelings. There lay
+the being who had done almost enough to drive the beautiful Flora
+Bannerworth distracted--the being who had compelled the Bannerworth
+family to leave their ancient house, to which they had been bound by
+every description of association. The same mysterious existence, too,
+who, the better to carry on his plots and plans, had, by dint of
+violence, immured him, Charles, in a dungeon, and loaded him with
+chains. There he lay sleeping, and at his mercy.
+
+"Shall I awaken him," said Charles, "or let him sleep off the fatigue,
+which, no doubt, is weighing down his limbs, and setting heavily on his
+eyelids. No, my business with him is too urgent."
+
+He then raised his voice, and cried,--
+
+"Varney, Varney, awake!"
+
+The sound disturbed, without altogether breaking up, the deep slumber of
+the vampyre, and he uttered a low moan, and moved one hand restlessly.
+Then, as if that disturbance of the calm and deep repose which had sat
+upon him, had given at once the reins to fancy, he begin to mutter
+strange words in his sleep, some of which could be heard by Charles
+distinctly, while others were too incoherently uttered to be clearly
+understood.
+
+"Where is it?" he said; "where--where hidden?--Pull the house
+down!--Murder! No, no, no! no murder!--I will not, I dare not. Blood
+enough is upon my hands.--The money!--the money! Down, villains! down!
+down! down!"
+
+What these incoherent words alluded to specifically, Charles, of course,
+could not have the least idea, but he listened attentively, with a hope
+that something might fall from his lips that would afford a key to some
+of the mysterious circumstances with which he was so intimately
+connected.
+
+Now, however, there was a longer silence than before, only broken
+occasionally by low moans; but suddenly, as Charles was thinking of
+again speaking, he uttered some more disjointed sentences.
+
+"No harm," he said, "no harm,--Marchdale is a villain!--Not a hair of
+his head injured--no, no. Set him free--yes, I will set him free.
+Beware! beware, Marchdale! and you Mortimer. The scaffold! ay, the
+scaffold! but where is the bright gold? The memory of the deed of blood
+will not cling to it. Where is it hidden? The gold! the gold! the gold!
+It is not in the grave--it cannot be there--no, no, no!--not there, not
+there! Load the pistols. There, there! Down, villain, down!--down,
+down!"
+
+Despairing, now, of obtaining anything like tangible information from
+these ravings, which, even if they did, by accident, so connect
+themselves together as to seem to mean something, Charles again cried
+aloud,--
+
+"Varney, awake, awake!"
+
+But, as before, the sleeping man was sufficiently deaf to the cry to
+remain, with his eyes closed, still in a disturbed slumber, but yet a
+slumber which might last for a considerable time.
+
+"I have heard," said Charles, "that there are many persons whom no noise
+will awaken, while the slightest touch rouses them in an instant. I will
+try that upon this slumbering being."
+
+As he spoke, he advanced close to Sir Francis Varney, and touched him
+slightly with the toe of his boot.
+
+The effect was as startling as it was instantaneous. The vampyre sprang
+to his feet, as he had been suddenly impelled up by some powerful
+machinery; and, casting his cloak away from his arms, so as to have them
+at liberty, he sprang upon Charles Holland, and hurled him to the
+ground, where he held him with a giant's gripe, as he cried,--
+
+"Rash fool! be you whom you may. Why have you troubled me to rid the
+world of your intrusive existence?"
+
+The attack was so sudden and so terrific, that resistance to it, even if
+Charles had had the power, was out of the question. All he could say,
+was,--
+
+"Varney, Varney! do you not know me? I am Charles Holland. Will you now,
+in your mad rage, take the life you might more easily have taken when I
+lay in the dungeon from which you released me?"
+
+The sound of his voice at once convinced Sir Francis Varney of his
+identity; and it was with a voice that had some tones of regret in it,
+that he replied,--
+
+"And wherefore have you thought proper, when you were once free and
+unscathed, to cast yourself into such a position of danger as to follow
+me to my haunt?"
+
+"I contemplated no danger," said Charles, "because I contemplated no
+evil. I do not know why you should kill me."
+
+"You came here, and yet you say you do not know why I should kill you.
+Young man, have you a dozen lives that you can afford to tamper with
+them thus? I have, at much chance of imminence to myself, already once
+saved you, when another, with a sterner feeling, would have gladly taken
+your life; but now, as if you were determined to goad me to an act which
+I have shunned committing, you will not let me close my eyes in peace."
+
+"Take your hand from off my throat, Varney, and I will then tell you
+what brought me here."
+
+Sir Francis Varney did so.
+
+"Rise," he said--"rise; I have seen blood enough to be sickened at the
+prospect of more; but you should not have come here and tempted me."
+
+"Nay, believe me, I came here for good and not for evil. Sir Francis
+Varney, hear me out, and then judge for yourself whether you can blame
+the perseverance which enabled me to find out this secret place of
+refuge; but let me first say that now it is as good a place of
+concealment to you as before it was, for I shall not betray you."
+
+"Go on, go on. What is it you desire?"
+
+"During the long and weary hours of my captivity, I thought deeply, and
+painfully too, as may be well imagined, of all the circumstances
+connected with your appearance at Bannerworth Hall, and your subsequent
+conduct. Then I felt convinced that there was something far more than
+met the eye, in the whole affair, and, from what I have been informed of
+since, I am the more convinced that some secret, some mystery, which it
+is in your power only perhaps to explain, lurks at the bottom of all
+your conduct."
+
+"Well, proceed," said Varney.
+
+"Have I not said enough now to enable you to divine the object of my
+visit? It is that you should shake off the trammels of mystery in which
+you have shrouded yourself, and declare what it is you want, what it is
+you desire, that has induced you to set yourself up as such a determined
+foe of the Bannerworth family."
+
+"And that, you say, is the modest request that brings you here?"
+
+"You speak as if you thought it was idle curiosity that prompts me, but
+you know it is not. Your language and manner are those of a man of too
+much sagacity not to see that I have higher notions."
+
+"Name them."
+
+"You have yourself, in more than one instance, behaved with a strange
+sort of romantic generosity, as if, but for some great object which you
+felt impelled to seek by any means, and at any sacrifice, you would be a
+something in character and conduct very different from what you are. One
+of my objects, then, is to awaken that better nature which is slumbering
+within you, only now and then rousing itself to do some deed which
+should be the character of all your actions--for your own sake I have
+come."
+
+"But not wholly?"
+
+"Not wholly, as you say. There is another than whom, the whole world is
+not so dear to me. That other one was serene as she was beautiful.
+Happiness danced in her eyes, and she ought--for not more lovely is the
+mind that she possesses than the glorious form that enshrines it--to be
+happy. Her life should have passed like one long summer's day of beauty,
+sunshine, and pure heavenly enjoyment. You have poisoned the cup of joy
+that the great God of nature had permitted her to place to her lips and
+taste of mistrustingly. Why have you done this? I ask you--why have you
+done this?"
+
+"Have you said all that you came to say?"
+
+"I have spoken the substance of my message. Much could I elaborate upon
+such a theme; but it is not one, Varney, which is congenial to my heart;
+for your sake, however, and for the sakes of those whom I hold most
+dear, let me implore you to act in this matter with a kindly
+consideration. Proclaim your motives; you cannot say that they are not
+such as we may aid you in."
+
+Varney was silent for several moments; he seemed perceptibly moved by
+the manner of the young man, as well as by the matter of his discourse.
+In fact, one would suppose that Charles Holland had succeeded in
+investing what he said with some sort of charm that won much upon the
+fancy of Sir Francis Varney, for when he ceased to speak, the latter
+said in a low voice,--
+
+"Go on, go on; you have surely much more to say."
+
+"No, Varney; I have said enough, and not thus much would I have said had
+I not been aware, most certainly and truly aware, without the shadow of
+a doubt, by your manner, that you were most accessible to human
+feeling."
+
+"I accessible to human feeling! know you to whom you speak? Am I not he
+before whom all men shudder, whose name has been a terror and a
+desolation; and yet you can talk of my human feelings. Nay, if I had had
+any, be sure they would have been extinguished by the persecutions I
+have endured from those who, you know, with savage ferocity have sought
+my life."
+
+"No, Varney; I give you credit for being a subtler reasoner than thus to
+argue; you know well that you were the aggressor to those parties who
+sought your life; you know well that with the greatest imaginable pains
+you held yourself up to them as a thing of great terror."
+
+"I did--I did."
+
+"You cannot, then, turn round upon ignorant persons, and blame them
+because your exertions to make yourself seem what you wish were but too
+successful."
+
+"You use the word _seem_," said Varney, with a bitterness of aspect, "as
+if you would imply a doubt that I am that which thousands, by their
+fears, would testify me to be."
+
+"Thousands might," said Charles Holland; "but not among them am I,
+Varney; I will not be made the victim of superstition. Were you to enact
+before my very eyes some of those feats which, to the senses of others,
+would stamp you as the preternatural being you assume to be, I would
+doubt the evidence of my own senses ere I permitted such a bugbear to
+oppress my brain."
+
+"Go," said Sir Francis Varney, "go: I have no more words for you; I have
+nothing to relate to you."
+
+"Nay, you have already listened sufficiently to me to give me a hope
+that I had awakened some of the humanity that was in your nature. Do
+not, Sir Francis Varney, crush that hope, even as it was budding forth;
+not for my own sake do I ask you for revelations; that may,
+perhaps--must be painful for you; but for the sake of Flora Bannerworth,
+to whom you owe abundance of reparation."
+
+"No, no."
+
+"In the name of all that is great, and good, and just, I call upon you
+for justice."
+
+"What have I to do with such an invocation? Utter such a sentiment to
+men who, like yourself, are invested with the reality as well as the
+outward show of human nature."
+
+"Nay, Sir Francis Varney, now you belie yourself. You have passed
+through a long, and, perchance, a stormy life. Can you look back upon
+your career, and find no reminiscences of the past that shall convince
+you that you are of the great family of man, and have had abundance of
+human feelings and of human affections?"
+
+"Peace, peace!"
+
+"Nay, Sir Francis Varney, I will take your word, and if you will lay
+your hand upon your heart, and tell me truly that you never felt what it
+was to love--to have all feeling, all taste, and all hope of future joy,
+concentrated in one individual, I will despair, and leave you. If you
+will tell me that never, in your whole life, you have felt for any fair
+and glorious creature, as I now feel for Flora Bannerworth, a being for
+whom you could have sacrificed not only existence, but all the hopes of
+a glorious future that bloom around it--if you will tell me, with the
+calm, dispassionate aspect of truth, that you have held yourself aloof
+from such human feelings, I will no longer press you to a disclosure
+which I shall bring no argument to urge."
+
+The agitation of Sir Francis Varney's countenance was perceptible, and
+Charles Holland was about to speak again, when, striking him upon the
+breast with his clinched hand, the vampyre checked him, saying--
+
+"Do you wish to drive me mad, that you thus, from memory's hidden cells,
+conjure up images of the past?"
+
+"Then there are such images to conjure up--there are such shadows only
+sleeping, but which require only, as you did even now, but a touch to
+awaken them to life and energy. Oh, Sir Francis Varney, do not tell me
+that you are not human."
+
+The vampyre made a furious gesture, as if he would have attacked Charles
+Holland; but then he sank nearly to the floor, as if soul-stricken by
+some recollection that unnerved his arm; he shook with unwonted emotion,
+and, from the frightful livid aspect of his countenance, Charles dreaded
+some serious accession of indisposition, which might, if nothing else
+did, prevent him from making the revelation he so much sought to hear
+from his lips.
+
+"Varney," he cried, "Varney, be calm! you will be listened to by one who
+will draw no harsh--no hasty conclusions; by one, who, with that
+charity, I grieve to say, is rare, will place upon the words you utter
+the most favourable construction. Tell me all, I pray you, tell me all."
+
+"This is strange," said the vampyre. "I never thought that aught human
+could thus have moved me. Young man, you have touched the chords of
+memory; they vibrate throughout my heart, producing cadences and sounds
+of years long past. Bear with me awhile."
+
+"And you will speak to me?"
+
+"I will."
+
+"Having your promise, then, I am content, Varney."
+
+"But you must be secret; not even in the wildest waste of nature, where
+you can well presume that naught but Heaven can listen to your
+whisperings, must you utter one word of that which I shall tell to you."
+
+"Alas!" said Charles, "I dare not take such a confidence; I have said
+that it is not for myself; I seek such knowledge of what you are, and
+what you have been, but it is for another so dear to me, that all the
+charms of life that make up other men's delights, equal not the witchery
+of one glance from her, speaking as it does of the glorious light from
+that Heaven which is eternal, from whence she sprung."
+
+"And you reject my communication," said Varney, "because I will not give
+you leave to expose it to Flora Bannerworth?"
+
+"It must be so."
+
+"And you are most anxious to hear that which I have to relate?"
+
+"Most anxious, indeed--indeed, most anxious."
+
+"Then have I found in that scruple which besets your mind, a better
+argument for trusting you, than had ye been loud in protestation. Had
+your promises of secrecy been but those which come from the lip, and not
+from the heart, my confidence would not have been rejected on such
+grounds. I think that I dare trust you."
+
+"With leave to tell to Flora that which you shall communicate."
+
+"You may whisper it to her, but to no one else, without my special leave
+and licence."
+
+"I agree to those terms, and will religiously preserve them."
+
+"I do not doubt you for one moment; and now I will tell to you what
+never yet has passed my lips to mortal man. Now will I connect together
+some matters which you may have heard piecemeal from others."
+
+"What others are they?"
+
+"Dr. Chillingworth, and he who once officiated as a London hangman."
+
+"I have heard something from those quarters."
+
+"Listen then to me, and you shall better understand that which you have
+heard. Some years ago, it matters not the number, on a stormy night,
+towards the autumn of the year, two men sat alone in poverty, and that
+species of distress which beset the haughty, profligate, daring man, who
+has been accustomed all his life to its most enticing enjoyments, but
+never to that industry which alone ought to produce them, and render
+them great and magnificent."
+
+"Two men; and who were they?"
+
+"I was one. Look upon me! I was of those men; and strong and evil
+passions were battling in my heart."
+
+"And the other!"
+
+"Was Marmaduke Bannerworth."
+
+"Gracious Heaven! the father of her whom I adore; the suicide."
+
+"Yes, the same; that man stained with a thousand vices--blasted by a
+thousand crimes--the father of her who partakes nothing of his nature,
+who borrows nothing from his memory but his name--was the man who there
+sat with me, plotting and contriving how, by fraud or violence, we were
+to lead our usual life of revelry and wild audacious debauch."
+
+"Go on, go on; believe me, I am deeply interested."
+
+"I can see as much. We were not nice in the various schemes which our
+prolific fancies engendered. If trickery, and the false dice at the
+gaming-table, sufficed not to fill our purses, we were bold enough for
+violence. If simple robbery would not succeed, we could take a life."
+
+"Murder?"
+
+"Ay, call it by its proper name, a murder. We sat till the midnight hour
+had passed, without arriving at a definite conclusion; we saw no plan of
+practicable operation, and so we wandered onwards to one of those deep
+dens of iniquity, a gaming-house, wherein we had won and lost thousands.
+
+"We had no money, but we staked largely, in the shape of a wager, upon
+the success of one of the players; we knew not, or cared not, for the
+consequence, if we had lost; but, as it happened, we were largely
+successful, and beggars as we had walked into that place, we might have
+left it independent men.
+
+"But when does the gambler know when to pause in his career? If defeat
+awakens all the raging passions of humanity within his bosom, success
+but feeds the great vice that has been there engendered. To the dawn of
+morn we played; the bright sun shone in, and yet we played--the midday
+came, and went--the stimulant of wine supported us, and still we played;
+then came the shadows of evening, stealing on in all their beauty. But
+what were they to us, amid those mutations of fortune, which, at one
+moment, made us princes, and placed palaces at our control, and, at
+another, debased us below the veriest beggar, that craves the stinted
+alms of charity from door to door.
+
+"And there was one man who, from the first to the last, stayed by us
+like a very fiend; more than man, I thought he was not human. We won of
+all, but of him. People came and brought their bright red gold, and laid
+it down before us, but for us to take it up, and then, by a cruel stroke
+of fortune, he took it from us.
+
+"The night came on; we won, and he won of us; the clock struck
+twelve--we were beggars. God knows what was he.
+
+"We saw him place his winnings about his person--we saw the smile that
+curved the corners of his lips; he was calm, and we were maddened. The
+blood flowed temperately through his veins, but in ours it was burning
+lava, scorching as it went through every petty artery, and drying up all
+human thought--all human feeling.
+
+"The winner left, and we tracked his footsteps. When he reached the open
+air, although he had taken much less than we of the intoxicating
+beverages that are supplied gratis to those who frequent those haunts of
+infamy, it was evident that some sort of inebriation attacked him; his
+steps were disordered and unsteady, and, as we followed him, we could
+perceive, by the devious track that he took, that he was somewhat
+uncertain of his route.
+
+"We had no fixed motive in so pursuing this man. It was but an impulsive
+proceeding at the best; but as he still went on and cleared the streets,
+getting into the wild and open country, and among the hedge-rows, we
+began to whisper together, and to think that what we did not owe to
+fortune, we might to our own energy and courage at such a moment.
+
+"I need not hesitate to say so, since, to hide the most important
+feature of my revelation from you, would be but to mock you; we resolved
+upon robbing him.
+
+"And was that all?"
+
+"It was all that our resolution went to. We were not anxious to spill
+blood; but still we were resolved that we would accomplish our purpose,
+even if it required murder for its consummation. Have you heard enough?"
+
+"I have not heard enough, although I guess the rest."
+
+"You may well guess it, from its preface. He turned down a lonely
+pathway, which, had we chosen it ourselves, could not have been more
+suitable for the attack we meditated.
+
+"There were tall trees on either side, and a hedge-row stretching high
+up between them. We knew that that lane led to a suburban village,
+which, without a doubt, was the object of his destination.
+
+"Then Marmaduke Bannerworth spoke, saying,--
+
+"'What we have to do, must be done now or never. There needs not two in
+this adventure. Shall you or I require him to refund what he has won
+from us?'
+
+"'I care not,' I said; 'but if we are to accomplish our purpose without
+arousing even a shadow of resistance, it is better to show him its
+futility by both appearing, and take a share in the adventure.'
+
+"This was agreed upon, and we hastened forward. He heard footsteps
+pursuing him and quickened his pace. I was the fleetest runner, and
+overtook him. I passed him a pace or two, and then turning, I faced him,
+and impeded his progress.
+
+"The lane was narrow, and a glance behind him showed him Marmaduke
+Bannerworth; so that he was hemmed in between two enemies, and could
+move neither to the right nor to the left, on account of the thick
+brushwood that intervened between the trees.
+
+"Then, with an assumed courage, that sat but ill upon him, he demanded
+of us what we wanted, and proclaimed his right to pass despite the
+obstruction we placed in his way.
+
+"The dialogue was brief. I, being foremost, spoke to him.
+
+"'Your money,' I said; 'your winnings at the gaming-table. We cannot,
+and we will not lose it.'
+
+"So suddenly, that he had nearly taken my life, he drew a pistol from
+his pocket, and levelling it at my head, he fired upon me.
+
+"Perhaps, had I moved, it might have been my death; but, as it was, the
+bullet furrowed my cheek, leaving a scar, the path of which is yet
+visible in a white cicatrix.
+
+"I felt a stunning sensation, and thought myself a dead man. I cried
+aloud to Marmaduke Bannerworth, and he rushed forward. I knew not that
+he was armed, and that he had the power about him to do the deed which
+he then accomplished; but there was a groan, a slight struggle, and the
+successful gamester fell upon the green sward, bathed in his blood."
+
+"And this is the father of her whom I adore?"
+
+"It is. Are you shocked to think of such a neat relationship between so
+much beauty and intelligence and a midnight murderer? Is your philosophy
+so poor, that the daughter's beauty suffers from the commission of a
+father's crime?"
+
+"No, no, It is not so. Do not fancy that, for one moment, I can
+entertain such unworthy opinions. The thought that crossed me was that I
+should have to tell one of such a gentle nature that her father had done
+such a deed."
+
+"On that head you can use your own discretion. The deed was done; there
+was sufficient light for us to look upon the features of the dying man.
+Ghastly and terrific they glared upon us; while the glazed eyes, as they
+were upturned to the bright sky, seemed appealing to Heaven for
+vengeance against us, for having done the deed.
+
+"Many a day and many an hour since at all times and all seasons, I have
+seen those eyes, with the glaze of death upon them, following me, and
+gloating over the misery they had the power to make. I think I see them
+now."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes; look--look--see how they glare upon me--with what a fixed and
+frightful stare the bloodshot pupils keep their place--there, there! oh!
+save me from such a visitation again. It is too horrible. I dare not--I
+cannot endure it; and yet why do you gaze at me with such an aspect,
+dread visitant? You know that it was not my hand that did the deed--who
+laid you low. You know that not to me are you able to lay the heavy
+charge of your death!"
+
+"Varney, you look upon vacancy," said Charles Holland.
+
+"No, no; vacancy it may be to you, but to me 'tis full of horrible
+shapes."
+
+"Compose yourself; you have taken me far into your confidence already; I
+pray you now to tell me all. I have in my brain no room for horrible
+conjectures such as those which might else torment me."
+
+Varney was silent for a few minutes, and then he wiped from his brow the
+heavy drops of perspiration that had there gathered, and heaved a deep
+sigh.
+
+"Speak to me," added Charles; "nothing will so much relieve you from the
+terrors of this remembrance as making a confidence which reflection will
+approve of, and which you will know that you have no reason to repent."
+
+"Charles Holland," said Varney, "I have already gone too far to
+retract--much too far, I know, and can well understand all the danger of
+half confidence. You already know so much, that it is fit you should
+know more."
+
+"Go on then, Varney, I will listen to you."
+
+"I know not if, at this juncture, I can command myself to say more. I
+feel that what next has to be told will be most horrible for me to
+tell--most sad for you to hear told."
+
+"I can well believe, Varney, from your manner of speech, and from the
+words you use, that you have some secret to relate beyond this simple
+fact of the murder of this gamester by Marmaduke Bannerworth."
+
+"You are right--such is the fact; the death of that man could not have
+moved me as you now see me moved. There is a secret connected with his
+fate which I may well hesitate to utter--a secret even to whisper to the
+winds of heaven--I--although I did not do the deed, no, no--I--I did not
+strike the blow--not I--not I!"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Varney, it is astonishing to me the pains you take to assure yourself
+of your innocence of this deed; no one accuses you, but still, were it
+not that I am impressed with a strong conviction that you're speaking to
+me nothing but the truth, the very fact of your extreme anxiety to
+acquit yourself, would engender suspicion."
+
+"I can understand that feeling, Charles Holland; I can fully understand
+it. I do not blame you for it--it is a most natural one; but when you
+know all, you will feel with me how necessary it must have been to my
+peace to seize upon every trivial circumstance that can help me to a
+belief in my own innocence."
+
+"It may be so; as yet, you well know, I speak in ignorance. But what
+could there have been in the character of that gambler, that has made
+you so sympathetic concerning his decease?"
+
+"Nothing--nothing whatever in his character. He was a bad man; not one
+of those free, open spirits which are seduced into crime by
+thoughtlessness--not one of those whom we pity, perchance, more than we
+condemn; but a man without a redeeming trait in his disposition--a man
+so heaped up with vices and iniquities, that society gained much by his
+decease, and not an individual could say that he had lost a friend."
+
+"And yet the mere thought of the circumstances connected with his death
+seems almost to drive you to the verge of despair."
+
+"You are right; the mere thought has that effect."
+
+"You have aroused all my curiosity to know the causes of such a
+feeling."
+
+Varney paced the apartment in silence for many minutes. He seemed to be
+enduring a great mental struggle, and at length, when he turned to
+Charles Holland and spoke, there were upon his countenance traces of
+deep emotion.
+
+"I have said, young man, that I will take you into my confidence. I have
+said that I will clear up many seeming mysteries, and that I will enable
+you to understand what was obscure in the narrative of Dr.
+Chillingworth, and of that man who filled the office of public
+executioner, and who has haunted me so long."
+
+"It is true, then, as the doctor states, that you were executed in
+London?"
+
+"I was."
+
+"And resuscitated by the galvanic process, put into operation by Dr.
+Chillingworth?"
+
+"As he supposed; but there are truths connected with natural philosophy
+which he dreamed not of. I bear a charmed life, and it was but accident
+which produced a similar effect upon the latent springs of my existence
+in the house to which the executioner conducted me, to what would have
+been produced had I been sufficed, in the free and open air, to wait
+until the cool moonbeams fell upon me."
+
+"Varney, Varney," said Charles Holland, "you will not succeed in
+convincing me of your supernatural powers. I hold such feelings and
+sensations at arm's length. I will not--I cannot assume you to be what
+you affect."
+
+"I ask for no man's belief. I know that which I know, and, gathering
+experience from the coincidences of different phenomena, I am compelled
+to arrive at certain conclusions. Believe what you please, doubt what
+you please; but I say again that I am not as other men."
+
+"I am in no condition to depute your proposition; I wish not to dispute
+it; but you are wandering, Varney, from the point. I wait anxiously for
+a continuation of your narrative."
+
+"I know that I am wandering from it--I know well that I am wandering
+from it, and that the reason I do so is that I dread that continuation."
+
+"That dread will nor be the less for its postponement."
+
+"You are right; but tell me, Charles Holland, although you are young you
+have been about in the great world sufficiently to form correct
+opinions, and to understand that which is related to you, drawing proper
+deductions from certain facts, and arriving possibly at more correct
+conclusions than some of maturer years with less wisdom."
+
+"I will freely answer, Varney, any question you may put to me."
+
+"I know it; tell me then what measure of guilt you attach to me in the
+transaction I have noticed to you."
+
+"It seems then to me that, not contemplating the man's murder, you
+cannot be accused of the act, although a set of fortuitous circumstances
+made you appear an accomplice to its commission."
+
+"You think I may be acquitted?"
+
+"You can acquit yourself, knowing that you did not contemplate the
+murder."
+
+"I did not contemplate it. I know not what desperate deed I should have
+stopped short at then, in the height of my distress, but I neither
+contemplated taking that man's life, nor did I strike the blow which
+sent him from existence."
+
+"There is even some excuse as regards the higher crime for Marmaduke
+Bannerworth."
+
+"Think you so?"
+
+"Yes; he thought that you were killed, and impulsively he might have
+struck the blow that made him a murderer."
+
+"Be it so. I am willing, extremely willing that anything should occur
+that should remove the odium of guilt from any man. Be it so, I say,
+with all my heart; but now, Charles Holland, I feel that we must meet
+again ere I can tell you all; but in the meantime let Flora Bannerworth
+rest in peace--she need dread nothing from me. Avarice and revenge, the
+two passions which found a home in my heart, are now stifled for ever."
+
+"Revenge! did you say revenge?"
+
+"I did; whence the marvel, am I not sufficiently human for that?"
+
+"But you coupled it with the name of Flora Bannerworth."
+
+"I did, and that is part of my mystery."
+
+"A mystery, indeed, to imagine that such a being as Flora could awaken
+any such feeling in your heart--a most abundant mystery."
+
+"It is so. I do not affect to deny it: but yet it is true, although so
+greatly mysterious, but tell her that although at one time I looked upon
+her as one whom I cared not if I injured, her beauty and distress
+changed the current of my thoughts, and won upon me greatly, From the
+moment I found I had the power to become the bane of her existence, I
+ceased to wish to be so, and never again shall she experience a pang of
+alarm from Varney, the vampyre."
+
+"Your message shall be faithfully delivered, and doubt not that it will
+be received with grateful feelings. Nevertheless I should have much
+wished to have been in a position to inform her of more particulars."
+
+"Come to me here at midnight to-morrow, and you shall know all. I will
+have no reservation with you, no concealments; you shall know whom I
+have had to battle against, and how it is that a world of evil passions
+took possession of my heart and made me what I am."
+
+"Are you firm in this determination, Varney--will you indeed tell me no
+more to-night?"
+
+"No more, I have said it. Leave me now. I have need of more repose, for
+of late sleep has seldom closed my eyelids."
+
+Charles Holland was convinced, from the positive manner in which he
+spoke, that nothing more in the shape of information, at that time, was
+to be expected from Varney; and being fearful that if he urged this
+strange being too far, at a time when he did not wish it, he might
+refuse all further communication, he thought it prudent to leave him, so
+he said to him,--
+
+"Be assured, Varney, I shall keep the appointment you have made, with an
+expectation when we do meet of being rewarded by a recital of some full
+particulars."
+
+"You shall not be disappointed; farewell, farewell!"
+
+Charles Holland bade him adieu, and left the place.
+
+Although he had now acquired all the information he hoped to take away
+with him when Varney first began to be communicative, yet, when he came
+to consider how strange and unaccountable a being he had been in
+communication with, Charles could not but congratulate himself that he
+had heard so much, for, from the manner of Varney, he could well suppose
+that that was, indeed, the first time he had been so communicative upon
+subjects which evidently held so conspicuous a place in his heart.
+
+And he had abundance of hope, likewise, from what had been said by
+Varney, that he would keep his word, and communicate to him fully all
+else that he required to know; and when he recollected those words which
+Varney had used, signifying that he knew the danger of half confidences,
+that hope grew into a certainty, and Charles began to have no doubt but
+that on the next evening all that was mysterious in the various affairs
+connected with the vampyre would become clear and open to the light of
+day.
+
+He strolled down the lane in which the lone house was situated,
+revolving these matters in his mind, and when he arrived at its
+entrance, he was rather surprised to see a throng of persons hastily
+moving onward, with come appearance of dismay about them, and anxiety
+depicted upon their countenances.
+
+He stopped a lad, and inquired of him the cause of the seeming tumult.
+
+"Why, sir, the fact is," said the boy, "a crowd from the town's been
+burning down Bannerworth Hall, and they've killed a man."
+
+"Bannerworth Hall! you must be mistaken."
+
+"Well, sir, I ought not to call it Bannerworth Hall, because I mean the
+old ruins in the neighbourhood that are supposed to have been originally
+Bannerworth Hall before the house now called such was built; and,
+moreover, as the Bannerworths have always had a garden there, and two or
+three old sheds, the people in the town called it Bannerworth Hall in
+common with the other building."
+
+"I understand. And do you say that all have been destroyed?"
+
+"Yes, sir. All that was capable of being burnt has been burnt, and, what
+is more, a man has been killed among the ruins. We don't know who he is,
+but the folks said he was a vampyre, and they left him for dead."
+
+"When will these terrible outrages cease? Oh! Varney, Varney, you have
+much to answer for; even if in your conscience you succeed in acquitting
+yourself of the murder, some of the particulars concerning which you
+have informed me of."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIII.
+
+THE MYSTERIOUS ARRIVAL AT THE INN.--THE HUNGARIAN NOBLEMAN.--THE LETTER
+TO VARNEY.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+While these affairs are proceeding, and when there seems every
+appearance of Sir Francis Varney himself quickly putting an end to some
+of the vexatious circumstances connected with himself and the
+Bannerworth family, it is necessary that we should notice an occurrence
+which took place at the same inn which the admiral had made such a scene
+of confusion upon the occasion of his first arrival in the town.
+
+Not since the admiral had arrived with Jack Pringle, and so disturbed
+the whole economy of the household, was there so much curiosity excited
+as on the morning following the interview which Charles Holland had had
+with Varney, the vampyre.
+
+The inn was scarcely opened, when a stranger arrived, mounted on a
+coal-black horse, and, alighting, he surrendered the bridle into the
+hands of a boy who happened to be at the inn-door, and stalked slowly
+and solemnly into the building.
+
+He was tall, and of a cadaverous aspect; in attire he was plainly
+apparelled, but there was no appearance of poverty about him; on the
+contrary, what he really had on was of a rich and costly character,
+although destitute of ornament.
+
+He sat down in the first room that presented itself, and awaited the
+appearance of the landlord, who, upon being informed that a guest of
+apparently ample means, and of some consequence, had entered the place,
+hastily went to him to receive his commands.
+
+With a profusion of bows, our old friend, who had been so obsequious to
+Admiral Bell, entered the room, and begged to know what orders the
+gentleman had for him.
+
+"I presume," said the stranger, in a deep, solemn voice, "I presume that
+you have no objection, for a few days that I shall remain in this town,
+to board and lodge me for a certain price which you can name to me at
+once?"
+
+"Certainly, sir," said the landlord; "any way you please; without wine,
+sir, I presume?"
+
+"As you please; make your own arrangements."
+
+"Well, sir, as we can't tell, of course, what wine a gentleman may
+drink, but when we come to consider breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper,
+and a bed, and all that sort of thing, and a private sitting-room, I
+suppose, sir?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"You would not, then, think, sir, a matter of four guineas a week will
+be too much, perhaps."
+
+"I told you to name your own charge. Let it be four guineas; if you had
+said eight I should have paid it."
+
+"Good God!" said the publican, "here's a damned fool that I am. I beg
+your pardon, sir, I didn't mean you. Now I could punch my own head--will
+you have breakfast at once, sir, and then we shall begin regular, you
+know, sir?"
+
+"Have what?"
+
+"Breakfast, breakfast, you know, sir; tea, coffee, cocoa, or chocolate;
+ham, eggs, or a bit of grilled fowl, cold sirloin of roast beef, or a
+red herring--anything you like, sir."
+
+"I never take breakfast, so you may spare yourself the trouble of
+providing anything for me."
+
+"Not take breakfast, sir! not take breakfast! Would you like to take
+anything to drink then, sir? People say it's an odd time, at eight
+o'clock in the morning, to drink; but, for my part, I always have
+thought that you couldn't begin a good thing too soon."
+
+"I live upon drink," said the stranger; "but you have none in the cellar
+that will suit me."
+
+"Indeed, sir."
+
+"No, no, I am certain."
+
+"Why, we've got some claret now, sir," said the landlord.
+
+"Which may look like blood, and yet not be it."
+
+"Like what, sir?--damn my rags!"
+
+"Begone, begone."
+
+The stranger uttered these words so peremptorily that the landlord
+hastily left the room, and going into his own bar, he gave himself so
+small a tap on the side of the head, that it would not have hurt a fly,
+as he said,--
+
+"I could punch myself into bits, I could tear my hair out by the roots;"
+and then he pulled a little bit of his hair, so gently and tenderly that
+it showed what a man of discretion he was, even in the worst of all his
+agony of passion.
+
+"The idea," he added, "of a fellow coming here, paying four guineas a
+week for board and lodging, telling me he would not have minded eight,
+and then not wanting any breakfast; it's enough to aggravate half a
+dozen saints; but what an odd fish he looks."
+
+At this moment the ostler came in, and, standing at the bar, he wiped
+his mouth with his sleeve, as he said,--
+
+"I suppose you'll stand a quart for that, master?"
+
+"A quart for what, you vagabond? A quart because I've done myself up in
+heaps; a quart because I'm fit to pull myself into fiddlestrings?"
+
+"No," said the ostler; "because I've just put up the gentleman's horse."
+
+"What gentleman's horse?"
+
+"Why, the big-looking fellow with the white face, now in the parlour."
+
+"What, did he come on a horse, Sam? What sort of a looking creature is
+it? you may judge of a man from the sort of horse-company he keeps."
+
+"Well, then, sir, I hardly know. It's coal black, and looks as knowing
+as possible; it's tried twice to get a kick at me, but I was down upon
+him, and put the bucket in his way. Howsomdever, I don't think it's a
+bad animal, as a animal, mind you, sir, though a little bit wicious or
+so."
+
+"Well," said the publican, as he drew the ostler half a pint instead of
+a quart, "you're always drinking; take that."
+
+"Blow me," said the ostler, "half a pint, master!"
+
+"Plague take you, I can't stand parleying with you, there's the parlour
+bell; perhaps, after all, he will have some breakfast."
+
+While the landlord was away the ostler helped himself to a quart of the
+strongest ale, which, by a singular faculty that he had acquired, he
+poured down his throat without any effort at swallowing, holding his
+head back, and the jug at a little distance from his mouth.
+
+Having accomplished this feat, he reversed the jug, giving it a knowing
+tap with his knuckles as though he would have signified to all the world
+that it was empty, and that he had accomplished what he desired.
+
+In the meantime, the landlord had made his way to his strange guest, who
+said to him, when he came into the room,
+
+"Is there not one Sir Francis Varney residing in this town?"
+
+"The devil!" thought the landlord; "this is another of them, I'll bet a
+guinea. Sir Francis Varney, sir, did you say? Why, sir, there was a Sir
+Francis Varney, but folks seem to think as how he's no better than he
+should be--a sort of vampyre, sir, if you know what that is."
+
+"I have, certainly, heard of such things; but can you not tell me
+Varney's address? I wish to see him."
+
+"Well, then, sir, I cannot tell it to you, for there's really been such
+a commotion and such a riot about him that he's taken himself off, I
+think, altogether, and we can hear nothing of him. Lord bless you, sir,
+they burnt down his house, and hunted him about so, that I don't think
+that he'll ever show his face here again."
+
+"And cannot you tell me where he was seen last?"
+
+"That I cannot, sir; but, if anybody knows anything about him, it's Mr.
+Henry Bannerworth, or perhaps Dr. Chillingworth, for they have had more
+to do with him than anybody else."
+
+"Indeed; and can you tell me the address of the former individual?"
+
+"That I can't, sir, for the Bannerworths have left the Hall. As for the
+doctor, sir, you'll see his house in the High-street, with a large brass
+plate on the door, so that you cannot mistake it. It's No. 9, on the
+other side of the way."
+
+"I thank you for so much information," said the stranger, and rising, he
+walked to the door. Before, however, he left, he turned, and
+added,--"You can say, if you should by chance meet Mr. Bannerworth, that
+a Hungarian nobleman wishes to speak to him concerning Sir Francis
+Varney, the vampyre?"
+
+"A what, sir?"
+
+"A nobleman from Hungary," was the reply.
+
+"The deuce!" said the landlord, as he looked after him. "He don't seem
+at all hungry here, not thirsty neither. What does he mean by a nobleman
+from Hungary? The idea of a man talking about hungry, and not taking any
+breakfast. He's queering me. I'll be hanged if I'll stand it. Here I
+clearly lose four guineas a week, and then get made game of besides. A
+nobleman, indeed! I think I see him. Why, he isn't quite so big as old
+Slaney, the butcher. It's a do. I'll have at him when he comes back."
+
+Meanwhile, the unconscious object of this soliloquy passed down the
+High-street, until he came to Dr. Chillingworth's, at whose door he
+knocked.
+
+Now Mrs. Chillingworth had been waiting the whole night for the return
+of the doctor, who had not yet made his appearance, and, consequently,
+that lady's temper had become acidulated to an uncommon extent and when
+she heard a knock at the door, something possessed her that it could be
+no other than her spouse, and she prepared to give him that warm
+reception which she considered he had a right, as a married man, to
+expect after such conduct.
+
+She hurriedly filled a tolerably sized hand-basin with not the cleanest
+water in the world, and then, opening the door hurriedly with one hand,
+she slouced the contents into the face of the intruder, exclaiming,--
+
+"Now you've caught it!"
+
+"D--n!" said the Hungarian nobleman, and then Mrs. Chillingworth uttered
+a scream, for she feared she had made a mistake.
+
+"Oh, sir! I'm very sorry: but I thought it was my husband."
+
+"But if you did," said the stranger, "there was no occasion to drown him
+with a basin of soap-suds. It is your husband I want, madam, if he be
+Dr. Chillingworth."
+
+"Then, indeed, you must go on wanting him, sir, for he's not been to his
+own home for a day and a night. He takes up all his time in hunting
+after that beastly vampyre."
+
+"Ah! Sir Francis Varney, you mean."
+
+"I do; and I'd Varney him if I caught hold of him."
+
+"Can you give me the least idea of where he can be found?"
+
+"Of course I can."
+
+"Indeed! where?" said the stranger, eagerly.
+
+"In some churchyard, to be sure, gobbling up the dead bodies."
+
+With this Mrs. Chillingworth shut the door with a bang that nearly
+flattened the Hungarian's nose with his face, and he was fain to walk
+away, quite convinced that there was no information to be had in that
+quarter.
+
+He returned to the inn, and having told the landlord that he would give
+a handsome reward to any one who would discover to him the retreat of
+Sir Francis Varney, he shut himself up in an apartment alone, and was
+busy for a time in writing letters.
+
+Although the sum which the stranger offered was an indefinite one, the
+landlord mentioned the matter across the bar to several persons; but all
+of them shook their heads, believing it to be a very perilous adventure
+indeed to have anything to do with so troublesome a subject as Sir
+Francis Varney. As the day advanced, however, a young lad presented
+himself, and asked to see the gentleman who had been inquiring for
+Varney.
+
+The landlord severely questioned and cross-questioned him, with the hope
+of discovering if he had any information: but the boy was quite
+obdurate, and would speak to no one but the person who had offered the
+reward, so that mine host was compelled to introduce him to the
+Hungarian nobleman, who, as yet, had neither eaten nor drunk in the
+house.
+
+The boy wore upon his countenance the very expression of juvenile
+cunning, and when the stranger asked him if he really was in possession
+of any information concerning the retreat of Sir Francis Varney, he
+said,--
+
+"I can tell you where he is, but what are you going to give?"
+
+"What sum do you require?" said the stranger.
+
+"A whole half-crown."
+
+"It is your's; and, if your information prove correct, come to-morrow,
+and I'll add another to it, always provided, likewise, you keep the
+secret from any one else."
+
+"Trust me for that," said the boy. "I live with my grandmother; she's
+precious old, and has got a cottage. We sell milk and cakes, sticky
+stuff, and pennywinkles."
+
+"A goodly collection. Go on."
+
+"Well, sir, this morning, there comes a man in with a bottle, and he
+buys a bottle full of milk and a loaf. I saw him, and I knew it was
+Varney, the vampyre."
+
+"You followed him?"
+
+"Of course I did, sir; and he's staying at the house that's to let down
+the lane, round the corner, by Mr. Biggs's, and past Lee's garden,
+leaving old Slaney's stacks on your right hand, and so cutting on till
+you come to Grants's meadow, when you'll see old Madhunter a brick-field
+staring of you in the face; and, arter that--"
+
+"Peace--peace!--you shall yourself conduct me. Come to this place at
+sunset; be secret, and, probably, ten times the reward you have already
+received may be yours," said the stranger.
+
+"What, ten half-crowns?"
+
+"Yes, I will keep my word with you."
+
+"What a go! I know what I'll do. I'll set up as a show man, and what a
+glorious treat it will be, to peep through one of the holes all day
+myself, and get somebody to pull the strings up and down, and when I'm
+tired of that, I can blaze away upon the trumpet like one o'clock. I
+think I see me. Here you sees the Duke of Marlborough a whopping of
+everybody, and here you see the Frenchmen flying about like parched peas
+in a sifter."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIV.
+
+THE EXCITED POPULACE.--VARNEY HUNTED.--THE PLACE OF REFUGE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+There seemed, now a complete lull in the proceedings as connected with
+Varney, the vampyre. We have reason to believe that the executioner who
+had been as solicitous as Varney to obtain undisputed possession of
+Bannerworth Hall, has fallen a victim to the indiscriminating rage of
+the mob. Varney himself is a fugitive, and bound by the most solemn ties
+to Charles Holland, not only to communicate to him such particulars of
+the past, as will bring satisfaction to his mind, but to abstain from
+any act which, for the future, shall exercise a disastrous influence
+upon the happiness of Flora.
+
+The doctor and the admiral, with Henry, had betaken themselves from the
+Hall as we had recorded, and, in due time, reached the cottage where
+Flora and her mother had found a temporary refuge.
+
+Mrs. Bannerworth was up; but Flora was sleeping, and, although the
+tidings they had to tell were of a curious and mixed nature, they would
+not have her disturbed to listen to them.
+
+And, likewise, they were rather pleased than otherwise, since they knew
+not exactly what had become of Charles Holland, to think that they would
+probably be spared the necessity of saying they could not account for
+his absence.
+
+That he had gone upon some expedition, probably dangerous, and so one
+which he did not wish to communicate the particulars of to his friends,
+lest they should make a strong attempt to dissuade him from it, they
+were induced to believe.
+
+But yet they had that confidence in his courage and active intellectual
+resources, to believe that he would come through it unscathed, and,
+probably, shortly show himself at the cottage.
+
+In this hope they were not disappointed, for in about two hours Charles
+made his appearance; but, until he began to be questioned concerning his
+absence by the admiral, he scarcely considered the kind of dilemma he
+had put himself into by the promise of secrecy he had given to Varney,
+and was a little puzzled to think how much he might tell, and how much
+he was bound in honour to conceal.
+
+"Avast there!" cried the admiral; "what's become of your tongue,
+Charles? You've been on some cruize, I'll be bound. Haul over the ship's
+books, and tell us what's happened."
+
+"I have been upon an adventure," said Charles, "which I hope will be
+productive of beneficial results to us all; but, the fact is, I have
+made a promise, perhaps incautiously, that I will not communicate what I
+know."
+
+"Whew!" said the admiral, "that's awkward; but, however, if a man said
+under sealed instructions, there's an end of it. I remember when I was
+off Candia once---"
+
+"Ha!" interposed Jack, "that was the time you tumbled over the blessed
+binnacle, all in consequence of taking too much Madeira. I remember it,
+too--it's an out and out good story, that 'ere. You took a rope's end,
+you know, and laid into the bowsprit; and, says you, 'Get up, you
+lubber,' says you, all the while a thinking, I supposes, as it was long
+Jack Ingram, the carpenter's mate, laying asleep. What a lark!"
+
+"This scoundrel will be the death of me," said the admiral; "there isn't
+one word of truth in what he says. I never got drunk in all my life, as
+everybody knows. Jack, affairs are getting serious between you and I--we
+must part, and for good. It's a good many times that I've told you
+you've forgot the difference between the quarter-deck and the caboose.
+Now, I'm serious--you're off the ship's books, and there's an end of
+you."
+
+"Very good," said Jack; "I'm willing I'll leave you. Do you think I want
+to keep you any longer? Good bye, old bloak--I'll leave you to repent,
+and when old grim death comes yard-arm and yard-arm with you, and you
+can't shake off his boarding-tackle, you'll say, 'Where's Jack Pringle?'
+says you; and then what's his mane--oh ah! echo you call it--echo'll
+say, it's d----d if it knows."
+
+Jack turned upon his heel, and, before the admiral could make any reply
+he left the place.
+
+"What's the rascal up to now?" said the admiral. "I really didn't think
+he'd have taken me at my word."
+
+"Oh, then, after all, you didn't mean it, uncle?" said Charles.
+
+"What's that to you, you lubber, whether I mean it, or not, you
+shore-going squab? Of course I expect everybody to desert an old hulk,
+rats and all--and now Jack Pringle's gone; the vagabond, couldn't he
+stay, and get drunk as long as he liked! Didn't he say what he pleased,
+and do what he pleased, the mutinous thief? Didn't he say I run away
+from a Frenchman off Cape Ushant, and didn't I put up with that?"
+
+"But, my dear uncle, you sent him away yourself."
+
+"I didn't, and you know I didn't; but I see how it is, you've disgusted
+Jack among you. A better seaman never trod the deck of a man-of-war."
+
+"But his drunkenness, uncle?"
+
+"It's a lie. I don't believe he ever got drunk. I believe you all
+invented it, and Jack's so good-natured, he tumbled about just to keep
+you in countenance."
+
+"But his insolence, uncle; his gross insolence towards you--his
+inventions, his exaggerations of the truth?"
+
+"Avast, there--avast, there--none of that, Master Charlie; Jack couldn't
+do anything of the sort; and I means to say this, that if Jack was here
+now, I'd stick up for him, and say he was a good seaman.
+
+"Tip us your fin, then," said Jack, darting into the room; "do you think
+I'd leave you, you d----d old fool? What would become of you, I wonder,
+if I wasn't to take you in to dry nurse? Why, you blessed old babby,
+what do you mean by it?"
+
+"Jack, you villain!"
+
+"Ah! go on and call me a villain as much as you like. Don't you remember
+when the bullets were scuttling our nobs?"
+
+"I do, I do, Jack; tip us your fin, old fellow. You've saved my life
+more than once."
+
+"It's a lie."
+
+"It ain't. You did, I say."
+
+"You bed----d!"
+
+And thus was the most serious misunderstanding that these two worthies
+ever had together made up. The real fact is, that the admiral could as
+little do without Jack, as he could have done without food; and as for
+Pringle, he no more thought of leaving the old commodore, than of--what
+shall we say? forswearing him. Jack himself could not have taken a
+stronger oath.
+
+But the old admiral had suffered so much from the idea that Jack had
+actually left him, that although he abused him as usual often enough, he
+never again talked of taking him off the ship's books; and, to the
+credit of Jack be it spoken, he took no advantage of the circumstance,
+and only got drunk just as usual, and called his master an old fool
+whenever it suited him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXV.
+
+THE HUNGARIAN NOBLEMAN GETS INTO DANGER.--HE IS FIRED AT, AND SHOWS SOME
+OF HIS QUALITY.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Considerably delighted was the Hungarian, not only at the news he had
+received from the boy, but as well for the cheapness of it. Probably he
+did not conceive it possible that the secret of the retreat of such a
+man as Varney could have been attained so easily.
+
+He waited with great impatience for the evening, and stirred not from
+the inn for several hours; neither did he take any refreshment,
+notwithstanding he had made so liberal an arrangement with the landlord
+to be supplied.
+
+All this was a matter of great excitement and speculation in the inn, so
+much so, indeed, that the landlord sent for some of the oldest customers
+of his house, regular topers, who sat there every evening, indulging in
+strong drinks, and pipes and tobacco, to ask their serious advice as to
+what he should do, as if it were necessary he should do anything at all.
+
+But, somehow or another, these wiseacres who assembled at the landlord's
+bidding, and sat down, with something strong before them, in the bar
+parlour, never once seemed to think that a man might, if he choosed,
+come to an inn, and agree to pay four guineas a week for board and
+lodging, and yet take nothing at all.
+
+No; they could not understand it, and therefore they would not have it.
+It was quite monstrous that anybody should attempt to do anything so
+completely out of the ordinary course of proceeding. It was not to be
+borne; and as in this country it happens, free and enlightened as we
+are, that no man can commit a greater social offence than doing
+something that his neighbours never thought of doing themselves, the
+Hungarian nobleman was voted a most dangerous character, and, in fact,
+not to be put up with.
+
+"I shouldn't have thought so much of it" said the landlord; "but only
+look at the aggravation of the thing. After I have asked him four
+guineas a week, and expected to be beaten down to two, to be then told
+that he would not have cared if it had been eight. It is enough to
+aggravate a saint."
+
+"Well, I agree with you there," said another; "that's just what it is,
+and I only wonder that a man of your sagacity has not quite understood
+it before."
+
+"Understood what?"
+
+"Why, that he is a vampyre. He has heard of Sir Francis Varney, that's
+the fact, and he's come to see him. Birds of a feather, you know, flock
+together, and now we shall have two vampyres in the town instead of
+one."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The party looked rather blank at this suggestion, which, indeed, seemed
+rather uncomfortable probably. The landlord had just opened his mouth to
+make some remark, when he was stopped by the violent ringing of what he
+now called the vampyre's bell, since it proceeded from the room where
+the Hungarian nobleman was.
+
+"Have you an almanack in the house?" was the question of the mysterious
+guest.
+
+"An almanack, sir? well, I really don't know. Let me see, an almanack."
+
+"But, perhaps, you can tell me. I was to know the moon's age."
+
+"The devil!" thought the landlord; "he's a vampyre, and no mistake. Why,
+sir, as to the moon's age, it was a full moon last night, very bright
+and beautiful, only you could not see it for the clouds."
+
+"A full moon last night," said the mysterious guest, thoughtfully; "it
+may shine, then, brightly, to-night, and if so, all will be well. I
+thank you,--leave the room."
+
+"Do you mean to say, sir, you don't want anything to eat now?"
+
+"What I want I'll order."
+
+"But you have ordered nothing."
+
+"Then presume that I want nothing."
+
+The discomfited landlord was obliged to leave the room, for there was no
+such a thing as making any answer to this, and so, still further
+confirmed in his opinion that the stranger was a vampyre that came to
+see Sir Francis Varney from a sympathetic feeling towards him, he again
+reached the bar-parlour.
+
+"You may depend," he said, "as sure as eggs is eggs, that he is a
+vampyre. Hilloa! he's going off,--after him--after him; he thinks we
+suspect him. There he goes--down the High-street."
+
+The landlord ran out, and so did those who were with him, one of whom
+carried his brandy and water in his hand, which, being too hot for him
+to swallow all at once, he still could not think of leaving behind.
+
+It was now gelling rapidly dark, and the mysterious stranger was
+actually proceeding towards the lane to keep his appointment with the
+boy who had promised to conduct him to the hiding-place of Sir Francis
+Varney.
+
+He had not proceeded far, however, before he began to suspect that he
+was followed, as it was evident on the instant that he altered his
+course; for, instead of walking down the lane, where the boy was waiting
+for him, he went right on, and seemed desirous of making his way into
+the open country between the town and Bannerworth Hall.
+
+His pursuers--for they assumed that character--when they saw this became
+anxious to intercept him; and thinking that the greater force they had
+the better, they called out aloud as they passed a smithy, where a man
+was shoeing a horse,--
+
+"Jack Burdon, here is another vampyre!"
+
+"The deuce there is!" said the person who was addressed. "I'll soon
+settle him. Here's my wife gets no sleep of a night as it is, all owing
+to that Varney, who has been plaguing us so long. I won't put up with
+another."
+
+So saying, he snatched from a hook on which it hung, an old
+fowling-piece, and joined the pursuit, which now required to be
+conducted with some celerity, for the stranger had struck into the open
+country, and was getting on at good speed.
+
+The last remnants of the twilight were fading away, and although the
+moon had actually risen, its rays were obscured by a number of light,
+fleecy clouds, which, although they did not promise to be of long
+continuance, as yet certainly impeded the light.
+
+"Where is he going?" said the blacksmith. "He seems to be making his way
+towards the mill-stream."
+
+"No," said another; "don't you see he is striking higher up towards the
+old ford, where the stepping-stones are!"
+
+"He is--he is," cried the blacksmith. "Run on--run on; don't you see he
+is crossing it now? Tell me, all of you, are you quite sure he is a
+vampyre, and no mistake? He ain't the exciseman, landlord, now, is he?"
+
+"The exciseman, the devil! Do you think I want to shoot the exciseman?"
+
+"Very good--then here goes," exclaimed the Smith.
+
+He stooped, and just as the brisk night air blew aside the clouds from
+before the face of the moon, and as the stranger was crossing the
+slippery stones, he fired at him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+How silently and sweetly the moon's rays fall upon the water, upon the
+meadows, and upon the woods. The scenery appeared the work of
+enchantment, some fairy land, waiting the appearance of its inhabitants.
+No sound met the ear; the very wind was hushed; nothing was there to
+distract the sense of sight, save the power of reflection.
+
+This, indeed, would aid the effect of such a scene. A cloudless sky, the
+stars all radiant with beauty, while the moon, rising higher and higher
+in the heavens, increasing in the strength and refulgence of her light,
+and dimming the very stars, which seemed to grow gradually invisible as
+the majesty of the queen of night became more and more manifest.
+
+The dark woods and the open meadows contrasted more and more strongly;
+like light and shade, the earth and sky were not more distinct and
+apart; and the ripling stream, that rushed along with all the
+impetuosity of uneven ground.
+
+The banks are clothed with verdure; the tall sedges, here and there,
+lined the sides; beds of bulrushes raised their heads high above all
+else, and threw out their round clumps of blossoms like tufts, and
+looked strange in the light of the moon.
+
+Here and there, too, the willows bent gracefully over the stream, and
+their long leaves were wafted and borne up and down by the gentler force
+of the stream.
+
+Below, the stream widened, and ran foaming over a hard, stony bottom,
+and near the middle is a heap of stones--of large stones, that form the
+bed of the river, from which the water has washed away all earthy
+particles, and left them by themselves.
+
+These stones in winter could not be seen, they were all under water, and
+the stream washed over in a turbulent and tumultuous manner. But now,
+when the water was clear and low, they are many of them positively out
+of the water, the stream running around and through their interstices;
+the water-weeds here and there lying at the top of the stream, and
+blossoming beautifully.
+
+The daisy-like blossoms danced and waved gently on the moving flood, at
+the same time they shone in the moonlight, like fairy faces rising from
+the depths of the river, to receive the principle of life from the
+moon's rays.
+
+'Tis sweet to wander in the moonlight at such an hour, and it is sweet
+to look upon such a scene with an unruffled mind, and to give way to the
+feelings that are engendered by a walk by the river side.
+
+See, the moon is rising higher and higher, the shadows grow shorter and
+shorter; the river, which in places was altogether hidden by the tall
+willow trees, now gradually becomes less and less hidden, and the water
+becomes more and more lit up.
+
+The moonbeams play gracefully on the rippling surface, here and there
+appearing like liquid silver, that each instant changed its position and
+surface exposed to the light.
+
+Such a moment--such a scene, were by far too well calculated to cause
+the most solemn and serious emotions of the mind, and he must have been
+but at best insensible, who could wander over meadow and through grove,
+and yet remain untouched by the scene of poetry and romance in which he
+breathed and moved.
+
+At such a time, and in such a place, the world is alive with all the
+finer essences of mysterious life. 'Tis at such an hour that the spirits
+quit their secret abodes, and visit the earth, and whirl round the
+enchanted trees.
+
+'Tis now the spirits of earth and air dance their giddy flight from
+flower to flower. 'Tis now they collect and exchange their greetings;
+the wood is filled with them, the meadows teem with them, the hedges at
+the river side have them hidden among the deep green leaves and blades.
+
+But what is that yonder, on the stones, partially out of the water--what
+can it be? The more it is looked at, the more it resembles the human
+form--and yet it is still and motionless on the hard stones--and yet it
+is a human form. The legs are lying in the water, the arms appear to be
+partially in and partially out, they seem moved by the stream now and
+then, but very gently--so slightly, indeed, that it might well be
+questioned if it moved at all.
+
+The moon's rays had not yet reached it; the bank on the opposite side of
+the stream was high, and some tall trees rose up and obscured the moon.
+But she was rising higher and higher each moment, and, finally, when it
+has reached the tops of those trees, then the rays will reach the middle
+of the river, and then, by degrees, it will reach the stones in the
+river, and, finally, the body that lies there so still and so
+mysteriously.
+
+How it came there it would be difficult to say. It appeared as though,
+when the waters were high, the body had floated down, and, at the
+subsidence of the waters, it had been left upon the stones, and now it
+was exposed to view.
+
+It was strange and mysterious, and those who might look upon such a
+sight would feel their blood chill, and their body creep, to contemplate
+the remains of humanity in such a place, and in such a condition as that
+must be in.
+
+A human life had been taken! How? Who could tell? Perhaps accident alone
+was the cause of it; perhaps some one had taken a life by violent means,
+and thrown the body in the waters to conceal the fact and the crime.
+
+The waters had brought it down, and deposited it there in the middle of
+the river, without any human creature being acquainted with the fact.
+
+But the moon rises--the beams come trembling through the tree tops and
+straggling branches, and fall upon the opposite bank, and there lies the
+body, mid stream, and in comparative darkness.
+
+By the time the river is lit up by the moon's rays, then the object on
+the stones will be visible, then it can be ascertained what appears now
+only probable, namely, is the dark object a human form or not?
+
+In the absence of light it appears to be so, but when the flood of
+silver light falls upon it, it would be placed then beyond a doubt.
+
+The time is approaching--the moon each moment approaches her meridian,
+and each moment do the rays increase in number and in strength, while
+the shadows shorten.
+
+The opposite bank each moment becomes more and more distinct, and the
+side of the stream, the green rushes and sedges, all by degrees come
+full into view.
+
+Now and then a fish leaps out of the stream, and just exhibits itself,
+as much as to say, "There are things living in the stream, and I am one
+of them."
+
+The moment is one of awe--the presence of that mysterious and
+dreadful-looking object, even while its identity remains doubt, chills
+the heart--it contracts the expanding thoughts to that one object--all
+interest in the scene lies centered in that one point.
+
+What could it be? What else but a human body? What else could assume
+such a form? But see, nearly half the stream is lit by the moonbeams
+struggling through the tree tops, and now rising above them. The light
+increases, and the shadows shorten.
+
+The edge of the bed of stones now becomes lit up by the moonlight; the
+rippling stream, the bubbles, and the tiny spray that was caused by the
+rush of water against the stones, seemed like sparkling flashes of
+silver fire.
+
+Then came the moonbeams upon the body, for it was raised above the level
+of the water, and shewed conspicuously; for the moonbeams reached the
+body before they fell on the surrounding water; for that reason then it
+was the body presented a strange and ghastly object against a deep, dark
+background, by which it was surrounded.
+
+But this did not last long--the water in another minute was lit up by
+the moon's pale beams, and then indeed could be plainly enough seen the
+body of a man lying on the heap of stones motionless and ghastly.
+
+The colourless hue of the moonlight gave the object a most horrific and
+terrible appearance! The face of the dead man was turned towards the
+moon's rays, and the body seemed to receive all the light that could
+fall upon it.
+
+It was a terrible object to look upon, and one that added a new and
+singular interest to the scene! The world seemed then to be composed
+almost exclusively of still life, and the body was no impediment to the
+stillness of the scene.
+
+It was, all else considered, a calm, beautiful scene, lovely the night,
+gorgeous the silvery rays that lit up the face of nature; the hill and
+dale, meadow, and wood, and river, all afforded contrasts strong,
+striking, and strange.
+
+But strange, and more strange than any contrast in nature, was that
+afforded to the calm beauty of the night and place by the deep stillness
+and quietude imposed upon the mind by that motionless human body.
+
+The moon's rays now fell upon its full length; the feet were lying in
+the water, the head lay back, with its features turned towards the
+quarter of the heavens where the moon shone from; the hair floated on
+the shallow water, while the face and body were exposed to all
+influences, from its raised and prominent position.
+
+The moonbeams had scarcely settled upon it--scarce a few minutes--when
+the body moved. Was it the water that moved it? it could not be, surely,
+that the moonbeams had the power of recalling life into that inanimate
+mass, that lay there for some time still and motionless as the very
+stones on which it lay.
+
+It was endued with life; the dead man gradually rose up, and leaned
+himself upon his elbow; he paused a moment like one newly recalled to
+life; he seemed to become assured he did live. He passed one hand
+through his hair, which was wet, and then rose higher into a sitting
+posture, and then he leaned on one hand, inclining himself towards the
+moon.
+
+His breast heaved with life, and a kind of deep inspiration, or groan,
+came from him, as he first awoke to life, and then he seemed to pause
+for a few moments. He turned gradually over, till his head inclined down
+the stream.
+
+Just below, the water deepened, and ran swiftly and silently on amid
+meads and groves of trees. The vampyre was revived; he awoke again to a
+ghastly life; he turned from the heap of stones, he gradually allowed
+himself to sink into deep water, and then, with a loud plunge, he swam
+to the centre of the river.
+
+Slowly and surely did he swim into the centre of the river, and down the
+stream he went. He took long, but easy strokes, for he was going down
+the stream, and that aided him.
+
+For some distance might he be heard and seen through the openings in the
+trees, but he became gradually more and more indistinct, till sound and
+sight both ceased, and the vampyre had disappeared.
+
+During the continuance of this singular scene, not one word had passed
+between the landlord and his companions. When the blacksmith fired the
+fowling-piece, and saw the stranger fall, apparently lifeless, upon the
+stepping-stones that crossed the river, he became terrified at what he
+had done, and gazed upon the seeming lifeless form with a face on which
+the utmost horror was depicted.
+
+They all seemed transfixed to the spot, and although each would have
+given worlds to move away, a kind of nightmare seemed to possess them,
+which stunned all their faculties, and brought over them a torpidity
+from which they found it impossible to arouse themselves.
+
+But, when the apparently dead man moved again, and when, finally, the
+body, which appeared so destitute of life, rolled into the stream, and
+floated away with the tide, their fright might be considered to have
+reached its climax. The absence of the body, however, had seemingly, at
+all events, the effect of releasing them from the mental and physical
+thraldom in which they were, and they were enabled to move from the
+spot, which they did immediately, making their way towards the town with
+great speed.
+
+As they got near, they held a sort of council of war as to what they
+should do under the circumstances, the result of which was, that they
+came to a conclusion to keep all that they had done and seen to
+themselves; for, if they did not, they might be called upon for some
+very troublesome explanations concerning the fate of the supposed
+Hungarian nobleman whom they had taken upon themselves to believe was a
+vampyre, and to shoot accordingly, without taking the trouble to inquire
+into the legality of such an act.
+
+How such a secret was likely to be kept, when it was shared amongst
+seven people, it is hard to say; but, if it were so kept, it could only
+be under the pressure of a strong feeling of self-preservation.
+
+They were forced individually, of course, to account for their absence
+during the night at their respective homes, and how they managed to do
+that is best known to themselves.
+
+As to the landlord, he felt compelled to state that, having his
+suspicions of his guest aroused, he followed him on a walk that he
+pretended to take, and he had gone so far, that at length he had given
+up the chase, and lost his own way in returning.
+
+Thus was it, then, that this affair still preserved all its mystery,
+with a large superadded amount of fear attendant upon it; for, if the
+mysterious guest were really anything supernatural, might he not come
+again in a much more fearful shape, and avenge the treatment he had
+received?
+
+The only person who fell any disappointment in the affair, or whose
+expectations were not realised, was the boy who had made the appointment
+with the supposed vampyre at the end of the lane, and who was to have
+received what he considered so large a reward for pointing out the
+retreat of Sir Francis Varney.
+
+He waited in vain for the arrival of the Hungarian nobleman, and, at
+last, indignation got the better of him, and he walked away. Feeling
+that he had been jilted, he resolved to proceed to the public-house and
+demand the half-crowns which had been so liberally promised him; but
+when he reached there he found that the party whom he sought was not
+within, nor the landlord either, for that was the precise time when that
+worthy individual was pursuing his guest over meadow and bill, through
+brake and through briar, towards the stepping stones on the river.
+
+What the boy further did on the following day, when he found that he was
+to reap no more benefit for the adventure, we shall soon perceive.
+
+As for the landlord, he did endeavour to catch a few hours' brief
+repose; but as he dreamed that the Hungarian nobleman came in the
+likeness of a great toad, and sat upon his chest, feeling like the
+weight of a mountain, while he, the landlord, tried to scream and cry
+for help, but found that he could neither do one thing nor the other, we
+may guess that his repose did not at all invigorate him.
+
+As he himself expressed it, he got up all of a shake, with a strong
+impression that he was a very ill-used individual, indeed, to have had
+the nightmare in the day time.
+
+And now we will return to the cottage where the Bannerworth family were
+at all events, making themselves quite as happy as they did at their
+ancient mansion, in order to see what is there passing, and how Dr.
+Chillingworth made an effort to get up some evidence of something that
+the Bannerworth family knew nothing of, therefore could not very well be
+expected to render him much assistance. That he did, however, make what
+he considered an important discovery, we shall perceive in the course of
+the ensuing chapter, in which it will be seen that the best hidden
+things will, by the merest accident, sometimes come to light, and that,
+too, when least expected by any one at all connected with the result.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVI.
+
+THE DISCOVERY OF THE POCKET BOOK OF MARMADUKE BANNERWORTH.--ITS
+MYSTERIOUS CONTENTS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The little episode had just taken place which we have recorded between
+the old admiral and Jack Pringle, when Henry Bannerworth and Charles
+Holland stepped aside to converse.
+
+"Charles," said Henry, "it has become absolutely necessary that I should
+put an end to this state of dependence in which we all live upon your
+uncle. It is too bad to think, that because, through fighting the
+battles of his country, he has amassed some money, we are to eat it up."
+
+"My dear friend," said Charles, "does it not strike you, that it would
+be a great deal worse than too bad, if my uncle could not do what he
+liked with his own?"
+
+"Yes; but, Charles, that is not the question."
+
+"I think it is, though I know not what other question you can make of
+it."
+
+"We have all talked it over, my mother, my brother, and Flora; and my
+brother and I have determined, if this state of things should last much
+longer, to find out some means of honourable exertion by which we may,
+at all events, maintain ourselves without being burdensome to any."
+
+"Well, well, we will talk of that another time."
+
+"Nay, but hear me; we were thinking that if we went into some branch of
+the public service, your uncle would have the pleasure, such we are
+quite sure it would be to him, of assisting us greatly by his name and
+influence."
+
+"Well, well, Henry, that's all very well; but for a little time do not
+throw up the old man and make him unhappy. I believe I am his only
+relative in the world, and, as he has often said, he intended leaving me
+heir to all he possesses, you see there is no harm done by you receiving
+a small portion of it beforehand."
+
+"And," said Henry, "by that line of argument, we are to find an excuse
+for robbing your uncle; in the fact, that we are robbing you likewise."
+
+"No, no; indeed, you do not view the matter rightly."
+
+"Well, all I can say is, Charles, that while I feel, and while we all
+feel, the deepest debt of gratitude towards your uncle, it is our duty
+to do something. In a box which we have brought with us from the Hall,
+and which has not been opened since our father's death, I have stumbled
+over some articles of ancient jewellery and plate, which, at all events,
+will produce something."
+
+"But which you must not part with."
+
+"Nay, but, Charles, these are things I knew not we possessed, and most
+ill-suited do they happen to be to our fallen fortunes. It is money we
+want, not the gewgaws of a former state, to which we can have now no
+sort of pretension."
+
+"Nay, I know you have all the argument; but still is there something sad
+and uncomfortable to one's feelings in parting with such things as those
+which have been in families for many years."
+
+"But we knew not that we had them; remember that, Charles. Come and look
+at them. Those relics of a bygone age may amuse you, and, as regards
+myself, there are no circumstances whatever associated with them that
+give them any extrinsic value; so laugh at them or admire them, as you
+please, I shall most likely be able to join with you in either feeling."
+
+"Well, be it so--I will come and look at them; but you must think better
+of what you say concerning my uncle, for I happen to know--which you
+ought likewise by this time--how seriously the old man would feel any
+rejection on your part of the good he fancies he is doing you. I tell
+you, Henry, it is completely his hobby, and let him have earned his
+money with ten times the danger he has, he could not spend it with
+anything like the satisfaction that he does, unless he were allowed to
+dispose of it in this way."
+
+"Well, well; be it so for a time."
+
+"The fact is, his attachment to Flora is so great--which is a most
+fortunate circumstance for me--that I should not be at all surprised
+that she cuts me out of one half my estate, when the old man dies. But
+come, we will look at your ancient bijouterie."
+
+Henry led Charles into an apartment of the cottage where some of the few
+things had been placed that were brought from Bannerworth Hall, which
+were not likely to be in constant and daily use.
+
+Among these things happened to be the box which Henry had mentioned, and
+from which he had taken a miscellaneous assortment of things of an
+antique and singular character.
+
+There were old dresses of a season and of a taste long gone by; ancient
+articles of defence; some curiously wrought daggers; and a few
+ornaments, pretty, but valueless, along with others of more sterling
+pretensions, which Henry pointed out to Charles.
+
+"I am almost inclined to think," said the latter, "that some of these
+things are really of considerable value; but I do not I profess to be an
+accurate judge, and, perhaps, I am more taken with the beauty of an
+article, than the intrinsic worth. What is that which you have just
+taken from the box?"
+
+"It seems a half-mask," said Henry, "made of silk; and here are initial
+letters within it--M. B."
+
+"To what do they apply?"
+
+"Marmaduke Bannerworth, my father."
+
+"I regret I asked you."
+
+"Nay, Charles, you need not. Years have now elapsed since that misguided
+man put a period to his own existence, in the gardens of Bannerworth
+Hall. Of course, the shock was a great one to us all, although I must
+confess that we none of us knew much of a father's affections. But time
+reconciles one to these dispensations, and to a friend, like yourself, I
+can talk upon these subjects without a pang."
+
+He laid down the mask, and proceeded further in his search in the old
+box.
+
+Towards the bottom of it there were some books, and, crushed in by the
+side of them, there was an ancient-looking pocket-book, which Charles
+pointed out, saying,--
+
+"There, Henry, who knows but you may find a fortune when you least
+expect it?"
+
+"Those who expect nothing," said Henry, "will not be disappointed. At
+all events, as regards this pocket-book, you see it is empty."
+
+"Not quite. A card has fallen from it."
+
+Charles took up the card, and read upon it the name of Count Barrare.
+
+"That name," he said, "seems familiar to me. Ah! now I recollect, I have
+read of such a man. He flourished some twenty, or five-and-twenty years
+ago, and was considered a _roue_ of the first water--a finished
+gamester; and, in a sort of brief memoir I read once of him, it said
+that he disappeared suddenly one day, and was never again heard of."
+
+"Indeed! I'm not puzzled to think how his card came into my father's
+pocket-book. They met at some gaming-house; and, if some old pocket-book
+of the Count Barrare's were shaken, there might fall from it a card,
+with the name of Mr. Marmaduke Bannerworth upon it."
+
+"Is there nothing further in the pocket-book--no memoranda?"
+
+"I will look. Stay! here is something upon one of the leaves--let me
+see--'Mem., twenty-five thousand pounds! He who robs the robber, steals
+little; it was not meant to kill him: but it will be unsafe to use the
+money for a time--my brain seems on fire--the remotest hiding-place in
+the house is behind the picture."
+
+"What do you think of that?" said Charles.
+
+"I know not what to think. There is one thing though, that I do know."
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+"It is my father's handwriting. I have many scraps of his, and his
+peculiar hand is familiar to me."
+
+"It's very strange, then, what it can refer to."
+
+"Charles--Charles! there is a mystery connected with our fortunes, that
+I never could unravel; and once or twice it seemed as if we were upon
+the point of discovering all; but something has ever interfered to
+prevent us, and we have been thrown back into the realms of conjecture.
+My father's last words were, 'The money is hidden;' and then he tried to
+add something; but death stopped his utterance. Now, does it not almost
+seem that this memorandum alluded to the circumstance?"
+
+"It does, indeed."
+
+"And then, scarcely had my father breathed his last, when a man comes
+and asks for him at the garden-gate, and, upon hearing that he is dead,
+utters some imprecations, and walks away."
+
+"Well, Henry, you must trust to time and circumstances to unravel these
+mysteries. For myself, I own that I cannot do so; I see no earthly way
+out of the difficulty whatever. But still it does appear to me as if Dr.
+Chillingworth knew something or had heard something, with which he
+really ought to make you acquainted."
+
+"Do not blame the worthy doctor; he may have made an error of judgment,
+but never one of feeling; and you may depend, if he is keeping anything
+from me, that he is doing so from some excellent motive: most probably
+because he thinks it will give me pain, and so will not let me endure
+any unhappiness from it, unless he is quite certain as regards the
+facts. When he is so, you may depend he will be communicative, and I
+shall know all that he has to relate. But, Charles, it is evident to me
+that you, too, are keeping something."
+
+"I!"
+
+"Yes; you acknowledge to having had an interview, and a friendly one,
+with Varney; and you likewise acknowledge that he had told you things
+which he has compelled you to keep secret."
+
+"I have promised to keep them secret, and I deeply regret the promise
+that I have made. There cannot be anything to my mind more essentially
+disagreeable than to have one's tongue tied in one's interview with
+friends. I hate to hear anything that I may not repeat to those whom I
+take into my own confidence."
+
+"I can understand the feeling; but here comes the worthy doctor."
+
+"Show him the memorandum."
+
+"I will."
+
+As Dr. Chillingworth entered the apartments Henry handed him the
+memorandum that had been found in the old pocket-book, saying as he did
+so,--
+
+"Look at that, doctor, and give us your candid opinion upon it."
+
+Dr. Chillingworth fitted on his spectacles, and read the paper
+carefully. At its conclusion, he screwed up his mouth into an extremely
+small compass, and doubling up the paper, he put it into his capacious
+waistcoat pocket, saying as he did so,--
+
+"Oh! oh! oh! oh! hum!"
+
+"Well, doctor," said Henry; "we are waiting for your opinion."
+
+"My opinion! Well, then, my dear boy, I must say, my opinion, to the
+best of my belief is, that I really don't know anything about it."
+
+"Then, perhaps, you'll surrender us the memorandum," said Charles;
+"because, if you don't know anything, we may as well make a little
+inquiry."
+
+"Ha!" said the worthy doctor; "we can't put old heads upon young
+shoulders, that's quite clear. Now, my good young men, be patient and
+quiet; recollect, that what you know you're acquainted with, and that
+that which is hidden from you, you cannot very well come to any very
+correct conclusion upon. There's a right side and a wrong one you may
+depend, to every question; and he who walks heedlessly in the dark, is
+very apt to run his head against a post. Good evening, my boys--good
+evening."
+
+Away bustled the doctor.
+
+"Well," said Charles, "what do you think of that, Mr. Henry?"
+
+"I think he knows what he's about."
+
+"That may be; but I'll be hanged if anybody else does. The doctor is by
+no means favourable to the march of popular information; and I really
+think he might have given us some food for reflection, instead of
+leaving us so utterly and entirely at fault as he has; and you know he's
+taken away your memorandum even."
+
+"Let him have it, Charles--let him have it; it is safe with him. The old
+man may be, and I believe is, a little whimsical and crotchety; but he
+means abundantly well, and he's just one of those sort of persons, and
+always was, who will do good his own way, or not at all; so we must take
+the good with the bad in those cases, and let Dr. Chillingworth do as he
+pleases."
+
+"I cannot say it is nothing to me, although those words were rising to
+my lips, because you know, Henry, that everything which concerns you or
+yours is something to me; and therefore it is that I feel extremely
+anxious for the solution of all this mystery. Before I hear the sequel
+of that which Varney, the vampyre, has so strongly made me a confidant
+of, I will, at all events, make an effort to procure his permission to
+communicate it to all those who are in any way beneficially interested
+in the circumstances. Should he refuse me that permission, I am almost
+inclined myself to beg him to withhold his confidence."
+
+"Nay, do not do so, Charles--do not do that, I implore you. Recollect,
+although you cannot make us joint recipients with you in your knowledge,
+you can make use of it, probably, to our advantage, in saving us,
+perchance, from the different consequences, so that you can make what
+you know in some way beneficial to us, although not in every way."
+
+"There is reason in that, and I give in at once. Be it so, Henry. I will
+wait on him, and if I cannot induce him to change his determination, and
+allow me to tell some other as well as Flora, I must give in, and take
+the thing as a secret, although I shall not abandon a hope, even after
+he has told me all he has to tell, that I may induce him to permit me to
+make a general confidence, instead of the partial one he has empowered
+me to do."
+
+"It may be so; and, at all events, we must not reject a proffered good
+because it is not quite so complete as it might be."
+
+"You are right; I will keep my appointment with him, entertaining the
+most sanguine hope that our troubles and disasters--I say our, because I
+consider myself quite associated in thought, interest, and feelings with
+your family--may soon be over."
+
+"Heaven grant it may be so, for your's and Flora's sake; but I feel that
+Bannerworth Hall will never again be the place it was to us. I should
+prefer that we sought for new associations, which I have no doubt we may
+find, and that among us we get up some other home that would be happier,
+because not associated with so many sad scenes in our history."
+
+"Be it so; and I am sure that the admiral would gladly give way to such
+an arrangement. He has often intimated that he thought Bannerworth Hall
+a dull place; consequently, although he pretends to have purchased it of
+you, I think he will be very glad to leave it."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Be it so, then. If it should really happen that we are upon the eve of
+any circumstances that will really tend to relieve us from our misery
+and embarrassments, we will seek for some pleasanter abode than the
+Hall, which you may well imagine, since it became the scene of that
+dreadful tragedy that left us fatherless, has borne but a distasteful
+appearance to all our eyes."
+
+"I don't wonder at that, and am only surprised that, after such a thing
+had happened any of you liked to inhabit the place."
+
+"We did not like, but our poverty forced us. You have no notion of the
+difficulties through which we have struggled; and the fact that we had a
+home rent free was one of so much importance to us, that had it been
+surrounded by a thousand more disagreeables than it was, we must have
+put up with it; but now that we owe so much to the generosity of your
+uncle, I suppose we can afford to talk of what we like and of what we
+don't like."
+
+"You can, Henry, and it shall not be my fault if you do not always
+afford to do so; and now, as the time is drawing on, I think I will
+proceed at once to Varney, for it is better to be soon than late, and
+get from him the remainder of his story."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There were active influences at work, to prevent Sir Francis Varney from
+so quickly as he had arranged to do, carrying out his intention of
+making Charles Holland acquainted with the history of the eventful
+period of his life, which had been associated with Marmaduke
+Bannerworth.
+
+One would have scarcely thought it possible that anything now would have
+prevented Varney from concluding his strange narrative; but that he was
+prevented, will appear.
+
+The boy who had been promised such liberal payment by the Hungarian
+nobleman, for betraying the place of Varney's concealment, we have
+already stated, felt bitterly the disappointment of not being met,
+according to promise, at the corner of the lane, by that individual.
+
+It not only deprived him of the half-crowns, which already in
+imagination he had laid out, but it was a great blow to his own
+importance, for after his discovery of the residence of the vampyre, he
+looked upon himself as quite a public character, and expected great
+applause for his cleverness.
+
+But when the Hungarian nobleman came not, all these dreams began to
+vanish into thin air, and, like the unsubstantial fabric of a vision, to
+leave no trace behind them.
+
+He got dreadfully aggravated, and his first thought was to go to Varney,
+and see what he could get from him, by betraying the fact that some one
+was actively in search of him.
+
+That seemed, however, a doubtful good, and perhaps there was some
+personal dread of the vampyre mixed up with the rejection of this
+proposition. But reject it he did, and then he walked moodily into the
+town without any fixed resolution of what he should do.
+
+All that he thought of was a general idea that he should like to create
+some mischief, if possible--what it was he cared not, so long as it made
+a disturbance.
+
+Now, he knew well that the most troublesome and fidgetty man in the town
+was Tobias Philpots, a saddler, who was always full of everybody's
+business but his own, and ever ready to hear any scandal of his
+neighbours.
+
+"I have a good mind," said the boy, "to go to old Philpots, and tell him
+all about it, that I have."
+
+The good mind soon strengthened itself into a fixed resolution, and full
+of disdain and indignation at the supposed want of faith of the
+Hungarian nobleman, he paused opposite the saddler's door.
+
+Could he but for a moment have suspected the real reason why the
+appointment had not been kept with him, all his curiosity would have
+been doubly aroused, and he would have followed the landlord of the inn
+and his associate upon the track of the second vampyre that had visited
+the town.
+
+But of this he knew nothing, for that proceeding had been conducted with
+amazing quietness; and the fact of the Hungarian nobleman, when he found
+that he was followed, taking a contrary course to that in which Varney
+was concealed, prevented the boy from knowing anything of his movements.
+
+Hence the thing looked to him like a piece of sheer neglect and
+contemptuous indifference, which he felt bound to resent.
+
+He did not pause long at the door of the saddler's, but, after a few
+moments, he walked boldly in, and said,--
+
+"Master Philpots, I have got something extraordinary to tell you, and
+you may give me what you like for telling you."
+
+"Go on, then," said the saddler, "that's just the price I always likes
+to pay for everything."
+
+"Will you keep it secret?" said the boy.
+
+"Of course I will. When did you ever hear of me telling anything to a
+single individual?"
+
+"Never to a single individual, but I have heard you tell things to the
+whole town."
+
+"Confound your impudence. Get out of my shop directly."
+
+"Oh! very good. I can go and tell old Mitchell, the pork-butcher."
+
+"No, I say--stop; don't tell him. If anybody is to know, let it be me,
+and I'll promise you I'll keep it secret."
+
+"Very good," said the boy, returning, "you shall know it; and, mind, you
+have promised me to keep it secret, so that if it gets known, you know
+it cannot be any fault of mine."
+
+The fact was, the boy was anxious it should be known, only that in case
+some consequences might arise, he thought he would quiet his own
+conscience, by getting a promise of secrecy from Tobias Philpots, which
+he well knew that individual would not think of keeping.
+
+He then related to him the interview he had had with the Hungarian
+nobleman at the inn, how he had promised a number of half-crowns, but a
+very small instalment of which he had received.
+
+All this Master Philpots cared very little for, but the information that
+the dreaded Varney, the vampyre, was concealed so close to the town was
+a matter of great and abounding interest, and at that part of the story
+he suddenly pricked up his ears amazingly.
+
+"Why, you don't mean to say that?" he exclaimed. "Are you sure it was
+he?"
+
+"Yes, I am quite certain. I have seen I him more than once. It was Sir
+Francis Varney, without any mistake."
+
+"Why, then you may depend he's only waiting until it's very dark, and
+then he will walk into somebody, and suck his blood. Here's a horrid
+discovery! I thought we had had enough of Master Varney, and that he
+would hardly show himself here again, and now you tell me he is not ten
+minutes' walk off."
+
+"It's a fact," said the boy. "I saw him go in, and he looks thinner and
+more horrid than ever. I am sure he wants a dollop of blood from
+somebody."
+
+"I shouldn't wonder."
+
+"Now there is Mrs. Philpots, you know, sir; she's rather big, and seems
+most ready to burst always; I shouldn't wonder if the vampyre came to
+her to-night."
+
+"Wouldn't you?" said Mrs. Philpots, who had walked into the shop, and
+overheard the whole conversation; "wouldn't you, really? I'll vampyre
+you, and teach you to make these remarks about respectable married
+women. You young wretch, take that, will you!"
+
+She gave the boy such a box on the ears, that the place seemed to spin
+round with him. As soon as he recovered sufficiently to be enabled to
+walk, he made his way from the shop with abundance of precipitation,
+much regretting that he had troubled himself to make a confidant of
+Master Philpots.
+
+But, however, he could not but tell himself that if his object was to
+make a general disturbance through the whole place, he had certainly
+succeeded in doing so.
+
+He slunk home perhaps with a feeling that he might be called upon to
+take part in something that might ensue, and at all events be compelled
+to become a guide to the place of Sir Francis Varney's retreat, in which
+case, for all he knew, the vampyre might, by some more than mortal
+means, discover what a hand he had had in the matter, and punish him
+accordingly.
+
+The moment he hid left the saddler's Mrs. Philpots, after using some
+bitter reproaches to her husband for not at once sacrificing the boy
+upon the spot for the disrespectful manner in which he had spoken of
+her, hastily put on her bonnet and shawl, and the saddler, although it
+was a full hour before the usual time, began putting up the shutters of
+his shop.
+
+"Why, my dear," he said to Mrs. Philpots, when she came down stairs
+equipped for the streets, "why, my dear, where are you going?"
+
+"And pray, sir, what are you shutting up the shop for at this time of
+the evening!"
+
+"Oh! why, the fact is, I thought I'd just go to the Rose and Crown, and
+mention that the vampyre was so near at hand."
+
+"Well, Mr. Philpots, and in that case there can be no harm in my calling
+upon some of my acquaintance and mentioning it likewise."
+
+"Why, I don't suppose there would be much harm; only remember, Mrs.
+Philpots, remember if you please---"
+
+"Remember what?"
+
+"To tell everybody to keep it secret."
+
+"Oh, of course I will; and mind you do it likewise."
+
+"Most decidedly."
+
+The shop was closed, Mr. Philpots ran off to the Rose and Crown, and
+Mrs, Philpots, with as much expedition as she could, purposed making the
+grand tour of all her female acquaintance in the town, just to tell
+them, as a great secret, that the vampyre, Sir Francis Varney, as he
+called himself, had taken refuge at the house that was to let down the
+lane leading to Higgs's farm.
+
+"But by no means," she said, "let it go no further, because it is a very
+wrong thing to make any disturbance, and you will understand that it's
+quite a secret."
+
+She was listened to with breathless attention, as may well be supposed,
+and it was a singular circumstance that at every house she left some
+other lady put on her bonnet and shawl, and ran out to make the circle
+of her acquaintance, with precisely the same story, and precisely the
+same injunctions to secrecy.
+
+And, as Mr. Philpots pursued an extremely similar course, we are not
+surprised that in the short space of one hour the news should have
+spread through all the town, and that there was scarcely a child old
+enough to understand what was being talked about, who was ignorant of
+the fact, that Sir Francis Varney was to be found at the empty house
+down the lane.
+
+It was an unlucky time, too, for the night was creeping on, a period at
+which people's apprehension of the supernatural becomes each moment
+stronger and more vivid--a period at which a number of idlers are let
+loose for different employments, and when anything in the shape of a row
+or a riot presents itself in pleasant colours to those who have nothing
+to lose and who expect, under the cover of darkness, to be able to
+commit outrages they would be afraid to think of in the daytime, when
+recognition would be more easy.
+
+Thus was it that Sir Francis Varney's position, although he knew it not,
+became momentarily one of extreme peril, and the danger he was about to
+run, was certainly greater than any he had as yet experienced. Had
+Charles Holland but known what was going on, he would undoubtedly have
+done something to preserve the supposed vampyre from the mischief that
+threatened him, but the time had not arrived when he had promised to pay
+him a second visit, so he had no idea of anything serious having
+occurred.
+
+Perhaps, too, Mr. and Mrs. Philpots scarcely anticipated creating so
+much confusion, but when they found that the whole place was in an
+uproar, and that a tumultuous assemblage of persons called aloud for
+vengeance upon Varney, the vampyre, they made their way home again in no
+small fright.
+
+And, now, what was the result of all these proceedings will be best
+known by our introducing the reader to the interior of the house in
+which Varney had found a temporary refuge, and following in detail his
+proceedings as he waited for the arrival of Charles Holland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVII.
+
+THE HUNT FOR VARNEY.--THE HOUSE-TOPS.--THE MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.--THE LAST
+PLACE OF REFUGE.--THE COTTAGE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+On the tree tops the moon shines brightly, and the long shadows are
+shooting its rays down upon the waters, and the green fields appear
+clothed in a flood of silver light; the little town was quiet and
+tranquil--nature seemed at rest.
+
+The old mansion in which Sir Francis Varney had taken refuge, stood
+empty and solitary; it seemed as though it were not associated with the
+others by which it was surrounded. It was gloomy, and in the moonlight
+it reminded one of things long gone by, existences that had once been,
+but now no longer of this present time--a mere memento of the past.
+
+Sir Francis Varney reclined upon the house-top; he gazed upon the sky,
+and upon the earth; he saw the calm tranquillity that reigned around,
+and could not but admire what he saw; he sighed, he seemed to sigh, from
+a pleasure he felt in the fact of his security; he could repose there
+without fear, and breathe the balmy air that fanned his cheek.
+
+"Certainly," he muttered, "things might have been worse, but not much
+worse; however, they might have been much better; the ignorant are
+away--the most to be feared, because they have no guide and no control,
+save what can be exerted over them by their fears and their passions."
+
+He paused to look again over the scene, and, as far as the eye could
+reach, and that, moonlight as it was, was many miles, the country was
+diversified with hill and dale, meadow and ploughed land; the open
+fields, and the darker woods, and the silvery stream that ran at no
+great distance, all presented a scene that was well calculated to warm
+the imagination, and to give the mind that charm which a cultivated
+understanding is capable of receiving.
+
+There was but one thing wanted to make such a scene one of pure
+happiness, and that was all absence of care of fears for the future and
+the wants of life.
+
+Suddenly there was a slight sound that came from the town. It was very
+slight, but the ears of Sir Francis Varney were painfully acute of late;
+the least sound that came across him was heard in a moment, and his
+whole visage was changed to one of listening interest.
+
+The sound was hushed; but his attention was not lulled, for he had been
+placed in circumstances that made all his vigilance necessary for his
+own preservation. Hence it was, what another would have passed over, or
+not heard at all, he both heard and noticed. He was not sure of the
+nature of the sound, it was so slight and so indistinct.
+
+There it was again! Some persons were moving about in the town. The
+sounds that came upon the night air seemed to say that there was an
+unusual bustle in the town, which was, to Sir Francis Varney, ominous in
+the extreme.
+
+What could people in such a quiet, retired place require out at such an
+hour at night? It must be something very unusual--something that must
+excite them to a great degree; and Sir Francis began to feel very
+uneasy.
+
+"They surely," he muttered to himself--"they surely cannot have found
+out my hiding place, and intend to hunt me from it, the blood-thirsty
+hounds! they are never satisfied. The mischief they are permitted to do
+on one occasion is but the precursor to another. The taste has caused
+the appetite for more, and nothing short of his blood can satisfy it."
+
+The sounds increased, and the noise came nearer and nearer, and it
+appeared as though a number of men had collected together and were
+coming towards him. Yes, they were coming down the lane towards the
+deserted mansion where he was.
+
+For once in his life, Sir Francis Varney trembled; he felt sick at
+heart, though no man was less likely to give up hope and to despair than
+he; yet this sign of unrelenting hatred and persecution was too
+unequivocal and too stern not to produce its effect upon even his mind;
+for he had no doubt but that they were coming with the express purpose
+of seeking him.
+
+How they could have found him out was a matter he could not imagine. The
+Bannerworths could not have betrayed him--he was sure of that; and yet
+who could have seen him, so cautious and so careful as he had been, and
+so very sparing had he lived, because he would not give the slightest
+cause for all that was about to follow. He hoped to have hidden himself;
+but now he could hear the tramp of men distinctly, and their voices came
+now on the night air, though it was in a subdued tone, as if they were
+desirous of approaching unheard and unseen by their victim.
+
+Sir Francis Varney stirred not from his position. He remained silent and
+motionless. He appeared not to heed what was going on; perhaps he hoped
+to see them go by--to be upon some false scent; or, if they saw no signs
+of life, they might leave the place, and go elsewhere.
+
+Hark! they stop at the house--they go not by; they seem to pause, and
+then a thundering knock came at the door, which echoed and re-echoed
+through the empty and deserted house, on the top of which sat, in silent
+expectation, the almost motionless Sir Francis Varney, the redoubted
+vampyre.
+
+The knock which came so loud and so hard upon the door caused Sir
+
+Francis to start visibly, for it seemed his own knell. Then, as if the
+mob were satisfied with their knowledge of his presence, and of their
+victory, and of his inability to escape them, they sent up a loud shout
+that filled the whole neighbourhood with its sound.
+
+It seemed to come from below and around the house; it rose from all
+sides, and that told Sir Francis Varney that the house was surrounded
+and all escape was cut off; there was no chance of his being able to
+rush through such a multitude of men as that which now encircled him.
+
+With the calmest despair, Sir Francis Varney lay still and motionless on
+the house-top, and listened to the sounds that proceeded from below.
+Shout after shout arose on the still, calm air of the night; knock after
+knock came upon the stout old door, which awakened responsive echoes
+throughout the house that had for many years lain dormant, and which now
+seemed disturbed, and resounded in hollow murmurs to the voices from
+without.
+
+Then a loud voice shouted from below, as if to be heard by any one who
+might be within,--
+
+"Sir Francis Varney, the vampyre, come out and give yourself up at
+discretion! If we have to search for you, you may depend it will be to
+punish you; you will suffer by burning. Come out and give yourself up."
+
+There was a pause, and then a loud shout.
+
+Sir Francis Varney paid no attention to this summons, but sat,
+motionless, on the house-top, where he could hear all that passed below
+in the crowd.
+
+"He will not come out," said one.
+
+"Ah! he's much too cunning to be caught in such a trap. Why, he knows
+what you would do with him; he knows you would stake him, and make a
+bonfire about him."
+
+"So he has no taste for roasting," remarked another; "but still, it's no
+use hiding; we have too many hands, and know the house too well to be
+easily baffled."
+
+"That may be; and, although he don't like burning, yet we will unearth
+the old fox, somehow or other; we have discovered his haunt at last, and
+certainly we'll have him out."
+
+"How shall we get in?"
+
+"Knock in the door--break open the door! the front door--that is the
+best, because it leads to all parts of the house, and we can secure any
+one who attempts to move from one to the other, as they come down."
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted several men in the crowd.
+
+"Hurrah!" echoed the mob, with one accord, and the shout rent the air,
+and disturbed the quietude and serenity that scarce five minutes before
+reigned through the place.
+
+Then, as if actuated by one spirit, they all set to work to force the
+door in. It was strong, and capable of great defence, and employed them,
+with some labour, for fifteen or twenty minutes, and then, with a loud
+crash, the door fell in.
+
+"Hurrah!" again shouted the crowd.
+
+These shouts announced the fall of the door, and then, and not until
+then, did Sir Francis Varney stir.
+
+"They have broken in the door," he muttered, "well, if die I must, I
+will sell my life dearly. However, all is not yet lost, and, in the
+struggle for life, the loss is not so much felt."
+
+He got up, and crept towards the trap that led into the house, or out of
+it, as the occasion might require.
+
+"The vampyre! the vampyre!" shouted a man who stood on a garden wall,
+holding on by the arm of an apple-tree.
+
+"Varney, the vampyre!" shouted a second.
+
+"Hurrah! boys, we are on the right scent; now for a hunt; hurrah! we
+shall have him now."
+
+They rushed in a tumultuous riot up the stone steps, and into the hall.
+It was a large, spacious place, with a grand staircase that led up to
+the upper floor, but it had two ends, and then terminated in a gallery.
+
+It could not be defended by one man, save at the top, where it could not
+long be held, because the assailants could unite, and throw their whole
+weight against the entrance, and thus storm it. This actually happened.
+
+They looked up, and, seeing nobody, they rushed up, some by one stair,
+and some by the other; but it was dark; there were but few of the moon's
+rays that pierced the gloom of that place, and those who first reached
+the place which we have named, were seized with astonishment, staggered,
+and fell.
+
+Sir Francis Varney had met them; he stood there with a staff--something
+he had found about the house--not quite so long as a broom-handle, but
+somewhat thicker and heavier, being made of stout ash.
+
+This formidable weapon, Sir Francis Varney wielded with strength and
+resolution; he was a tall man, and one of no mean activity and personal
+strength, and such a weapon, in his hands, was one of a most fearful
+character, and, for the occasion, much better than his sword.
+
+Man after man fell beneath the fearful brace of these blows, for though
+they could not see Sir Francis, yet he could see them, or the
+hall-lights were behind them at the time, while he stood in the dark,
+and took advantage of this to deal murderous blows upon his assailants.
+
+This continued for some minutes, till they gave way before such a
+vigorous defence, and paused.
+
+"On, neighbours, on," cried one; "will you be beaten off by one man?
+Rush in at once and you must force him from his position--push him hard,
+and he must give way."
+
+"Ay," said one fellow who sat upon the ground rubbing his head; "it's
+all very well to say push him hard, but if you felt the weight of that
+d----d pole on your head, you wouldn't be in such a blessed hurry."
+
+However true that might be, there was but little attention paid to it,
+and a determined rush was made at the entrance to the gallery, and they
+found that it was unoccupied; and that was explained by the slamming of
+a door, and its being immediately locked upon them; and when the mob
+came to the door, they found they had to break their way through another
+door.
+
+This did not take long in effecting; and in less than five minutes they
+had broken through that door which led into another room; but the first
+man who entered it fell from a crashing blow on the head from the ashen
+staff of Sir Francis Varney, who hurried and fled, closely pursued,
+until he came to another door, through which he dashed.
+
+Here he endeavoured to make a stand and close it, but was immediately
+struck and grappled with; but he threw his assailant, and turned and
+fled again.
+
+His object had been to defend each inch of the ground as long as he was
+able; but he found they came too close upon his steps, and prevented his
+turning in time to try the strength of his staff upon the foremost.
+
+He dashed up the first staircase with surprising rapidity, leaving his
+pursuers behind; and when he had gained the first landing, he turned
+upon those who pursued him, who could hardly follow him two abreast.
+
+"Down with the vampyre!" shouted the first, who rushed up heedless of
+the staff.
+
+"Down with a fool!" thundered Varney, as he struck the fellow a terrific
+blow, which covered his face with blood, and he fell back into the arms
+of his companions.
+
+A bitter groan and execration arose from them below, and again they
+shouted, and rushed up headlong.
+
+"Down with the vampyre!" was again shouted, and met by a corresponding,
+but deep guttural sound of--
+
+"Down with a fool!"
+
+And sure enough the first again came to the earth without any
+preparation, save the application of an ashen stick to his skull, which,
+by-the-bye, no means aided the operation of thinking.
+
+Several more shared a similar fate; but they pressed hard, and Sir
+Francis was compelled to give ground to keep them at the necessary
+length from him, as they rushed on regardless of his blows, and if he
+had not he would soon have been engaged in a personal struggle, for they
+were getting too close for him to use the staff.
+
+"Down with the vampyre!" was the renewed cry, as they drove him from
+spot to spot until he reached the roof of the house, and then he ran up
+the steps to the loft, which he had just reached when they came up to
+the bottom.
+
+Varney attempted to draw the ladder up but four or five stout men held
+that down; then by a sudden turn, as they were getting up, he turned it
+over, threw those on it down, and the ladder too, upon the heads of
+those who were below.
+
+"Down with the vampyre!" shouted the mob, as they, with the most
+untiring energy, set the ladder, or steps, against the loft, and as many
+as could held it, while others rushed up to attack Varney with all the
+ferocity and courage of so many bull dogs.
+
+It was strange, but the more they were baffled the more enraged and
+determined they rushed on to a new attack, with greater resolution than
+ever.
+
+On this occasion, however, they were met with a new kind of missile, for
+Sir Francis had either collected and placed there for the occasion, or
+they had been left there for years, a number of old bricks, which lay
+close at hand. These he took, one by one, and deliberately took aim at
+them, and flung them with great force, striking down every one they hit.
+
+This caused them to recoil; the bricks caused fearful gashes in their
+heads, and the wounds were serious, the flesh being, in many places,
+torn completely off. They however, only paused, for one man said,--
+
+"Be of good heart, comrades, we can do as he does; he has furnished us
+with weapons, and we can thus attack him in two ways, and he must give
+way in the end."
+
+"Hurrah! down with the vampyre!" sounded from all sides, and the shout
+was answered by a corresponding rush.
+
+It was true; Sir Francis had furnished them with weapons to attack
+himself, for they could throw them back at him, which they did, and
+struck him a severe blow on the head, and it covered his face with blood
+in a moment.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the assailants; "another such a blow, and all will be
+over with the vampyre."
+
+"He's got--"
+
+"Press him sharp, now," cried another man, as he aimed another blow with
+a brick, which struck Varney on the arm, causing him to drop the brick
+he held in his hand. He staggered back, apparently in great pain.
+
+"Up! up! we have him now; he cannot get away; he's hurt; we have him--we
+have him."
+
+And up they went with all the rapidity they could scramble up the steps;
+but this had given Varney time to recover himself; and though his right
+arm was almost useless, yet he contrived, with his left, to pitch the
+bricks so as to knock over the first three or four, when, seeing that he
+could not maintain his position to advantage, he rushed to the outside
+of the house, the last place he had capable of defence.
+
+There was a great shout by those outside, when they saw him come out and
+stand with his staff, and those who came first got first served, for the
+blows resounded, while he struck them, and sent them over below.
+
+Then came a great shout from within and without, and then a desperate
+rush was made at the door, and, in the next instant, Varney was seen
+flying, followed by his pursuers, one after the other, some tumbling
+over the tiles, to the imminent hazard of their necks.
+
+Sir Francis Varney rushed along with a speed that appeared by far too
+great to admit of being safely followed, and yet those who followed
+appeared infected by his example, and appeared heedless of all
+consequences by which their pursuit might be attended to themselves.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the mob below.
+
+"Hurrah!" answered the mob on the tiles.
+
+Then, over several housetops might be seen the flying figure of Sir
+Francis Varney, pursued by different men at a pace almost equal to his
+own.
+
+They, however, could keep up the same speed, and not improve upon it,
+while he kept the advantage he first obtained in the start.
+
+Then suddenly he disappeared.
+
+It seemed to the spectators below that he had dropped through a house,
+and they immediately surrounded the house, as well as they could, and
+then set up another shout.
+
+This took place several times, and as often was the miserable man hunted
+from his place of refuge only to seek another, from which he was in like
+manner hunted by those who thirsted for his blood.
+
+On one occasion, they drove him into a house which was surrounded, save
+at one point, which had a long room, or building in it, that ran some
+distance out, and about twenty feet high.
+
+At the entrance to the roof of this place, or leads, he stood and
+defended himself for some moments with success; but having received a
+blow himself, he was compelled to retire, while the mob behind forced
+those in front forward faster than he could by any exertion wield the
+staff that had so much befriended him on this occasion.
+
+He was, therefore, on the point of being overwhelmed by numbers, when he
+fled; but, alas! there was no escape; a bare coping stone and rails ran
+round the top of that.
+
+There was not much time for hesitation, but he jumped over the rails and
+looked below. It was a great height, but if he fell and hurt himself, he
+knew he was at the mercy of the bloodhounds behind him, who would do
+anything but show him any mercy, or spare him a single pang.
+
+He looked round and beheld his pursuers close upon him, and one was so
+close to him that he seized upon his arm, saying, as he shouted to his
+companions,--
+
+"Hurrah, boys! I have him."
+
+With an execration, Sir Francis wielded his staff with such force, that
+he struck the fellow on the head, crushing in his hat as if it had been
+only so much paper. The man fell, but a blow followed from some one else
+which caused Varney to relax his hold, and finding himself falling, he,
+to save himself, sprang away.
+
+The rails, at that moment, were crowded with men who leaned over to
+ascertain the effect of the leap.
+
+"He'll be killed," said one.
+
+"He's sure to be smashed," said another.
+
+"I'll lay any wager he'll break a limb!" said a third.
+
+Varney came to the earth--for a moment he lay stunned, and not able to
+move hand or foot.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the mob.
+
+Their triumph was short, for just as they shouted Varney arose, and
+after a moment or two's stagger he set off at full speed, which produced
+another shout from the mob; and just at that moment, a body of his
+pursuers were seen scaling the walls after him.
+
+There was now a hunt through all the adjoining fields--from cover after
+cover they pursued him until he found no rest from the hungry wolves
+that beset him with cries, resembling beasts of prey rather than any
+human multitude.
+
+Sir Francis heard them, at the same time, with the despair of a man who
+is struggling for life, and yet knows he is struggling in vain; he knew
+his strength was decaying--his immense exertions and the blows he had
+received, all weakened him, while the number and strength of his foes
+seemed rather to increase than to diminish.
+
+Once more he sought the houses, and for a moment he believed himself
+safe, but that was only a momentary deception, for they had traced him.
+
+He arrived at a garden wall, over which he bounded, and then he rushed
+into the house, the door of which stood open, for the noise and
+disturbance had awakened most of the inhabitants, who were out in all
+directions.
+
+He took refuge in a small closet on the stairs, but was seen to do so by
+a girl, who screamed out with fear and fright,
+
+"Murder! murder!--the wampyre!--the wampyre!" with all her strength, and
+in the way of screaming that was no little, and then she went off into a
+fit.
+
+This was signal enough, and the house was at once entered, and beset on
+all sides by the mob, who came impatient of obtaining their victim who
+had so often baffled them.
+
+"There he is--there he is," said the girl, who came to as soon as other
+people came up.
+
+"Where?--where?"
+
+"In that closet," she said, pointing to it with her finger. "I see'd him
+go in the way above."
+
+Sir Francis, finding himself betrayed, immediately came out of the
+closet, just as two or three were advancing to open it, and dealt so
+hard a blow on the head of the first that came near him that he fell
+without a groan, and a second shared the same fate; and then Sir Francis
+found himself grappled with, but with a violent effort he relieved
+himself and rushed up stairs.
+
+"Oh! murder--the wampyre! what shall I do--fire--fire!"
+
+These exclamations were uttered in consequence of Varney in his haste to
+get up stairs, having inadvertently stepped into the girl's lap with one
+foot, while he kicked her in the chin with the other, besides scratching
+her nose till it bled.
+
+"After him--stick to him," shouted the mob, but the girl kicked and
+sprawled so much they were impeded, till, regardless of her cries, they
+ran over her and pursued Varney, who was much distressed with the
+exertions he had made.
+
+After about a minute's race he turned upon the head of the stair, not so
+much with the hope of defending it as of taking some breathing time: but
+seeing his enemies so close, he drew his sword, and stood panting, but
+prepared.
+
+"Never mind his toasting-fork," said one bulky fellow, and, as he spoke,
+he rushed on, but the point of the weapon entered his heart and he fell
+dead.
+
+There was a dreadful execration uttered by those who came up after him,
+and there was a momentary pause, for none liked to rush on to the bloody
+sword of Sir Francis Varney, who stood so willing and so capable of
+using it with the most deadly effect. They paused, as well they might,
+and this pause was the most welcome thing next to life to the
+unfortunate fugitive, for he was dreadfully distressed and bleeding.
+
+"On to him boys! He can hardly stand. See how he pants. On to him, I
+say--push him hard."
+
+"He pushes hard, I tell you," said another. "I felt the point of his
+sword, as it came through Giles's back.".
+
+"I'll try my luck, then," said another, and he rushed up; but he was met
+by the sword of Sir Francis, who pierced it through his side, and he
+fell back with a groan.
+
+Sir Francis, fearful of stopping any longer to defend that point,
+appeared desirous of making good his retreat with some little advantage,
+and he rushed up stairs before they had recovered from the momentary
+consternation into which they had been thrown by the sudden disaster
+they had received.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+But they were quickly after him, and before he, wearied as he was, could
+gain the roof, they were up the ladder after him.
+
+The first man who came through the trap was again set upon by Varney,
+who made a desperate thrust at him, and it took effect; but the sword
+snapped by the handle.
+
+With an execration, Sir Francis threw the hilt at the head of the next
+man he saw; then rushing, with headlong speed, he distanced his pursuers
+for some house tops.
+
+But the row of houses ended at the one he was then at, and he could go
+no further. What was to be done? The height was by far too great to be
+jumped; death was certain. A hideous heap of crushed and mangled bones
+would be the extent of what would remain of him, and then, perhaps, life
+not extinct for some hours afterwards.
+
+He turned round; he saw them coming hallooing over the house tops, like
+a pack of hounds. Sir Francis struck his hands together, and groaned. He
+looked round, and perceived some ivy peeping over the coping-stone. A
+thought struck him, and he instantly ran to the spot and leaned over.
+
+"Saved--saved!" he exclaimed.
+
+Then, placing his hand over, he felt for the ivy; then he got over, and
+hung by the coping-stone, in a perilous position, till he found a spot
+on which he could rest his foot, and then he grasped the ivy as low down
+as he could, and thus he lowered himself a short way, till he came to
+where the ivy was stronger and more secure to the wall, as the upper
+part was very dangerous with his weight attached to it.
+
+The mob came on, very sure of having Sir Francis Varney in their power,
+and they did not hurry on so violently, as their position was dangerous
+at that hour of the night.
+
+"Easy, boys, easy," was the cry. "The bird is our own; he can't get
+away, that's very certain."
+
+They, however, came on, and took no time about it hardly; but what was
+their amazement and rage at finding he had disappeared.
+
+"Where is he?" was the universal inquiry, and "I don't know," an almost
+universal answer.
+
+There was a long pause, while they searched around; but they saw no
+vestige of the object of their search.
+
+"There's no trap door open," remarked one; "and I don't think he could
+have got in at any one."
+
+"Perhaps, finding he could not get away, he has taken the desperate
+expedient of jumping over, and committing suicide, and so escape the
+doom he ought to be subjected to."
+
+"Probably he has; but then we can run a stake through him and burn him
+all the same."
+
+They now approached the extreme verge of the houses, and looked over the
+sides, but they could see nothing. The moon was up, and there was light
+enough to have seen him if he had fallen to the earth, and they were
+quite sure that he could not have got up after such a fall as he must
+have received.
+
+"We are beaten after all, neighbours."
+
+"I am not so sure of that," was the reply. "He may now be hidden about,
+for he was too far spent to be able to go far; he could not do that, I
+am sure."
+
+"I think not either."
+
+"Might he not have escaped by means of that ivy, yonder?" said one of
+the men, pointing to the plant, as it climbed over the coping-stones of
+the wall.
+
+"Yes; it may be possible," said one; "and yet it is very dangerous, if
+not certain destruction to get over."
+
+"Oh, yes; there is no possibility of escape that way. Why, it wouldn't
+bear a cat, for there are no nails driven into the wall at this height."
+
+"Never mind," said another, "we may as well leave no stone unturned, as
+the saying is, but at once set about looking out for him."
+
+The individual who spoke now leant over the coping stone, for some
+moments, in silence. He could see nothing, but yet he continued to gaze
+for some moments.
+
+"Do you see him?" inquired one.
+
+"No," was the answer.
+
+"Ay, ay, I thought as much," was the reply. "He might as well have got
+hold of a corner of the moon, which, I believe, is more likely--a great
+deal more likely."
+
+"Hold still a moment," said the man, who was looking over the edge of
+the house.
+
+"What's the matter now? A gnat flew into your eye?"
+
+"No; but I see him--by Jove, I see him!"
+
+"See who--see who?"
+
+"Varney, the vampyre!" shouted the man. "I see him about half-way down
+clinging, like a fly, to the wall. Odd zounds! I never saw the like
+afore!"
+
+"Hurrah! after him then, boys!"
+
+"Not the same way, if you please. Go yourself, and welcome; but I won't
+go that way."
+
+"Just as you please," said the man; "but what's good for the goose is
+good for the gander is an old saying, and so is Jack as good as his
+master."
+
+"So it may be; but cuss me if you ain't a fool if you attempt that!"
+
+The man made no reply, but did as Varney had done before, got over the
+coping stone, and then laid hold of the ivy; but, whether his weight was
+heavier than Varney's, or whether it was that the latter had loosened
+the hold of the ivy or not, but he had no sooner left go of the coping
+stone than the ivy gave way, and he was precipitated from the height of
+about fifty feet to the earth--a dreadful fall!
+
+There was a pause--no one spoke. The man lay motionless and dead--he had
+dislocated his neck!
+
+The fall had not, however, been without its effect upon Varney, for the
+man's heels struck him so forcibly on his head as he fell, that he was
+stunned, and let go his hold, and he, too, fell to the earth, but not
+many feet.
+
+He soon recovered himself, and was staggering away, when he was assailed
+by those above with groans, and curses of all kinds, and then by stones,
+and tiles, and whatever the mob could lay their hands upon.
+
+Some of these struck him, and he was cut about in various places, so
+that he could hardly stand.
+
+The hoots and shouts of the mob above had now attracted those below to
+the spot where Sir Francis Varney was trying to escape, but he had not
+gone far before the loud yells of those behind him told him that he was
+again pursued.
+
+Half dead, and almost wholly spent, unarmed, and defenceless, he scarce
+knew what to do; whether to fly, or to turn round and die as a refuge
+from the greater evil of endeavouring to prolong a struggle which seemed
+hopeless. Instinct, however, urged him on, at all risks, and though he
+could not go very far, or fast, yet on he went, with the crowd after
+him.
+
+"Down with the vampyre!--seize him--hold him--burn him! he must be down
+presently, he can't stand!"
+
+This gave them new hopes, and rendered Varney's fate almost certain.
+They renewed their exertions to overtake him, while he exerted himself
+anew, and with surprising agility, considering how he had been employed
+for more than two hours.
+
+There were some trees and hedges now that opposed the progress of both
+parties. The height of Sir Francis Varney gave him a great advantage,
+and, had he been fresh, he might have shown it to advantage in vaulting
+over the hedges and ditches, which he jumped when obliged, and walked
+through when he could.
+
+Every now and then, the party in pursuit, who had been behind him some
+distance, now they gained on him; however, they kept, every now and
+then, losing sight of him among the trees and shrubs, and he made direct
+for a small wood, hoping that when there, he should to be able to
+conceal himself for some time, so as to throw his pursuers off the
+track.
+
+They were well aware of this, for they increased their speed, and one or
+two swifter of foot than the others, got a-head of them and cried out
+aloud as they ran,--
+
+"Keep up! keep up! he's making for the wood."
+
+"He can't stop there long; there are too many of us to beat that cover
+without finding our game. Push, lads, he's our own now, as sure as we
+know he's on a-head."
+
+They did push on, and came in full sight as they saw Sir Francis enter
+the wood, with what speed he could make; but he was almost spent. This
+was a cheering sight to them, and they were pretty certain he would not
+leave the wood in the state he was then--he must seek concealment.
+
+However, they were mistaken, for Sir Francis Varney, as soon as he got
+into the wood, plunged into the thickest of it, and then paused to gain
+breath.
+
+"So far safe," he muttered; "but I have had a narrow escape; they are
+not yet done, though, and it will not be safe here long. I must away,
+and seek shelter and safety elsewhere, if I can;--curses on the hounds
+that run yelping over the fields!"
+
+He heard the shouts of his pursuers, and prepared to quit the wood when
+he thought the first had entered it.
+
+"They will remain here some time in beating about," he muttered; "that
+is the only chance I have had since the pursuit; curse them! I say
+again. I may now get free; this delay must save my life, but nothing
+else will."
+
+He moved away, and, at a slow and lazy pace, left the wood, and then
+made his way across some fields, towards some cottages, that lay on the
+left.
+
+The moon yet shone on the fields; he could hear the shouts of the mob,
+as various parties went through the wood from one covert to another, and
+yet unable to find him.
+
+Then came a great shout upon his ears, as though they had found out he
+had left the wood. This caused him to redouble his speed, and, fearful
+lest he should be seen in the moonlight, he leaped over the first fence
+that he came to, with almost the last effort he could make, and then
+staggered in at an open door--through a passage--into a front parlour,
+and there fell, faint, and utterly spent and speechless, at the feet of
+Flora Bannerworth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
+
+THE RECEPTION OF THE VAMPYRE BY FLORA.--VARNEY SUBDUED.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+We must say that the irruption into the house of the Bannerworths by Sir
+Francis Varney, was certainly unpremeditated by him, for he knew not
+into whose house he had thus suddenly rushed for refuge from the
+numerous foes who were pursuing him with such vengeful ire. It was a
+strange and singular incident, and one well calculated to cause the mind
+to pause before it passed it by, and consider the means to an end which
+are sometimes as wide of the mark, as it is in nature possible to be.
+
+But truth is stronger than fiction by far, and the end of it was, that,
+pressed on all sides by danger, bleeding, faint, and exhausted, he
+rushed into the first house he came to, and thus placed himself in the
+very house of those whom he had brought to such a state of misfortune.
+
+Flora Bannerworth was seated at some embroidery, to pass away an hour or
+so, and thus get over the tedium of time; she was not thinking, either,
+upon the unhappy past; some trifling object or other engaged her
+attention. But what was her anguish when she saw a man staggering into
+the room bleeding, and bearing the marks of a bloody contest, and
+sinking at her feet.
+
+Her astonishment was far greater yet, when she recognised that man to be
+Sir Francis Varney.
+
+"Save me!--save me! Miss Bannerworth, save me!--only you can save me
+from the ruthless multitude which follows, crying aloud for my blood."
+
+As he spoke, he sank down speechless. Flora was so much amazed, not to
+say terrified, that she knew not what to do. She saw Sir Francis a
+suppliant at her feet, a fugitive from his enemies, who would show him
+no mercy--she saw all this at a moment's glance; and yet she had not
+recovered her speech and presence of mind enough to enable her to make
+any reply to him.
+
+"Save me! Miss Flora Bannerworth, save me!" he again said, raising
+himself on his hands. "I am beset, hunted like a wild beast--they seek
+my life--they have pursued me from one spot to another, and I have
+unwittingly intruded upon you. You will save me: I am sure your kindness
+and goodness of heart will never permit me to be turned out among such a
+crew of blood-thirsty butchers as those who pursue me are."
+
+"Rise, Sir Francis Varney," said Flora, after a moment's hesitation; "in
+such an extremity as that which you are in, it would be inhuman indeed
+to thrust you out among your enemies."
+
+"Oh! it would," said Varney. "I had thought, until now, I could have
+faced such a mob, until I was in this extremity; and then, disarmed and
+thrown down, bruised, beaten, and incapable of stemming such a torrent,
+I fled from one place to another, till hunted from each, and then
+instinct alone urged me to greater exertion than before, and here I
+am--this is now my last and only hope."
+
+"Rise, Sir Francis."
+
+"You will not let me be torn out and slaughtered like an ox. I am sure
+you will not."
+
+"Sir Francis, we are incapable of such conduct; you have sought refuge
+here, and shall find it as far as we are able to afford it to you."
+
+"And your brother--and--"
+
+"Yes--yes--all who are here will do the same; but here they come to
+speak for themselves."
+
+As she spoke, Mrs. Bannerworth entered, also Charles Holland, who both
+started on seeing the vampyre present, Sir Francis Varney, who was too
+weak to rise without assistance.
+
+"Sir Francis Varney," said Flora, speaking to them as they entered, "has
+sought refuge here; his life is in peril, and he has no other hope left;
+you will, I am sure, do what can be done for him."
+
+"Mr. Holland," said Sir Francis, "I am, as you may see by my condition,
+a fugitive, and have been beaten almost to death; instinct alone urged
+me on to save my life, and I, unknowingly, came in here."
+
+"Rise, Sir Francis," said Charles Holland; "I am not one who would feel
+any pleasure in seeing you become the victim of any brutal mob. I am
+sure there are none amongst us who would willingly do so. You have
+trusted to those who will not betray you."
+
+"Thank you," said Sir Francis, faintly. "I thank you; your conduct is
+noble, and Miss Bannerworth's especially so."
+
+"Are you much hurt, Sir Francis?" inquired Charles.
+
+"I am much hurt, but not seriously or dangerously; but I am weak and
+exhausted."
+
+"Let me assist you to rise," said Charles Holland.
+
+"Thank you," said Sir Francis, as he accepted of the assistance, and
+when he stood up, he found how incapable he really was, for a child
+might have grappled with him.
+
+"I have been sore beset, Mrs. Bannerworth," he said, endeavouring to bow
+to that lady; "and I have suffered much ill-usage. I am not in such a
+plight as I could wish to be seen in by ladies; but my reasons for
+coming will be an excuse for my appearance in such disorder."
+
+"We will not say anything about that," said Charles Holland; "under the
+circumstances, it could not be otherwise."
+
+"It could not," said Sir Francis, as he took the chair Miss Flora
+Bannerworth placed for him.
+
+"I will not ask you for any explanation as to how this came about; but
+you need some restorative and rest."
+
+"I think I suffer more from exhaustion than anything else. The bruises I
+have, of course, are not dangerous."
+
+"Can you step aside a few moments?" said Mrs. Bannerworth. "I will show
+you where you can remove some of those stains, and make yourself more
+comfortable."
+
+"Thank you, madam--thank you. It will be most welcome to me, I assure
+you."
+
+Sir Francis rose up, and, with the aid of Charles Holland, he walked to
+the next room, where he washed himself, and arranged his dress as well
+as it would admit of its being done.
+
+"Mr. Holland," he said, "I cannot tell you how grateful I feel for this.
+I have been hunted from the house where you saw me. From what source
+they learned my abode--my place of concealment--I know not; but they
+found me out."
+
+"I need hardly say, Sir Francis, that it could not have occurred through
+me," said Charles Holland.
+
+"My young friend," said Sir Francis, "I am quite sure you were not; and,
+moreover, I never, for one moment, suspected you. No, no; some
+accidental circumstance alone has been the cause. I have been very
+cautious--I may say extremely so--but at the same time, living, as I
+have, surrounded by enemies on all sides, it is not to be wondered at
+that I should be seen by some one, and thus traced to my lair, whither
+they followed me at their leisure."
+
+"They have been but too troublesome in this matter. When they become a
+little reasonable, it will be a great miracle; for, when their passions
+and fears are excited, there is no end to the extremes they will
+perpetrate."
+
+"It is so," said Varney, "as the history of these last few days amply
+testifies to me. I could never have credited the extent to which popular
+excitement could be carried, and the results it was likely to produce."
+
+"It is an engine of very difficult control," pursued Charles Holland;
+"but what will raise it will not allay it, but add fuel to the fire that
+burns so fiercely already."
+
+"True enough," said Sir Francis.
+
+"If you have done, will you again step this way?"
+
+Sir Francis Varney followed Charles Holland into the sitting-room, and
+sat down with them, and before him was spread a light supper, with some
+good wine.
+
+"Eat, Sir Francis," said Mrs. Bannerworth. "Such a state as that in
+which you are, must, of necessity, produce great exhaustion, and you
+must require food and drink."
+
+Sir Francis bowed as well as he was able, and even then, sore and
+bruised as he was, fugitive as he had been, he could not forget his
+courtesy; but it was not without an effort. His equanimity was, however,
+much disturbed, by finding himself in the midst of the Bannerworths.
+
+"I owe you a relation," he said, "of what occurred to drive me from my
+place of concealment."
+
+"We should like to hear it, if you are not too far fatigued to relate
+it," said Charles.
+
+"I will. I was sitting at the top of that house in which I sought to
+hide myself, when I heard sounds come that were of a very suspicious
+nature; but did not believe that it could happen that they had
+discovered my lurking-place; far from it; though, of late, I had been
+habitually cautious and suspicious, yet I thought I was safe, till I
+heard the noise of a multitude coming towards me. I could not be
+mistaken in it, for the sounds are so peculiar that they are like
+nothing else. I heard them coming.
+
+"I moved not; and when they surrounded the house as far as was
+practicable, they gave an immense shout, and made the welkin ring with
+the sound."
+
+"I heard a confused noise at a distance," remarked Flora; "but I had no
+idea that anything serious was contemplated. I imagined it was some
+festival among some trade, or portion of the townspeople, who were
+shouting from joy."
+
+"Oh, dear no," said Sir Francis; "but I am not surprised at the mistake,
+because there are such occurrences occasionally; but whenever the mob
+gained any advantage upon me they shouted, and when I was able to oppose
+them with effect, they groaned at me most horribly."
+
+"The deuce," said Charles; "the sound, suppose, serves to express their
+feelings, and to encourage each other."
+
+"Something of the sort, I dare say," said Varney: "but at length, after
+defending the house with all the desperation that despair imparted to
+me, I was compelled to fly from floor to floor, until I had reached the
+roof; there they followed me, and I was compelled again to fly. House
+after house they followed me to, until I could go no farther," said
+Varney.
+
+"How did you escape?"
+
+"Fortunately I saw some ivy growing and creeping over the coping-stones,
+and by grasping that I got over the side, and so let myself down by
+degrees, as well as I was able."
+
+"Good heavens! what a dreadful situation," exclaimed Flora; "it is
+really horrible!"
+
+"I could not do it again, under, I think, any circumstances."
+
+"Not the same?" said Mrs. Bannerworth.
+
+"I really doubt if I could," said Varney. "The truth is, the excitement
+of the moment was great, and I at that moment thought of nothing but
+getting away.
+
+"The same circumstances, the same fear of death, could hardly be
+produced in me again, and I am unable to account for the phenomenon on
+this occasion."
+
+"Your escape was very narrow indeed," said Flora; "it makes me shudder
+to think of the dangers you have gone through; it is really terrible to
+think of it."
+
+"You," said Sir Francis, "are young and susceptible, and generous in
+your disposition, You can feel for me, and do; but how little I could
+have expected it, it is impossible to say; but your sympathy sinks into
+my mind and causes such emotions as never can be erased from my soul.
+
+"But to proceed. You may guess how dreadful was my position, by the fact
+that the first man who attempted to get over tore the ivy away and fell,
+striking me in his fall; he was killed, and I thrown down and stunned. I
+then made for the wood, closely pursued and got into it; then I baffled
+them: they searched the wood, and I went through it. I then ran across
+the country to these houses here; I got over the fence, and in at the
+back door."
+
+"Did they see you come?" inquired Charles Holland.
+
+"I cannot say, but I think that they did not; I heard them give a loud
+shout more than once when on this side of the wood."
+
+"You did? How far from here were you when you heard the shouts?"
+inquired Mrs. Bannerworth.
+
+"I was close here; and, as I jumped over the fence, I heard them shout
+again; but I think they cannot see so far; the night was moonlight, to
+be sure, but that is all; the shadow of the hedge, and the distance
+together, would make it, if not impossible, at least very improbable."
+
+"That is very likely," said Mrs. Bannerworth.
+
+"In that case," said Charles Holland, "you are safe here; for none will
+suspect your being concealed here."
+
+"It is the last place I should myself have thought of," said Varney;
+"and I may say the last place I would knowingly have come to; but had I
+before known enough of you, I should have been well assured of your
+generosity, and have freely come to claim your aid and shelter, which
+accident has so strangely brought me to be a candidate for, and which you
+have so kindly awarded me."
+
+"The night is wearing away," said Flora, "and Sir Francis is doubtless
+fatigued to an excess; sleep, I dare say, will be most welcome to him."
+
+"It will indeed, Miss Bannerworth," said Varney; "but I can do that
+under any circumstances; do not let me put you to any inconvenience; a
+chair, and at any hour, will serve me for sleep."
+
+"We cannot do for you what we would wish," said Flora, looking at her
+mother; "but something better than that, at all events, we can and will
+provide for you."
+
+"I know not how to thank you," said Sir Francis Varney; "I assure you,
+of late I have not been luxuriously lodged, and the less trouble I give
+you the greater I shall esteem the favour."
+
+The hour was late, and Sir Francis Varney, before another half hour had
+elapsed, was consigned to his own reflections, in a small but neat room,
+there to repose his bruised and battered carcass, and court the
+refreshing influence of sleep.
+
+His reflections were, for nearly an hour, of the most contradictory
+character; some one passion was trying to overcome the other; but he
+seemed quite subdued.
+
+"I could not have expected this," he muttered; "Flora Bannerworth has
+the soul of a heroine. I deserved not such a reception from them; and
+yet, in my hour of utmost need, they have received me like a favoured
+friend; and yet all their misfortunes have taken their origin from me; I
+am the cause of all."
+
+Filled with these thoughts, he fell asleep; he slept till morning broke.
+He was not disturbed; it seemed as though the influence of sleep was
+sweeter far there, in the cottage of the Bannerworths, than ever he had
+before received.
+
+It was late on that morning before Sir Francis rose, and then only
+through hearing the family about, and, having performed his toilet, so
+far as circumstances permitted, he descended, and entered the
+front-parlour, the room he had been in the night before.
+
+Flora Bannerworth was already there; indeed, breakfast was waiting the
+appearance of Sir Francis Varney.
+
+"Good morning, Miss Bannerworth," said Sir Francis, bowing with his
+usual dignified manner, but in the kindest and sincerest way he was able
+to assume.
+
+"Good morning, Sir Francis," said Flora, rising to receive him; and she
+could not avoid looking at him as he entered the room. "I hope you have
+had a pleasant night?"
+
+"It has been the best night's rest I have had for some time, Miss
+Bannerworth. I assure you I have to express my gratitude to you for so
+much kindness. I have slept well, and soundly."
+
+"I am glad to hear it."
+
+"I think yet I shall escape the search of these people who have hunted
+me from so many places."
+
+"I hope you may, indeed, Sir Francis."
+
+"You, Miss Bannerworth! and do you hope I may escape the vengeance of
+these people--the populace?"
+
+"I do, Sir Francis, most sincerely hope so. Why should I wish evil to
+you, especially at their hands?"
+
+Sir Francis did not speak for a minute or two, and then he said, turning
+full upon Flora--
+
+"I don't know why, Miss Bannerworth, that I should think so, but perhaps
+it is because there are peculiar circumstances connected with myself,
+that have made me feel conscious that I have not deserved so much
+goodness at your hands."
+
+"You have not deserved any evil. Sir Francis, we could not do that if it
+were in our power; we would do you a service at any time."
+
+"You have done so, Miss Bannerworth--the greatest that can be performed.
+You have saved my life."
+
+At that moment Charles Holland entered, and Sir Francis bowed, as he
+said,--
+
+"I hope you, Mr. Holland, have slept as well, and passed as good a night
+as I have passed?"
+
+"I am glad you, at least, have passed a quiet one," said Charles
+Holland; "you, I dare say, feel all the better for it? How do you feel
+yourself? Are you much hurt?"
+
+"Not at all, not at all," said Sir Francis Varney. "Only a few bruises,
+and so forth, some of which, as you may perceive, do not add to one's
+personal appearance. A week or two's quiet would rid me of them. At all
+events, I would it may do the same with my enemies."
+
+"I wish they were as easily gotten rid of myself," said Charles; "but as
+that cannot be, we must endeavour to baffle them in the best way we
+may."
+
+"I owe a debt to you I shall never be able to repay; but where there is
+a will, they say there is a way; and if the old saying be good for
+anything, I need not despair, though the way is by no means apparent at
+present."
+
+"Time is the magician," said Flora, "whose wand changes all things--the
+young to the aged, and the aged to nothing."
+
+"Certainly, that is true," said Varney, "and many such changes have I
+seen. My mind is stored with such events; but this is sadness, and I
+have cause to rejoice."
+
+* * * *
+
+The breakfast was passed off in pleasing conversation, and Varney found
+himself much at home with the Bannerworths, whose calm and even tenour
+was quite new to him.
+
+He could not but admit the charms of such a life as that led by the
+Bannerworths; but what it must have been when they were supplied by
+ample means, with nothing to prey upon their minds, and no fearful
+mystery to hang on and weigh down their spirits, he could scarcely
+imagine.
+
+They were amiable, accomplished; they were in the same mind at all times,
+and nothing seemed to ruffle them; and when night came, he could not but
+acknowledge to himself that he had never formed half the opinion of them
+they were deserving of.
+
+Of course during that day he was compelled to lie close, so as not to be
+seen by any one, save the family. He sat in a small room, which was
+overlooked by no other in the neighbourhood, and he remained quiet,
+sometimes conversing, and sometimes reading, but at the same time ever
+attentive to the least sound that appeared at all of a character to
+indicate the approach of persons for any purpose whatever.
+
+At supper time he spoke to Flora and to Charles Holland, saying,--
+
+"There are certain matters connected with myself--I may say with you
+now--sure all that has happened will make it so--of which you would be
+glad to hear some thing."
+
+"You mean upon the same subject upon which I had some conversation with
+you a day or two back?"
+
+"Yes, the same. Allow me one week, and you shall know all. I will then
+relate to you that which you so much desire to know--one week, and all
+shall be told."
+
+"Well," said Charles Holland, "this has not been exacted from you as the
+price of your safety, but you can choose your own time, of course; what
+you promise is most desired, for it will render those happy who now are
+much worse than they were before these occurrences took place."
+
+"I am aware of all that; grant me but one week, and then you shall be
+made acquainted with all."
+
+"I am satisfied, Sir Francis," said Flora; "but while here under our
+roof, we should never have asked you a question."
+
+"Of this, Miss Bannerworth, the little I have seen of you assures me you
+would not do so; however, I am the more inclined to make it--I am under
+so deep an obligation to you all, that I can never repay it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sir Francis Varney retired to rest that night--his promise to the
+Bannerworths filled his mind with many reflections--the insecurity of
+his own position, and the frail tenure which he even held in the hands
+of those whom he had most injured.
+
+This produced a series of reflections of a grave and melancholy nature,
+and he sat by his window, watching the progress of the clouds, as they
+appeared to chase each other over the face of the scene--now casting a
+shade over the earth, and then banishing the shadows, and throwing a
+gentle light over the earth's surface, which was again chased away, and
+shadows again fell upon the scene below.
+
+How long he had sat there in melancholy musing he knew not; but suddenly
+he was aroused from his dreams by a voice that shook the skies, and
+caused him to start to his feet.
+
+"Hurrah!--hurrah!--hurrah!" shouted the mob, which had silently
+collected around the cottage of the Bannerworths.
+
+"Curses!" muttered Sir Francis, as he again sank in his chair, and
+struck his head with his hand. "I am hunted to death--they will not
+leave me until my body has graced a cross-road."
+
+"Hurrah!--down with the vampyre--pull him out!"
+
+Then came an instant knocking at the doors, and the people on the
+outside made so great a din, that it seemed as though they contemplated
+knocking the house down at once, without warning the inmates that they
+waited there.
+
+There was a cessation for about a minute, when one of the family
+hastened to the door, and inquired what was wanted.
+
+"Varney, the vampyre," was the reply.
+
+"You must seek him elsewhere."
+
+"We will search this place before we go further," replied a man.
+
+"But he is not here."
+
+"We have reason to believe otherwise. Open the door, and let us in--no
+one shall be hurt, or one single object in the house; but we must come
+in, and search for the vampyre."
+
+"Come to-morrow, then."
+
+"That will not do," said the voice; "open, or we force our way in
+without more notice."
+
+At the same a tremendous blow was bestowed upon the door, and then much
+force was used to thrust it in. A consultation was suddenly held among
+the inmates, as to what was to be done, but no one could advise, and
+each was well aware of the utter impossibility of keeping the mob out.
+
+"I do not see what is to become of me," said Sir Francis Varney,
+suddenly appearing before them. "You must let them in; there is no
+chance of keeping them off, neither can you conceal me. You will have no
+place, save one, that will be sacred from their profanation."
+
+"And which is that?"
+
+"Flora's own room."
+
+All started at the thought that Flora's chamber could in any way be
+profaned by any such presence as Sir Francis Varney's.
+
+However, the doors below were suddenly burst open, amid loud cries from
+the populace, who rushed in in great numbers, and began to search the
+lower rooms, immediately.
+
+"All is lost!" said Sir Francis Varney, as he dashed away and rushed to
+the chamber of Flora, who, alarmed at the sounds that were now filling
+the house, stood listening to them.
+
+"Miss Bannerworth--" began Varney.
+
+"Sir Francis!"
+
+"Yes, it is indeed I, Miss Bannerworth; hear me, for one moment."
+
+"What is the matter?"
+
+"I am again in peril--in more imminent peril than before; my life is not
+worth a minute's purchase, unless you save me. You, and you alone, can
+now save me. Oh! Miss Bannerworth, if ever pity touched your heart, save
+me from those only whom I now fear. I could meet death in any shape but
+that in which they will inflict it upon me. Hear their execrations
+below!"
+
+"Death to the vampyre! death to Varney! burn him! run a stake through
+his body!"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"What can I do, Sir Francis?"
+
+"Admit me to your chamber."
+
+"Sir Francis, are you aware of what you are saying?"
+
+"I am well. It is a request which you would justly scorn to reply to,
+but now my life--recollect you have saved me once--my life,--do not now
+throw away the boon you have so kindly bestowed. Save me, Miss
+Bannerworth."
+
+"It is not possible. I--"
+
+"Nay, Miss Bannerworth, do you imagine this is a time for ceremony, or
+the observances of polished life! On my honour, you run no risk of
+censure."
+
+"Where is Varney? Where is the vampyre? He ain't far off."
+
+"Hear--hear them, Miss Bannerworth. They are now at the foot of the
+stairs. Not a moment to lose. One minute more, and I am in the hands of
+a crew that has no mercy."
+
+"Hurrah! upstairs! He's not below. Upstairs, neighbours, we shall have
+him yet!"
+
+These words sounded on the stairs: half-a-dozen more steps, and Varney
+would be seen. It was a miracle he was not heard begging for his life.
+
+Varney cast a look of despair at the stairhead and felt for his sword,
+but it was not there, he had lost it. He struck his head with his
+clenched hand, and was about to rush upon his foes, when he heard the
+lock turn; he looked, and saw the door opened gently, and Flora stood
+there; he passed in, and sank cowering into a chair, at the other end of
+the room, behind some curtains.
+
+The door was scarcely shut ere some tried to force it, and then a loud
+knocking came at the door.
+
+"Open! open! we want Varney, the vampyre. Open! or we will burst it
+open."
+
+Flora did open it, but stood resolutely in the opening, and held up her
+hand to impose silence.
+
+"Are you men, that you can come thus to force yourselves upon the
+privacy of a female? Is there nothing in the town or house, that you
+must intrude in numbers into a private apartment? Is no place sacred
+from you?"
+
+"But, ma'am--miss--we only want Varney, the vampyre."
+
+"And can you find him nowhere but in a female's bedroom? Shame on you!
+shame on you! Have you no sisters, wives, or mothers, that you act
+thus?"
+
+"He's not there, you may be sure of that, Jack," said a gruff voice.
+"Let the lady be in quiet; she's had quite enough trouble with him to
+sicken her of a vampyre. You may be sure that's the last place to find
+him in."
+
+With this they all turned away, and Flora shut the door and locked it
+upon them, and Varney was safe.
+
+"You have saved me," said Varney.
+
+"Hush!" said Flora. "Speak not; there maybe some one listening."
+
+Sir Francis Varney stood in the attitude of one listening most anxiously
+to catch some sounds; the moon fell across his face, and gave it a
+ghastly hue, that, added to his natural paleness and wounds, gave him an
+almost unearthly aspect.
+
+The sounds grew more and more distant; the shouts and noise of men
+traversing the apartments subsided, and gradually the place became
+restored to its original silence. The mob, after having searched every
+other part of the house, and not finding the object of their search,
+they concluded that he was not there, but must have made his escape
+before.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This most desperate peril of Sir Francis Varney seemed to have more
+effect upon him than anything that had occurred during his most strange
+and most eventful career.
+
+When he was assured that the riotous mob that had been so intent upon
+his destruction was gone, and that he might emerge from his place of
+concealment, he did so with an appearance of such utter exhaustion that
+the Bannerworth family could not but look upon him as a being who was
+near his end.
+
+At any time his countenance, as we long have had occasion to remark, was
+a strange and unearthly looking one; but when we come to superadd to the
+strangeness of his ordinary appearance the traces of deep mental
+emotion, we may well say that Varney's appearance was positively of the
+most alarming character.
+
+When he was seated in the ordinary sitting apartment of the
+Bannerworths, he drew a long sighing breath, and placing his hand upon
+his heart, he said, in a faint tone of voice,--
+
+"It beats now laboriously, but it will soon cease its pulsations for
+ever."
+
+These words sounded absolutely prophetic, there was about them such a
+solemn aspect, and he looked at the same time that he uttered them so
+much like one whose mortal race was run, and who was now a candidate for
+the grave.
+
+"Do not speak so despairingly," said Charles Holland; "remember, that if
+your life has been one of errors hitherto, how short a space of time may
+suffice to redeem some of them at least, and the communication to me
+which you have not yet completed may to some extent have such an
+effect."
+
+"No, no. It may contribute to an act of justice, but it can do no good
+to me. And yet do not suppose that because such is my impression that I
+mean to hesitate in finishing to you that communication."
+
+"I rejoice to hear you say so, and if you would, now that you must be
+aware of what good feelings towards you we are all animated with, remove
+the bar of secrecy from the communication, I should esteem it a great
+favour."
+
+Varney appeared to be considering for a few moments, and then he said,--
+
+"Well, well. Let the secrecy no longer exist. Have it removed at once. I
+will no longer seek to maintain it. Tell all, Charles Holland--tell
+all."
+
+Thus empowered by the mysterious being, Charles Holland related briefly
+what Varney had already told him, and then concluded by saying,--
+
+"That is all that I have myself as yet been made aware of, and I now
+call upon Sir Francis Varney to finish his narration."
+
+"I am weak," said Varney, "and scarcely equal to the task; but yet I
+will not shrink from the promise that I have made. You have been the
+preservers of my life, and more particularly to you, Flora Bannerworth,
+am I indebted for an existence, which otherwise must have been
+sacrificed upon the altar of superstition."
+
+"But you will recollect, Master Varney," said the admiral, who had sat
+looking on for some time in silent wonder, "you must recollect, Master
+Varney, that the people are, after all, not so much to blame for their
+superstition, because, whether you are a vampyre or not, and I don't
+pretend to come to a positive opinion now, you took good care to
+persuade them you were."
+
+"I did," said Varney, with a shudder; "but why did I?"
+
+"Well, you know best."
+
+"It was, then, because I did believe, and do believe, that there is
+something more than natural about my strangely protracted existence; but
+we will waive that point, and, before my failing strength, for it
+appears to me to be failing, completely prevents me from doing so, let
+me relate to you the continued particulars of the circumstances that
+made me what I am."
+
+Flora Bannerworth, although she had heard before from the lips of
+Charles Holland the to her dreadful fact, that her father, in addition
+to having laid violent hands upon his own life, was a murderer, now that
+that fearful circumstance was related more publicly, felt a greater pang
+than she had done when it was whispered to her in the accents of pure
+affection, and softened down by a gentleness of tone, which Charles
+Holland's natural delicacy would not allow him to use even to her whom
+he loved so well in the presence of others.
+
+She let her beautiful face be hidden by her hands, and she wept as she
+listened to the sad detail.
+
+Varney looked inquiringly in the countenance of Charles Holland,
+because, having given him leave to make Flora acquainted with the
+circumstance, he was rather surprised at the amount of emotion which it
+produced in her.
+
+Charles Holland answered the appealing look by saying,--
+
+"Flora is already aware of the facts, but it naturally affects her much
+to hear them now repeated in the presence of others, and those too,
+towards whom she cannot feel--"
+
+What Charles Holland was going to say was abruptly stopped short by the
+admiral, who interposed, exclaiming,--
+
+"Why, what do you mean, you son of a sea cook? The presence of who do
+you mean? Do you mean to say that I don't feel for Miss Flora, bless her
+heart! quite as much as a white-faced looking swab like you? Why, I
+shall begin to think you are only fit for a marine."
+
+"Nay, uncle, now do not put yourself out of temper. You must be well
+aware that I could not mean anything disrespectful to you. You should
+not suppose such a state of things possible; and although, perhaps, I
+did not express myself so felicitously as I might, yet what I intended
+to say, was--"
+
+"Oh, bother what you intended to say. You go on, Mr. Vampyre, with your
+story. I want to know what became of it all; just you get on as quick as
+you can, and let us know what you did after the man was murdered."
+
+"When the dreadful deed was committed," said Varney, "and our victim lay
+weltering in his blood, and had breathed his last, we stood like men who
+for the first time were awakened to the frightful consequences of what
+they had done.
+
+"I saw by the dim light that hovered round us a great change come over
+the countenance of Marmaduke Bannerworth, and he shook in every limb.
+
+"This soon passed away, however, and the powerful and urgent necessity
+which arose of avoiding the consequences of the deed that we had done,
+restored us to ourselves. We stooped and took from the body the
+ill-gotten gains of the gambler. They amounted to an immense sum, and I
+said to Marmaduke Bannerworth,--
+
+"'Take you the whole of this money and proceed to your own home with it,
+where you will be least suspected. Hide it in some place of great
+secrecy, and to-morrow I will call upon you, when we will divide it, and
+will consider of some means of safely exchanging the notes for gold.'
+
+"He agreed to this, and placed the money in his pocket, after which it
+became necessary that we should dispose of the body, which, if we did
+not quickly remove, must in a few hours be discovered, and so,
+perchance, accompanied by other criminating circumstances, become a
+frightful evidence against us, and entail upon us all those consequences
+of the deed which we were so truly anxious to escape from.
+
+"It is ever the worst part of the murderer's task, that after he has
+struck the blow that has deprived his victim of existence, it becomes
+his frightful duty to secrete the corpse, which, with its dead eyes,
+ever seems to be glaring upon him such a world of reproach.
+
+"That it is which should make people pause ere they dipped their hands
+in the blood of others, and that it is which becomes the first
+retribution that the murderer has to endure for the deep crime that he
+has committed.
+
+"We tore two stakes from a hedge, and with their assistance we contrived
+to dig a very superficial hole, such a hole as was only sufficient, by
+placing a thin coating of earth over it, to conceal the body of the
+murdered man.
+
+"And then came the loathsome task of dragging him into it--a task full
+of horror, and from which we shrunk aghast; but it had to be done, and,
+therefore, we stooped, and grasping the clothes as best we might, we
+dragged the body into the chasm we had prepared for its reception. Glad
+were we then to be enabled to throw the earth upon it and to stamp upon
+it with such vehemence as might well be supposed to actuate men deeply
+anxious to put out of sight some dangerous and loathsome object.
+
+"When we had completed this, and likewise gathered handsfull of dust
+from the road, and dry leaves, and such other matter, to sprinkle upon
+the grave, so as to give the earth an appearance of not having been
+disturbed, we looked at each other and breathed from our toil.
+
+"Then, and not till then, was it that we remembered that among other
+things which the gambler had won of Marmaduke were the deeds belonging
+to the Dearbrook property."
+
+"The Dearbrook property!" exclaimed Henry Bannerworth; "I know that
+there was a small estate going by that name, which belonged to our
+family, but I always understood that long ago my father had parted with
+it."
+
+"Yes; it was mortgaged for a small sum--a sum not a fourth part of its
+value--and it had been redeemed by Marmaduke Bannerworth, not for the
+purpose of keeping it, but in order that he might sell it outright, and
+so partially remedy his exhausted finances."
+
+"I was not aware of that," returned Henry.
+
+"Doubtless you were not, for of late--I mean for the twelve months or so
+preceding your father's death--you know he was much estranged from all
+the family, so that you none of you knew much of what he was doing,
+except that he was carrying on a very wild and reckless career, such as
+was sure to end in dishonour and poverty; but I tell you he had the
+title deeds of the Dearbrook property, and that they were only got from
+him, along with everything else of value that he possessed, at the
+gaming-table, by the man who paid such a fearful penalty for his
+success.
+
+"It was not until after the body was completely buried, and we had
+completed all our precautions for more effectually hiding it from
+observation, that we recollected the fact of those important papers
+being in his possession. It was Marmaduke Bannerworth who first
+remembered it, and he exclaimed,--
+
+"'By Heaven, we have buried the title deeds of the property, and we
+shall have again to exhume the corpse for the purpose of procuring
+them.'
+
+"Now those deeds were nothing to me, and repugnant as I had felt from
+the first to having anything whatever to do with the dead body, it was
+not likely that I would again drag it from the earth for such an object.
+
+"'Marmaduke Bannerworth,' I said, 'you can do what you please, and take
+the consequences of what you do, but I will not again, if I can help it,
+look upon the face of that corpse. It is too fearful a sight to
+contemplate again. You have a large sum of money, and what need you care
+now for the title deeds of a property comparatively insignificant?'
+
+"'Well, well,' he said, 'I will not, at the present time, disturb the
+remains; I will wait to see if anything should arise from the fact of
+the murder; if it should turn out that no suspicion of any kind is
+excited, but that all is still and quiet, I can then take measures to
+exhume the corpse, and recover those papers, which certainly are
+important.'
+
+"By this time the morning was creeping on apace, and we thought it
+prudent to leave the spot. We stood at the end of the lane for a few
+moments conversing, and those moments were the last in which I ever saw
+Marmaduke Bannerworth."
+
+"Answer me a question," said Henry.
+
+"I will; ask me what you please, I will answer it."
+
+"Was it you that called at Bannerworth Hall, after my father's
+melancholy death, and inquired for him?"
+
+"I did; and when I heard of the deed that he had done, I at once left,
+in order to hold counsel with myself as to what I should do to obtain at
+least a portion of the property, one-half of which, it was understood,
+was to have been mine. I heard what had been the last words used by
+Marmaduke Bannerworth on the occasion of his death, and they were amply
+sufficient to let me know what had been done with the money--at all
+events, so far as regards the bestowal of it in some secret place; and
+from that moment the idea of, by some means or another, getting the
+exclusive possession of it, never forsook my mind.
+
+"I thought over the matter by day and, by night; and with the exception
+of having a knowledge of the actual hiding-place of the money, I could
+see, in the clearest possible manner, how the whole affair had been
+transacted. There can be no doubt but that Marmaduke Bannerworth had
+reached home safely with the large sum of which he had become possessed,
+and that he had hidden it securely, which was but an ordinary measure of
+precaution, when we come to consider how the property had been obtained.
+
+"Then I suspect that, being alone, and left to the gloom of his own
+miserable thoughts, they reverted so painfully to the past that he was
+compelled to drink deeply for the purpose of drowning reflection.
+
+"The natural consequence of this, in his state, was, that partial
+insanity supervened, and at a moment when frenzy rose far above
+reflection, he must have committed the dreadful act which hurried him
+instantaneously to eternity."
+
+"Yes," said Henry; "it must have been so; you have guessed truly. He did
+on that occasion drink an immense quantity of wine; but instead of
+stilling the pangs of remorse it must have increased them, and placed
+him in such a frenzied condition of intellect, that he found it
+impossible to withstand the impulse of it, unless by the terrific act
+which ended his existence."
+
+"Yes, and which at once crushed all my expectations of the large fortune
+which was to have been mine; for even the one-half of the sum which had
+been taken from the gamester's pocket would have been sufficient to have
+enabled me to live for the future in affluence.
+
+"I became perfectly maddened at the idea that so large a sum had passed
+out of my hands. I constantly hovered about Bannerworth Hall, hoping and
+expecting that something might arise which would enable me to get
+admittance to it, and make an active search through its recesses for the
+hidden treasure.
+
+"All my exertions were in vain. I could hit upon no scheme whatever; and
+at length, wearied and exhausted, I was compelled to proceed to London
+for the sake of a subsistence. It is only in that great metropolis that
+such persons as myself, destitute of real resources, but infinitely
+reckless as regards the means by which they acquire a subsistence, can
+hope to do so. Once again, therefore, I plunged into the vortex of
+London life, and proceeded, heedless of the criminality of what I was
+about, to cater for myself by robbery, or, indeed, in any manner which
+presented a prospect of success. It was during this career of mine, that
+I became associated with some of the most desperate characters of the
+time; and the offences we committed were of that daring character that
+it could not be wondered at eventually so formidable a gang of
+desperadoes must be by force broken up.
+
+"It so occurred, but unknown to us, that the police resolved upon making
+one of the most vigorous efforts to put an end to the affair, and in
+consequence a watch was set upon every one of our movements.
+
+"The result of this was, as might have been expected, our complete
+dispersion, and the arrest of some our members, and among them myself.
+
+"I knew my fate almost from the first. Our depredations had created such
+a sensation, that the legislature, even, had made it a matter of
+importance that we should be suppressed, and it was an understood thing
+among the judges, that the severest penalties of the law should be
+inflicted upon any one of the gang who might be apprehended and
+convicted.
+
+"My trial scarcely occupied an hour, and then I was convicted and
+sentenced to execution, with an intimation from the judge that it would
+be perfectly absurd of me to dream, for one moment, of a remission of
+that sentence.
+
+"In this state of affairs, and seeing nothing but death before me, I
+gave myself up to despair, and narrowly missed cheating the hangman of
+his victim.
+
+"More dead than alive, I was, however, dragged out to be judicially
+murdered, and I shall never forget the crowd of frightful sensations
+that came across my mind upon that terrific occasion.
+
+"It seemed as if my fate had then reached its climax, and I have really
+but a dim recollection of the terrible scene.
+
+"I remember something of the confused murmur arising from an immense
+throng of persons. I remember looking about me, and seeing nothing but
+what appeared to me an immense sea of human heads, and then suddenly I
+heard a loud roar of execration burst from the multitude.
+
+"I shrunk back terrified, and it did, indeed, seem to me a brutal thing
+thus to roar and shout at a man who was brought out to die. I soon,
+however, found that the mob who came to see such a spectacle was not so
+debased as I imagined, but that it was at the hangman, who had suddenly
+made his appearance on the scaffold, at whom they raised that fearful
+yell.
+
+"Some one--I think it was one of the sheriffs--must have noticed that I
+was labouring under the impression that the cry from the mob was
+levelled at me, for he spoke, saying,--
+
+"'It is at the hangman they shout,' and he indicated with his finger
+that public functionary. In my mind's eye I think I see him now, and I
+am certain that I shall never forget the expression of his face. It was
+perfectly fearful; and afterwards, when I learned who and what he was, I
+was not surprised that he should feel so acutely the painfully degrading
+office which he had to perform.
+
+"The fatal rope was in a few minutes adjusted to my neck. I felt its
+pressure, and I heard the confused sounds of the monotonous voice of the
+clergyman, as he muttered some prayers, that I must confess sounded to
+me at the time like a mockery of human suffering.
+
+"Then suddenly there was a loud shout--I felt the platform give way
+beneath my feet--I tried to utter a yell of agony, but could not--it
+seemed to me as if I was encompassed by fire, and then sensation left
+me, and I knew no more.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The next feelings of existence that came over me consisted in a
+frightful tingling sensation throughout my veins, and I felt myself
+making vain efforts to scream. All the sensations of a person suffering
+from a severe attack of nightmare came across me, and I was in such an
+agony, that I inwardly prayed for death to release me from such a cruel
+state of suffering. Then suddenly the power to utter a sound came to me,
+and I made use of it well, for the piercing shriek I uttered, must have
+struck terror into the hearts of all who heard it, since it appalled
+even myself.
+
+"Then I suppose I must have fainted, but when I recovered consciousness
+again, I found myself upon a couch, and a man presenting some stimulus
+to me in a cup. I could not distinguish objects distinctly, but I heard
+him say, 'Drink, and you will be better.'
+
+"I did drink, for a raging thirst consumed me, and then I fell into a
+sound sleep, which, I was afterwards told, lasted nearly twenty-four
+hours, and when I recovered from that, I heard again the same voice that
+had before spoken to me, asking me how I was.
+
+"I turned in the direction of the sound, and, as my vision was now
+clearer, I could see that it was the hangman, whose face had made upon
+the scaffold such an impression upon me--an impression which I then
+considered my last in this world, but which turned out not to be such by
+many a mingled one of pain and pleasure since.
+
+"It was some time before I could speak, and when I did, it was only in a
+few muttered words, to ask what had happened, and where I was.
+
+"'Do you not remember,' he said, 'that you were hanged?'
+
+"'I do--I do,' was my reply. 'Is this the region of damned souls?'
+
+"'No; you are still in this world, however strange you may think it.
+Listen to me, and I will briefly tell you how it is that you have come
+back again, as it were, from the very grave, to live and walk about
+among the living."
+
+"I listened to him with a strange and rapt attention, and then he told
+how a young and enthusiastic medical man had been anxious to try some
+experiments with regard to the restoration of persons apparently dead,
+and he proceeded to relate how it was that he had given ear to the
+solicitations of the man, and had consented to bring my body after it
+was hung for him to experiment upon. He related how the doctor had been
+successful, but how he was so terrified at his own success, that he
+hastily fled, and had left London, no one knowing whither he had gone.
+
+"I listened to this with the most profound attention, and then he
+concluded, by saying to me,--
+
+"'There can be no doubt but my duty requires of me to give you up again
+to the offended laws of your country. I will not, however, do that, if
+you will consent to an arrangement that I shall propose to you.'
+
+"I asked him what the arrangement was, and he said that if I would
+solemnly bind myself to pay to him a certain sum per annum, he would
+keep my secret, and forsaking his calling as hangman, endeavour to do
+something that should bring with it pleasanter results. I did so
+solemnly promise him, and I have kept my word. By one means or another I
+have succeeded in procuring the required amount, and now he is no more."
+
+"I believe," cried Henry, "that he has fallen a victim to the blind fury
+of the populace."
+
+"You are right, he has so, and accordingly I am relieved from the burden
+of those payments; but it matters little, for now I am so near the tomb
+myself, that, together with all my obligations, I shall soon be beyond
+the reach of mortal cavilling."
+
+"You need not think so, Varney; you must remember that you are at
+present suffering from circumstances, the pressure of which will soon
+pass away, and then you will resume your wonted habits."
+
+"What did you do next?" said the admiral.--"Let's know all while you are
+about it."
+
+"I remained at the hangman's house for some time, until all fear of
+discovery was over, and then he removed me to a place of greater
+security, providing me from his own resources with the means of
+existence, until I had fully recovered my health, and then he told me to
+shift for myself.
+
+"During my confinement though, I had not been idle mentally, for I
+concocted a plan, by which I should be enabled not only to live well
+myself, but to pay to the hangman, whose name was Mortimore, the annual
+sum I had agreed upon. I need not go into the details of this plan. Of
+course it was neither an honest nor respectable one, but it succeeded,
+and I soon found myself in a position to enable me thereby to keep my
+engagement, as well as to supply me with means of plotting and planning
+for my future fortunes.
+
+"I had never for a moment forgotten that so large a sum of money was
+somewhere concealed about Bannerworth Hall, and I still looked forward
+to obtaining it by some means or another.
+
+"It was in this juncture of affairs, that one night I was riding on
+horseback through a desolate part of England. The moon was shining
+sweetly, as I came to a broad stream of water, across which, about a
+mile further on, I saw that there was a bridge, but being unwilling to
+waste time by riding up to it, and fancying, by the lazy ripple of the
+waters, that the river was not shallow, I plunged my horse boldly into
+the stream.
+
+"When we reached its centre, some sudden indisposition must have seized
+the horse, for instead of swimming on well and gallantly as it had done
+before, it paused for a moment, and then plunged headlong into the
+torrent.
+
+"I could not swim, and so, for a second time, death, with all its
+terrors, appeared to be taking possession of me. The waters rolled over
+my head, gurgling and hissing in my ears, and then all was past. I know
+no more, until I found myself lying upon a bright green meadow, and the
+full beams of the moon shining upon me.
+
+"I was giddy and sick, but I rose, and walked slowly away, each moment
+gathering fresh strength, and from that time to this, I never discovered
+how I came to be rescued from the water, and lying upon that green bank.
+It has ever been a mystery to me, and I expect it ever will.
+
+"Then from that moment the idea that I had a sort of charmed life came
+across me, and I walked about with an impression that such was the case,
+until I came across a man who said that he was a Hungarian, and who was
+full of strange stories of vampyres. Among other things, he told me that
+a vampyre could not be drowned, for that the waters would cast him upon
+its banks, and, if the moonbeams fell upon him, he would be restored to
+life.
+
+"This was precisely my story, and from that moment I believed myself to
+be one of those horrible, but charmed beings, doomed to such a
+protracted existence. The notion grew upon me day by day, and hour by
+hour, until it became quite a fixed and strong belief, and I was
+deceiving no one when I played the horrible part that has been
+attributed to me."
+
+"But you don't mean to say that you believe you are a vampyre now?" said
+the admiral.
+
+"I say nothing, and know not what to think. I am a desperate man, and
+what there is at all human in me, strange to say, all of you whom I
+sought to injure, have awakened."
+
+"Heed not that," said Henry, "but continue your narrative. We have
+forgiven everything, and that ought to suffice to quiet your mind upon
+such a subject."
+
+"I will continue; and, believe me, I will conceal nothing from you. I
+look upon the words I am now uttering as a full, candid, and free
+confession; and, therefore, it shall be complete.
+
+"The idea struck me that if, by taking advantage of my supposed
+preternatural gifts, I could drive you from Bannerworth Hall, I should
+have it to myself to hunt through at my leisure, and possibly find the
+treasure. I had heard from Marmaduke Bannerworth some slight allusion to
+concealing the money behind a picture that was in a bed-room called the
+panelled chamber. By inquiry, I ascertained that in that bed-room slept
+Flora Bannerworth.
+
+"I had resolved, however, at first to try pacific measures, and
+accordingly, as you are well aware, I made various proposals to you to
+purchase or to rent Bannerworth Hall, the whole of which you rejected;
+so that I found myself compelled to adopt the original means that had
+suggested themselves to me, and endeavour to terrify you from the house.
+
+"By prowling about, I made myself familiar with the grounds, and with
+all the plan of the residence, and then one night made my appearance in
+Flora's chamber by the window."
+
+"But how do you account," said Charles Holland, "for your extraordinary
+likeness to the portrait?"
+
+"It is partly natural, for I belong to a collateral branch of the
+family; and it was previously arranged. I had seen the portrait in
+Marmaduke Bannerworth's time, and I knew some of its peculiarities and
+dress sufficiently well to imitate them. I calculated upon producing a
+much greater effect by such an imitation; and it appears that I was not
+wrong, for I did produce it to the full."
+
+"You did, indeed," said Henry; "and if you did not bring conviction to
+our minds that you were what you represented yourself to be, you at
+least staggered our judgments upon the occasion, and left us in a
+position of great doubt and difficulty."
+
+"I did; I did all that, I know I did; and, by pursuing that line of
+conduct, I, at last, I presume, entirely forced you from the house."
+
+"That you did."
+
+"Flora fainted when I entered her chamber; and the moment I looked upon
+her sweet countenance my heart smote me for what I was about; but I
+solemnly aver, that my lips never touched her, and that, beyond the
+fright, she suffered nothing from Varney, the vampyre."
+
+"And have you succeeded," said Henry, "in your object now?"
+
+"No; the treasure has yet to be found. Mortimore, the hangman, followed
+me into the house, guessing my intention, and indulging a hope that he
+would succeed in sharing with me its proceeds. But he, as well as
+myself, was foiled, and nothing came of the toilsome and anxious search
+but disappointment and bitterness."
+
+"Then it is supposed that the money is still concealed?"
+
+"I hope so; I hope, as well, that it will be discovered by you and
+yours; for surely none can have a better right to it than you, who have
+suffered so much on its account."
+
+"And yet," remarked Henry, "I cannot help thinking it is too securely
+hidden from us. The picture has been repeatedly removed from its place,
+and produced no results; so that I fear we have little to expect from
+any further or more protracted research."
+
+"I think," said Varney, "that you have everything to expect. The words
+of the dying Marmaduke Bannerworth, you may depend, were not spoken in
+vain; and I have every reason to believe that, sooner or later, you
+must, without question, become the possessors of that sum."
+
+"But ought we rightly to hold it?"
+
+"Who ought more rightly to hold it?" said Varney; "answer me that."
+
+"That's a sensible enough idea of your's," said the admiral; "and if you
+were twice over a vampyre, I would tell you so. It's a very sensible
+idea; I should like to know who has more right to it than those who have
+had such a world of trouble about it."
+
+"Well, well," said Henry, "we must not dispute, as yet, about a sum of
+money that may really never come to hand. For my own part, I have little
+to hope for in the matter; but, certainly, nothing shall be spared, on
+my part, to effect such a thorough search of the Hall as shall certainly
+bring it to light, if it be in existence."
+
+"I presume, Sir Francis Varney," said Charles Holland, "that you have
+now completed your narrative?"
+
+"I have. After events are well known to you. And, now, I have but to lie
+down and die, with the hope of finding that rest and consolation in the
+tomb which has been denied me hitherto in this world. My life has been a
+stormy one, and full of the results of angry passions. I do hope now,
+that, for the short time I have to live, I shall know something like
+serenity, and die in peace."
+
+"You may depend, Varney, that, as long as you have an asylum with us,"
+said the admiral--"and that you may have as long as you like,--you may
+be at peace. I consider that you have surrendered at discretion, and,
+under such circumstances, an enemy always deserves honourable treatment,
+and always gets it on board such a ship as this."
+
+"There you go again," said Jack, "calling the house a ship."
+
+"What's that to you, if I were to call it a bowsprit? Ain't I your
+captain, you lubber, and so, sure to be right, while you are wrong, in
+the natural order of things? But you go and lay down, Master Varney, and
+rest yourself, for you seem completely done up."
+
+Varney did look fearfully exhausted; and, with the assistance of Henry
+and Charles, he went into another apartment, and laid down upon a couch,
+showing great symptoms of debility and want of power.
+
+And now it was a calm; Varney's stay at the cottage of the Bannerworths
+was productive of a different mood of mind than ever he had possessed
+before. He looked upon them in a very different manner to what he had
+been used to. He had, moreover, considerably altered prospects; there
+could not be the same hopes and expectations that he once had. He was an
+altered man. He saw in the Bannerworths those who had saved his life,
+and who, without doubt, had possessed an opinion, not merely obnoxious
+to him, but must have had some fearful misgivings concerning his
+character, and that, too, of a nature that usually shuts out all hope of
+being received into any family.
+
+But, in the hour of his need, when his life was in danger, no one else
+would have done what they had done for him, especially when so
+relatively placed.
+
+Moreover, he had been concealed, when to do so was both dangerous and
+difficult; and then it was done by Flora Bannerworth herself.
+
+Time flew by. The mode of passing time at the cottage was calm and
+serene. Varney had seldom witnessed anything like it; but, at the same
+time, he felt more at ease than ever he had; he was charmed with the
+society of Flora--in fact, with the whole of the little knot of
+individuals who there collected together; from what he saw he was
+gratified in their society; and it seemed to alleviate his mental
+disquiet, and the sense he must feel of his own peculiar position. But
+Varney became ill. The state of mind and body he had been in for some
+time past might be the cause of it. He had been much harassed, and
+hunted from place to place. There was not a moment in which his life was
+not in danger, and he had, moreover, more than one case, received some
+bodily injuries, bruises, and contusions of a desperate character; and
+yet he would take no notice of them, but allow them to get well again,
+as best they could.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+His escapes and injuries had made a deep impression upon his mind, and
+had no doubt a corresponding effect upon his body, and Varney became
+very ill.
+
+Flora Bannerworth did all that could be done for one in his painful
+position, and this greatly added to the depths of thought that
+occasionally beset him, and he could scarcely draw one limb after the
+other.
+
+He walked from room to room in the twilight, at which time he had more
+liberty permitted him than at any other, because there was not the same
+danger in his doing so; for, if once seen, there could be no manner of
+doubt but he would have been pursued until he was destroyed, when no
+other means of escape were at hand; and Varney himself felt that there
+could be no chance of his again escaping from them, for his physical
+powers were fast decaying; he was not, in fact, the same man.
+
+He came out into the parlour from the room in which he had been seated
+during the day. Flora and her mother were there, while Charles Holland
+and Henry Bannerworth had both at that moment entered the apartment.
+
+"Good evening, Miss Bannerworth," said Sir Francis, bowing to her, and
+then to her mother, Mrs. Bannerworth; "and you, Mr. Holland, I see, have
+been out enjoying the free breeze that plays over the hot fields. It
+must be refreshing."
+
+"It is so, sir," said Charles. "I wish we could make you a partaker in
+our walks."
+
+"I wish you could with all my heart," said Varney.
+
+"Sir Francis," said Flora, "must be a prisoner for some short time
+longer yet."
+
+"I ought not to consider it in any such light. It is not imprisonment. I
+have taken sanctuary. It is the well spring of life to me," said Varney.
+
+"I hope it may prove so; but how do you find yourself this evening, Sir
+Francis Varney?"
+
+"Really, it is difficult to say--I fluctuate. At times, I feel as though
+I should drop insensible on the earth, and then I feel better than I
+have done for some time previously."
+
+"Doctor Chillingworth will be here bye and bye, no doubt; and he must
+see what he can do for you to relieve you of these symptoms," said
+Flora.
+
+"I am much beholden to you--much beholden to you; but I hope to be able
+to do without the good doctor's aid in this instance, though I must
+admit I may appear ungrateful."
+
+"Not at all--not at all."
+
+"Have you heard any news abroad to-day?" inquired Varney.
+
+"None, Sir Francis--none; there is nothing apparently stirring; and now,
+go out when you would, you would find nothing but what was old, quiet,
+and familiar."
+
+"We cannot wish to look upon anything with mere charms for a mind at
+ease, than we can see under such circumstances; but I fear there are
+some few old and familiar features that I should find sad havoc in."
+
+"You would, certainly, for the burnings and razings to the ground of
+some places, have made some dismal appearances; but time may efface
+that, and then the evil may die away, and the future will become the
+present, should we be able to allay popular feeling."
+
+"Yes," said Sir Francis; "but popular prejudices, or justice, or
+feeling, are things not easily assuaged. The people when once aroused go
+on to commit all kinds of excess, and there is no one point at which
+they will step short of the complete extirpation of some one object or
+other that they have taken a fancy to hunt."
+
+"The hubbub and excitement must subside."
+
+"The greater the ignorance the more persevering and the more brutal they
+are," said Sir Francis; "but I must not complain of what is the
+necessary consequence of their state."
+
+"It might be otherwise."
+
+"So it might, and no mischief arise either; but as we cannot divert the
+stream, we may as well bend to the force of a current too strong to
+resist."
+
+"The moon is up," said Flora, who wished to turn the conversation from
+that to another topic. "I see it yonder through the trees; it rises red
+and large--it is very beautiful--and yet there is not a cloud about to
+give it the colour and appearance it now wears."
+
+"Exactly so," said Sir Francis Varney; "but the reason is the air is
+filled with a light, invisible vapour, that has the effect you perceive.
+There has been much evaporation going on, and now it shows itself in
+giving the moon that peculiar large appearance and deep colour."
+
+"Ay, I see; it peeps through the trees, the branches of which cut it up
+into various portions. It is singular, and yet beautiful, and yet the
+earth below seems dark."
+
+"It is dark; you would be surprised to find it so if you walked about.
+It will soon be lighter than it is at this present moment."
+
+"What sounds are those?" inquired Sir Francis Varney, as he listened
+attentively.
+
+"Sounds! What sounds?" returned Henry.
+
+"The sounds of wheels and horses' feet," said Varney.
+
+"I cannot even hear them, much less can I tell what they are," said
+Henry.
+
+"Then listen. Now they come along the road. Cannot you hear them now?"
+said Varney.
+
+"Yes, I can," said Charles Holland; "but I really don't know what they
+are, or what it can matter to us; we don't expect any visitors."
+
+"Certainly, certainly," said Varney. "I am somewhat apprehensive of the
+approach of strange sounds."
+
+"You are not likely to be disturbed here," said Charles.
+
+"Indeed; I thought so when I had succeeded in getting into the house
+near the town, and so far from believing it was likely I should be
+discovered, that I sat on the house-top while the mob surrounded it."
+
+"Did you not hear them coming?"
+
+"I did."
+
+"And yet you did not attempt to escape from them?"
+
+"No, I could not persuade them I was not there save by my utter silence.
+I allowed them to come too close to leave myself time to
+escape--besides, I could hardly persuade myself there could be any
+necessity for so doing."
+
+"It was fortunate it was as it happened afterwards, that you were able
+to reach the wood, and get out of it unperceived by the mob."
+
+"I should have been in an unfortunate condition had I been in their
+hands long. A man made of iron would not be able to resist the brutality
+of those people."
+
+As they were speaking, a gig, with two men, drove up, followed by one on
+horseback. They stopped at the garden-gate, and then tarried to consult
+with each other, as they looked at the house.
+
+"What can they want, I wonder?" inquired Henry; "I never saw them
+before."
+
+"Nor I," said Charles Holland.
+
+"Do you not know them at all?" inquired Varney.
+
+"No," replied Flora; "I never saw them, neither can I imagine what is
+their object in coming here."
+
+"Did you ever see them before?" inquired Henry of his mother, who held
+up her hand to look more carefully at the strangers; then, shaking her
+head, she declared she had never seen such persons as those.
+
+"I dare say not," said Charles Holland. "They certainly are not
+gentlemen; but here they come; there is some mistake, I daresay--they
+don't want to come here."
+
+As they spoke, the two strangers got down; after picking up a topcoat
+they had let fall, they turned round, and deliberately put it into the
+chaise again; they walked up the path to the door, at which they
+knocked.
+
+The door was opened by the old woman, when the two men entered.
+
+"Does Francis Beauchamp live here?"
+
+"Eh?" said the old woman, who was a little deaf, and she put her hand
+behind her ear to catch the sounds more distinctly--"eh?--who did you
+say?"
+
+Sir Francis Varney started as the sounds came upon his ear, but he sat
+still an attentive listener.
+
+"Are there any strangers in the house?" inquired the other officer,
+impatiently. "Who is here?"
+
+"Strangers!" said the old woman; "you are the only strangers that I have
+seen here."
+
+"Come," said the officer to his companion, "come this way; there are
+people in this parlour. Our business must be an apology for any rudeness
+we may commit."
+
+As he spoke he stepped by the old woman, and laying his hand upon the
+handle of the door, entered the apartment, at the same time looking
+carefully around the room as if he expected some one.
+
+"Ladies," said the stranger, with an off-hand politeness that had
+something repulsive in it, though it was meant to convey a notion that
+civility was intended; "ladies, I beg pardon for intruding, but I am
+looking for a gentleman."
+
+"You shall hear from me again soon," said Sir Francis, in an almost
+imperceptible whisper.
+
+"What is the object of this intrusion?" demanded Henry Bannerworth,
+rising and confronting the stranger. "This is a strange introduction."
+
+"Yes, but not an unusual one," said the stranger, "in these cases--being
+unavoidable, at the least."
+
+"Sir," said Charles Holland, "if you cannot explain quickly your
+business here, we will proceed to take those measures which will at
+least rid ourselves of your company."
+
+"Softly, sir. I mean no offence--not the least; but I tell you I do not
+come for any purpose that is at all consonant to my wishes. I am a
+Bow-street officer in the execution of my duty--excuse me, therefore."
+
+"Whom do you want?"
+
+"Francis Beauchamp; and, from the peculiarity of the appearance of this
+individual here, I think I may safely request the pleasure of his
+company."
+
+Varney now rose, and the officer made a rush at him, when he saw him do
+so, saying,--
+
+"Surrender in the king's name."
+
+Varney, however, paid no attention to that, but rushed past, throwing
+his chair down to impede the officer, who could not stay himself, but
+fell over it, while Varney made a rush towards the window, which he
+cleared at one bound, and crossing the road, was lost to sight in a few
+seconds, in the trees and hedges on the other side.
+
+"Accidents will happen," said the officer, as he rose to his feet; "I
+did not think the fellow would have taken the window in that manner; but
+we have him in view, and that will be enough."
+
+"In heaven's name," said Henry, "explain all about this; we cannot
+understand one word of it--I am at a loss to understand one word of it."
+
+"We will return and do so presently," said the officer as he dashed out
+of the house after the fugitive at a rapid and reckless speed, followed
+by his companion.
+
+The man who had been left with the chaise, however, was the first in the
+chase; seeing an escape from the window, he immediately guessed that he
+was the man wanted, and, but for an accident, he would have met Varney
+at the gate, for, as he was getting out in a hurry, his foot became
+entangled with the reins, and he fell to the ground, and Varney at the
+same moment stepped over him.
+
+"Curse his infernal impudence, and d--n these reins!" muttered the man
+in a fury at the accident, and the aggravating circumstance of the
+fugitive walking over him in such a manner, and so coolly too--it was
+vexing.
+
+The man, however, quickly released himself, and rushed after Varney
+across the road, and kept on his track for some time. The moon was still
+rising, and shed but a gloomy light around. Everything was almost
+invisible until you came close to it. This was the reason why Varney and
+his pursuer met with several severe accidents--fumbles and hard knocks
+against impediments which the light and the rapid flight they were
+taking did not admit of their avoiding very well.
+
+They went on for some time, but it was evident Varney knew the place
+best, and could avoid what the man could not, and that was the trees and
+the natural impediments of the ground, which Varney was acquainted with.
+
+For instance, at full speed across a meadow, a hollow would suddenly
+present itself, and to an accustomed eye the moonlight might enable it
+to be distinguished at a glance what it was, while to one wholly
+unaccustomed to it, the hollow would often look like a hillock by such a
+light. This Varney would clear at a bound, which a less agile and
+heavier person would step into, lifting up his leg to meet an
+impediment, when he would find it come down suddenly some six or eight
+inches lower than he anticipated, almost dislocating his leg and neck,
+and producing a corresponding loss of breath, which was not regained by
+the muttered curse upon such a country where the places were so uneven.
+
+Having come to one of these places, which was a little more perceptible
+than the others, he made a desperate jump, but he jumped into the middle
+of the hole with such force that he sprained his ankle, besides sinking
+into a small pond that was almost dry, being overgrown with rushes and
+aquatic plants.
+
+"Well?" said the other officer coming up--"well?"
+
+"Well, indeed!" said the one who came first; "it's anything but well.
+D--n all country excursions say I."
+
+"Why, Bob, you don't mean to say as how you are caught in a rat-trap?"
+
+"Oh, you be d----d! I am, ain't I?"
+
+"Yes; but are you going to stop there, or coming out, eh? You'll catch
+cold."
+
+"I have sprained my ankle."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"It ain't well, I tell you; here have I a sprained foot, and my wind
+broken for a month at least. Why were you not quicker? If you had been
+sharper we should have had the gentleman, I'll swear!"
+
+"I tumbled down over the chair, and he got out of the window, and I come
+out of the door."
+
+"Well, I got entangled in the reins; but I got off after him, only his
+long legs carried him over everything. I tell you what, Wilkinson, if I
+were to be born again, and intended to be a runner, I would bespeak a
+pair of long legs."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I should be able to get along better. You have no idea of how
+he skimmed along the ground; it was quite beautiful, only it wasn't good
+to follow it."
+
+"A regular sky scraper!"
+
+"Yes, or something of that sort; he looked like a patent flying shadow."
+
+"Well, get up and lead the way; we'll follow you."
+
+"I dare say you will--when I lead the way back there; for as to going
+out yonder, it is quite out of the question. I want supper to-night and
+breakfast to-morrow morning."
+
+"Well, what has that to do with it?"
+
+"Just this much: if you follow any farther, you'll get into the woods,
+and there you'll be, going round and round, like a squirrel in a cage,
+without being able to get out, and you will there get none of the good
+things included under the head of those meals."
+
+"I think so too," said the third.
+
+"Well, then, let's go back; we needn't run, though it might be as well
+to do so."
+
+"It would be anything but well. I don't gallop back, depend upon it."
+
+The three men now slowly returned from their useless chase, and re-trod
+the way they had passed once in such a hurry that they could hardly
+recognize it.
+
+"What a dreadful bump I came against that pole standing there," said
+one.
+
+"Yes, and I came against a hedge-stake, that was placed so as the moon
+didn't show any light on it. It came into the pit of my stomach. I never
+recollect such a pain in my life; for all the world like a hot coal
+being suddenly and forcibly intruded into your stomach."
+
+"Well, here's the road. I must go up to the house where I started him
+from. I promised them some explanation. I may as well go and give it to
+them at once."
+
+"Do as you will. I will wait with the horse, else, perhaps, that
+Beauchamp will again return and steal him."
+
+The officer who had first entered the house now returned to the
+Bannerworths, saying,
+
+"I promised you I would give you some explanation as to what you have
+witnessed."
+
+"Yes," said Henry; "we have been awaiting your return with some anxiety
+and curiosity. What is the meaning of all this? I am, as we are all, in
+perfect ignorance of the meaning of what took place."
+
+"I will tell you. The person whom you have had here, and goes by the
+name of Varney, is named Francis Beauchamp."
+
+"Indeed! Are you assured of this?"
+
+"Yes, perfectly assured of it; I have it in my warrant to apprehend him
+by either name."
+
+"What crime had he been guilty of?"
+
+"I will tell you: he has been _hanged_."
+
+"Hanged!" exclaimed all present.
+
+"What do you mean by that?" added Henry; "I am at a loss to understand
+what you can mean by saying he was hanged."
+
+"What I say is literally true."
+
+"Pray tell us all about it. We are much interested in the fact; go on,
+sir."
+
+"Well, sir, then I believe it was for murder that Francis Beauchamp was
+hanged--yes, hanged; a common execution, before a multitude of people,
+collected to witness such an exhibition."
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed Henry Bannerworth. "And was--but that is
+impossible. A dead man come to life again! You must be amusing yourself
+at our expense."
+
+"Not I," replied the officer. "Here is my warrant; they don't make these
+out in a joke."
+
+And, as he spoke, he produced the warrant, when it was evident the
+officer spoke the truth.
+
+"How was this?"
+
+"I will tell you, sir. You see that this Varney was a regular scamp,
+gamester, rogue, and murderer. He was hanged, and hung about the usual
+time; he was cut down and the body was given to some one for dissection,
+when a surgeon, with the hangman, one Montgomery, succeeded in restoring
+the criminal to life."
+
+"But I always thought they broke the neck when they were hanged; the
+weight of the body would alone do that."
+
+"Oh, dear, no, sir," said the officer; "that is one of the common every
+day mistakes; they don't break the neck once in twenty times."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"No; they die of suffocation only; this man, Beauchamp, was hanged thus,
+but they contrived to restore him, and then he assumed a new name, and
+left London."
+
+"But how came you to know all this?"
+
+"Oh! it came to us, as many things usually do, in a very extraordinary
+manner, and in a manner that appears most singular and out of the way;
+but such it was.
+
+"The executioner who was the means of his being restored, or one of
+them, wished to turn him to account, and used to draw a yearly sum of
+money from him, as hush money, to induce them to keep the secret; else,
+the fact of his having escaped punishment would subject him to a
+repetition of the same punishment; when, of course, a little more care
+would be taken that he did not escape a second time."
+
+"I dare say not."
+
+"Well, you see, Varney, or rather Beauchamp, was to pay a heavy sum to
+this man to keep him quiet, and to permit him to enjoy the life he had
+so strangely become possessed of."
+
+"I see," said Holland.
+
+"Well, this man, Montgomery, had always some kind of suspicion that
+Varney would murder him."
+
+"Murder him! and be the means of saving his life; surely he could not be
+so bad as that."
+
+"Why, you see, sir, this hangman drew a heavy sum yearly from him; thus
+making him only a mine of wealth to himself; this, no doubt, would
+rankle in the other's heart, to think he should be so beset, and hold
+life upon such terms."
+
+"I see, now."
+
+"Yes; and then came the consideration that he did not do it from any
+good motive, merely a selfish one, and he was consequently under no
+obligation to him for what he had done; besides, self-preservation might
+urge him on, and tell him to do the deed.
+
+"However that may be, Montgomery dreaded it, and was resolved to punish
+the deed if he could not prevent it. He, therefore, left general orders
+with his wife, whenever he went on a journey to Varney, if he should be
+gone beyond a certain time, she was to open a certain drawer, and take
+out a sealed packet to the magistrate at the chief office, who would
+attend to it.
+
+"He has been missing, and his wife did as she was desired, and now we
+have found what he there mentioned to be true; but, now, sir, I have
+satisfied you and explained to you why we intruded upon you, we must now
+leave and seek for him elsewhere."
+
+"It is most extraordinary, and that is the reason why his complexion is
+so singular."
+
+"Very likely."
+
+They poured out some wine, which was handed to the officers, who drank
+and then quitted the house, leaving the inmates in a state of
+stupefaction, from surprise and amazement at what they had heard from
+the officers.
+
+There was a strange feeling came over them when they recollected the
+many occurrences they had witnessed, and even the explanation of the
+officers; it seemed as if some mist had enveloped objects and rendered
+them indistinct, but which was fast rising, and they were becoming
+plainer and more distinct every moment in which they were regarded.
+
+There was a long pause, and Flora was about to speak, when suddenly
+there came the sound of a footstep across the garden. It was slow but
+unsteady, and paused between whiles until it came close beneath the
+windows. They remained silent, and then some one was heard to climb up
+the rails of the veranda, and then the curtains were thrust aside, but
+not till after the person outside had paused to ascertain who was there.
+
+Then the curtains were opened, and the visage of Sir Francis Varney
+appeared, much altered; in fact, completely worn and exhausted.
+
+It was useless to deny it, but he looked ghastly--terrific; his singular
+visage was as pallid as death; his eyes almost protruding, his mouth
+opened, and his breathing short, and laboured in the extreme.
+
+He climbed over with much difficulty, and staggered into the room, and
+would have spoken, but he could not; befell senseless upon the floor,
+utterly exhausted and motionless.
+
+There was a long pause, and each one present looked at each other, and
+then they gazed upon the inanimate body of Sir Francis Varney, which lay
+supine and senseless in the middle of the floor.
+
+* * * *
+
+The importance of the document, said to be on the dead body, was such
+that it would admit of no delay before it was obtained, and the party
+determined that it should be commenced instanter. Lost time would be an
+object to them; too much haste could hardly be made; and now came the
+question of, "should it be to-night, or not?"
+
+"Certainly," said Henry Bannerworth; "the sooner we can get it, the
+sooner all doubt and distress will be at an end; and, considering the
+turn of events, that will be desirable for all our sakes; besides, we
+know not what unlucky accident may happen to deprive us of what is so
+necessary."
+
+"There can be none," said Mr. Chillingworth; "but there is this to be
+said, this has been such an eventful history, that I cannot say what
+might or what might not happen."
+
+"We may as well go this very night," said Charles Holland. "I give my
+vote for an immediate exhumation of the body. The night is somewhat
+stormy, but nothing more; the moon is up, and there will be plenty of
+light."
+
+"And rain," said the doctor.
+
+"Little or none," said Charles Holland. "A few gusts of wind now and
+then drive a few heavy plashes of rain against the windows, and that
+gives a fearful sound, which is, in fret, nothing, when you have to
+encounter it; but you will go, doctor?"
+
+"Yes, most certainly. We must have some tools."
+
+"Those may be had from the garden," said Henry. "Tools for the
+exhumation, you mean?"
+
+"Yes; pickaxe, mattocks, and a crowbar; a lantern, and so forth," said
+the doctor. "You see I am at home in this; the fact is, I have had more
+than one affair of this kind on my hands before now, and whilst a
+student I have had more than one adventure of a strange character."
+
+"I dare say, doctor," said Charles Holland, "you have some sad pranks to
+answer for; you don't think of it then, only when you find them
+accumulated in a heap, so that you shall not be able to escape them;
+because they come over your senses when you sleep at night."
+
+"No, no," said Chillingworth; "you are mistaken in that. I have long
+since settled all my accounts of that nature; besides, I never took a
+dead body out of a grave but in the name of science, and never for my
+own profit, seeing I never sold one in my life, or got anything by it."
+
+"That is not the fact," said Henry; "you know, doctor, you improved your
+own talents and knowledge."
+
+"Yes, yes; I did."
+
+"Well, but you profited by such improvements?"
+
+"Well, granted, I did. How much more did the public not benefit then,"
+said the doctor, with a smile.
+
+"Ah, well, we won't argue the question," said Charles; "only it strikes
+me that the doctor could never have been a doctor if he had not
+determined upon following a profession."
+
+"There may be a little truth in that," said Chillingworth; "but now we
+had better quit the house, and make the best of our way to the spot
+where the unfortunate man lies buried in his unhallowed grave."
+
+"Come with me into the garden," said Henry Bannerworth; "we shall there
+be able to suit ourselves to what is required. I have a couple of
+lanterns."
+
+"One is enough," said Chillingworth; "we had better not burden ourselves
+more than we are obliged to do; and we shall find enough to do with the
+tools."
+
+"Yes, they are not light; and the distance is by far too great to make
+walking agreeable and easy; the wind blows strong, and the rain appears
+to be coming up afresh, and, by the time we have done, we shall find the
+ground will become slippy, and bad for walking."
+
+"Can we have a conveyance?"
+
+"No, no," said the doctor; "we could, but we must trouble the turnpike
+man; besides, there is a shorter way across some fields, which will be
+better and safer."
+
+"Well, well," said Charles Holland; "I do not mind which way it is, as
+long as you are satisfied yourselves. The horse and cart would have
+settled it all better, and done it quicker, besides carrying the tools."
+
+"Very true, very true," said the doctor; "all that is not without its
+weight, and you shall choose which way you would have it done; for my
+part, I am persuaded the expedition on foot is to be preferred for two
+reasons."
+
+"And what are they?"
+
+"The first is, we cannot obtain a horse and cart without giving some
+detail as to what you want it for, which is awkward, on account of the
+hour. Moreover, you could not get one at this moment in time."
+
+"That ought to settle the argument," said Henry Bannerworth; "an
+impossibility, under the circumstances, at once is a clincher, and one
+that may be allowed to have some weight."
+
+"You may say that," said Charles.
+
+"Besides which, you must go a greater distance, and that, too, along the
+main road, which is objectionable."
+
+"Then we are agreed," said Charles Holland, "and the sooner we are off
+the better; the night grows more and more gloomy every hour, and more
+inclement."
+
+"It will serve our purpose the better," said Chillingworth. "What we do,
+we may as well do now."
+
+"Come with me to the garden," said Henry, "and we will take the tools.
+We can go out the back way; that will preclude any observation being
+made."
+
+They all now left the apartment, wrapped up in great overcoats, to
+secure themselves against the weather, and also for the purpose of
+concealing themselves from any chance passenger.
+
+In the garden they found the tools they required, and having chosen
+them, they took a lantern, with the mean of getting a light when they
+got to their journey's end, which they would do in less than an hour.
+
+After having duly inspected the state of their efficiency, they started
+away on their expedition.
+
+The night had turned gloomy and windy; heavy driving masses of clouds
+obscured the moon, which only now and then was to be seen, when the
+clouds permitted her to peep out. At the same time, there were many
+drifting showers, which lasted but a few minutes, and then the clouds
+were carried forwards by some sudden gust of wind so that, altogether,
+it was a most uncomfortable night as well could be imagined.
+
+However, there was no time to lose, and, under all circumstances, they
+could not have chosen a better night for their purpose than the one they
+had; indeed, they could not desire another night to be out on such a
+purpose.
+
+They spoke not while they were within sight of the houses, though at the
+distance of many yards, and, at the same time, there was a noise through
+the trees that would have carried their voices past every object,
+however close; but they would make assurance doubly sure.
+
+"I think we are fairly away now," said Henry, "from all fear of being
+recognized."
+
+"To be sure you are. Who would recognize us now, if we were met?"
+
+"No one."
+
+"I should think not; and, moreover, there would be but small chance of
+any evil coming from it, even if it were to happen that we were to be
+seen and known. Nobody knows what we are going to do, and, if they did,
+there is no illegality in the question."
+
+"Certainly not; but we wish the matter to be quite secret, therefore, we
+don't wish to be seen by any one while upon this adventure."
+
+"Exactly," said Chillingworth; "and, if you'll follow my guidance, you
+shall meet nobody."
+
+"We will trust you, most worthy doctor. What have you to say for our
+confidence?"
+
+"That you will find it is not misplaced."
+
+Just as the doctor had uttered the last sound, there came a hearty laugh
+upon the air, which, indeed, sounded but a few paces in advance of them.
+The wind blew towards them, and would, therefore, cause the sounds to
+come to them, but not to go away in the direction they were going.
+
+The whole party came to a sudden stand still; there was something so
+strange in hearing a laugh at that moment, especially as Chillingworth
+was, at that moment, boasting of his knowledge of the ground and the
+certainty of their meeting no one.
+
+"What is that?" inquired Henry.
+
+"Some one laughing, I think," said Chillingworth.
+
+"Of that there can be little or no doubt," said Charles Holland; "and,
+as people do not usually laugh by themselves so heartily, it may be
+presumed there are, at least, two."
+
+"No doubt of it."
+
+"And, moreover, their purpose cannot be a very good one, at this hour of
+the night, and of such a night, too. I think we had better be cautious."
+
+"Hush! Follow me silently," said Henry.
+
+As he spoke, he moved cautiously from the spot where he stood, and, at
+the same time, he was followed by the whole party, until they came to
+the hedge which skirted a lane, in which were seated three men.
+
+They had a sort of tent erected, and that was hung upon a part of the
+hedge which was to windward of them, so that it sheltered them from wind
+and rain.
+
+Henry and Chillingworth both peeped over the bank, and saw them seated
+beneath this kind of canopy. They were shabby, gipsy-looking men, who
+might be something else--sheep-stealers, or horse-stealers, in fact,
+anything, even to beggars.
+
+"I say, Jack," said one; "it's no bottle to-night."
+
+"No; there's nobody about these parts to-night. We are safe, and so are
+they."
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Besides, you see, those who do happen to be out are not worth talking
+to."
+
+"No cash."
+
+"None, not enough to pay turnpike for a walking-slick, at the most."
+
+"Besides, it does us no good to take a few shillings from a poor wretch,
+who has more in family than he has shillings in pocket."
+
+"Ay, you are right, quite right. I don't like it myself, I don't;
+besides that, there's fresh risk in every man you stop, and these poor
+fellows will fight hard for a few shillings, and there is no knowing
+what an unlucky blow may do for a man."
+
+"That is very true. Has anything been done to-night?"
+
+"Nothing," said one.
+
+"Only three half crowns," said the other; "that is the extent of the
+common purse to-night."
+
+"And I," said the third, "I have got a bottle of bad gin from the Cat
+and Cabbage-stump."
+
+"How did you manage it?"
+
+"Why, this way. I went in, and had some beer, and you know I can give a
+long yarn when I want; but it wants only a little care to deceive these
+knowing countrymen, so I talked and talked, until they got quite chatty,
+and then I put the gin in my pocket."
+
+"Good."
+
+"Well, then, the loaf and beef I took out of the safe as I came by, and
+I dare say they know they have lost it by this time."
+
+"Yes, and so do we. I expect the gin will help to digest the beef, so we
+mustn't complain of the goods."
+
+"No; give us another glass, Jim."
+
+Jim held the glass towards him, when the doctor, animated by the spirit
+of mischief, took a good sized pebble, and threw it into the glass,
+smashing it, and spilling the contents.
+
+In a moment there was a change of scene; the men were all terrified, and
+started to their feet, while a sudden gust of wind caused their light to
+go out; at the same time their tent-cloth was thrown down by the wind,
+and fell across their heads.
+
+"Come along," said the doctor.
+
+There was no need of saying so, for in a moment the three were as if
+animated by one spirit, and away they scudded across the fields, with
+the speed of a race horse.
+
+In a few minutes they were better than half a mile away from the spot.
+
+"In absence of all authentic information," said the doctor, speaking as
+well as he could, and blowing prodigiously between each word, as though
+he were fetching breath all the way from his heels, "I think we may
+conclude we are safe from them. We ought to thank our stars we came
+across them in the way we did."
+
+"But, doctor, what in the name of Heaven induced you to make such a
+noise, to frighten them, in fact, and to tell them some one was about?"
+
+"They were too much terrified to tell whether it was one, or fifty. By
+this time they are out of the county; they knew what they were talking
+about."
+
+"And perhaps we may meet them on the road where we are going, thinking
+it a rare lonely spot where they can hide, and no chance of their being
+found out."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"No," said the doctor; "they will not go to such a place; it has by far
+too bad a name for even such men as those to go near, much less stop
+in."
+
+"I can hardly think that," said Charles Holland, "for these fellows are
+too terrified for their personal safety, to think of the superstitious
+fears with which a place may be regarded; and these men, in such a place
+as the one you speak of, they will be at home."
+
+"Well, well, rather than be done, we must fight for it; and when you
+come to consider we have one pick and two shovels, we shall be in full
+force."
+
+"Well said, doctor; how far have we to go?"
+
+"Not more than a quarter of a mile."
+
+They pursued their way through the fields, and under the hedge-rows,
+until they came to a gate, where they stopped awhile, and began to
+consult and to listen.
+
+"A few yards up here, on the left," said the doctor; "I know the spot;
+besides, there is a particular mark. Now, then, are you all ready?"
+
+"Yes, all."
+
+"Here," said the doctor, pointing out the marks by which the spot might
+be recognized; "here is the spot, and I think we shall not be half a
+foot out of our reckoning."
+
+"Then let us begin instanter," said Henry, as he seized hold of the
+pickaxe, and began to loosen the earth by means of the sharp end.
+
+"That will do for the present," said Chillingworth; "now let me and
+Charles take a turn with our shovels, and you will get on again
+presently. Throw the earth up on the bank in one heap, so that we can
+put it on again without attracting any attention to the spot by its
+being left in clods and uneven."
+
+"Exactly," said Henry, "else the body will be discovered."
+
+They began to shovel away, and continued to do so, after it had been
+picked up, working alternately, until at length Charles stuck his
+pick-axe into something soft, and upon pulling it up, he found it was
+the body.
+
+A dreadful odour now arose from the spot, and they were at no loss to
+tell where the body lay. The pick-axe had stuck into the deceased's ribs
+and clothing, and thus lifted it out of its place.
+
+"Here it is," said the doctor; "but I needn't tell you that; the
+charnel-house smell is enough to convince you of the fact of where it
+is."
+
+"I think so; just show a light upon the subject, doctor, and then we can
+see what we are about--do you mind, doctor--you have the management of
+the lantern, you know?"
+
+"Yes, yes," said Chillingworth; "I see you have it--don't be in a hurry,
+but do things deliberately and coolly whatever you do--you will not be
+so liable to make mistakes, or to leave anything undone."
+
+"There will be nothing of any use to you here, doctor, in the way of
+dissection, for the flesh is one mass of decay. What a horrible sight,
+to be sure!"
+
+"It is; but hasten the search."
+
+"Well, I must; though, to confess the truth, I'd sooner handle anything
+than this."
+
+"It is not the most pleasant thing in the world, for there is no knowing
+what may be the result--what creeping thing has made a home of it."
+
+"Don't mention anything about it."
+
+Henry and Charles Holland now began to search the pockets of the clothes
+of the dead body, in one of which was something hard, that felt like a
+parcel.
+
+"What have you got there?" said Chillingworth, as he held his lantern up
+so that the light fell upon the ghastly object that they were handling.
+
+"I think it is the prize," said Charles Holland; "but we have not got it
+out yet, though I dare say it won't be long first, if this wind will but
+hold good for about five minutes, and keep the stench down."
+
+They now tore open the packet and pulled out the papers, which appeared
+to have been secreted upon his person.
+
+"Be sure there are none on any other part of the body," said
+Chillingworth, "because what you do now, you had better do well, and
+leave nothing to after thought, because it is frequently impracticable."
+
+"The advice is good," said Henry, who made a second search, but found
+nothing.
+
+"We had better re-bury him," said the doctor; "it had better be done
+cleanly. Well, it is a sad hole for a last resting-place, and yet I do
+not know that it matters--it is all a matter of taste--the fashion of
+the class, or the particular custom of the country."
+
+There was but little to be said against such an argument, though the
+custom of the age had caused them to look upon it more as a matter of
+feeling than in such a philosophical sense as that in which the doctor
+had put it.
+
+"Well, there he is now--shovel the earth in, Charles," said Henry
+Bannerworth, as he himself set the example, which was speedily and
+vigorously followed by Charles Holland, when they were not long before
+the earth was thrown in and covered up with care, and trodden down so
+that it should not appear to be moved.
+
+"This will do, I think," said Henry.
+
+"Yes; it is not quite the same, but I dare say no one will try to make
+any discoveries in this place; besides, if the rain continues to come
+down very heavy, why, it will wash much of it away, and it will make it
+look all alike."
+
+There was little inducement to hover about the spot, but Henry could not
+forbear holding up the papers to the light of the lantern to ascertain
+what they were.
+
+"Are they all right?" inquired the doctor.
+
+"Yes," replied Henry, "yes. The Dearbrook estate. Oh! yes; they are the
+papers I am in want of."
+
+"It is singularly fortunate, at least, to be successful in securing
+them. I am very glad a living person has possession of them, else it
+would have been very difficult to have obtained it from them."
+
+"So it would; but now homeward is the word, doctor; and on my word there
+is reason to be glad, for the rain is coming on very fast now, and there
+is no moon at all--we had better step out."
+
+They did, for the three walked as fast as the nature of the soil would
+permit them, and the darkness of the night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIX.
+
+TELLS WHAT BECAME OF THE SECOND VAMPYRE WHO SOUGHT VARNEY.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+We left the Hungarian nobleman swimming down the stream; he swam slowly,
+and used but little exertion in doing so. He appeared to use his hands
+only as a means of assistance.
+
+The stream carried him onwards, and he aided himself so far that he kept
+the middle of the stream, and floated along.
+
+Where the stream was broad and shallow, it sometimes left him a moment
+or two, without being strong enough to carry him onwards; then he would
+pause, as if gaining strength, and finally he would, when he had rested,
+and the water came a little faster, and lifted him, make a desperate
+plunge, and swim forward, until he again came in deep water, and then he
+went slowly along with the stream, as he supported himself.
+
+It was strange thus to see a man going down slowly, and without any
+effort whatever, passing through shade and through moonlight--now lost
+in the shadow of the tall trees, and now emerging into that part of the
+stream which ran through meadows and cornfields, until the stream
+widened, and then, at length, a ferry-house was to be seen in the
+distance.
+
+Then came the ferryman out of his hut, to look upon the beautiful
+moonlight scene. It was cold, but pure, and brilliantly light. The
+chaste moon was sailing through the heavens, and the stars diminished in
+their lustre by the power of the luminous goddess of night.
+
+There was a small cottage--true, it was somewhat larger than was
+generally supposed by any casual observer who might look at it. The
+place was rambling, and built chiefly of wood; but in it lived the
+ferryman, his wife, and family; among these was a young girl about
+seventeen years of age, but, at the same time, very beautiful.
+
+They had been preparing their supper, and the ferryman himself walked
+out to look at the river and the shadows of the tall trees that stood on
+the hill opposite.
+
+While thus employed, he heard a plashing in the water, and on turning
+towards the quarter whence the sound proceeded for a few yards, he came
+to the spot where he saw the stranger struggling in the stream.
+
+"Good God!" he muttered to himself, as he saw the struggle continued;
+"good God! he will sink and drown."
+
+As he spoke, he jumped into his boat and pushed it off, for the purpose
+of stopping the descent of the body down the stream, and in a moment or
+two it came near to him. He muttered,--
+
+"Come, come--he tries to swim; life is not gone yet--he will do now, if
+I can catch hold of him. Swimming with one's face under the stream
+doesn't say much for his skill, though it may account for the fact that
+he don't cry out."
+
+As the drowning man neared, the ferryman held on by the boat-hook, and
+stooping down, he seized the drowning man by the hair of the head, and
+then paused.
+
+After a time, he lifted him up, and placed him across the edge of the
+boat, and then, with some struggling of his own, he was rolled over into
+the boat.
+
+"You are safe now," muttered the ferryman.
+
+The stranger spoke not, but sat or leaned against the boat's head,
+sobbing and catching at his breath, and spitting off his stomach the
+water it might be presumed he had swallowed.
+
+The ferryman put back to the shore, when he paused, and secured his
+boat, and then pulled the stranger out, saying,--
+
+"Do you feel any better now?"
+
+"Yes," said the stranger; "I feel I am living--thanks to you, my good
+friend; I owe you my life."
+
+"You are welcome to that," replied the ferryman; "it costs me nothing;
+and, as for my little trouble, I should be sorry to think of that, when
+a fellow-being's life was in danger."
+
+"You have behaved very well--very well, and I can do little more now
+than thank you, for I have been robbed of all I possessed about me at
+the moment."
+
+"Oh! you have been robbed?"
+
+"Aye, truly, I have, and have been thrown into the water, and thus I
+have been nearly murdered."
+
+"It is lucky you escaped from them without further injury," said the
+ferryman; "but come in doors, you must be mad to stand here in the
+cold."
+
+"Thank you; your hospitality is great, and, at this moment, of the
+greatest importance to me."
+
+"Such as we have," said the honest ferryman, "you shall be welcome to.
+Come in--come in."
+
+He turned round and led the way to the house, which he entered,
+saying--as he opened the small door that led into the main apartment,
+where all the family were assembled, waiting for the almost only meal
+they had had that day, for the ferryman had not the means, before the
+sun had set, of sending for food, and then it was a long way before it
+could be found, and then it was late before they could get it,--
+
+"Wife, we have a stranger to sleep with us to-night, and for whom we
+must prepare a bed."
+
+"A stranger!" echoed the wife--"a stranger, and we so poor!"
+
+"Yes; one whose life I have saved, and who was nearly drowned. We cannot
+refuse hospitality upon such an occasion as that, you know, wife."
+
+The wife looked at the stranger as he entered the room, and sat down by
+the fire.
+
+"I am sorry," he said, "to intrude upon you; but I will make you amends
+for the interruption and inconvenience I may cause you; but it is too
+late to apply elsewhere, and yet I am doubtful, if there were, whether I
+could go any further."
+
+"No, no," said the ferryman; "I am sure a man who has been beaten and
+robbed, and thrown into a rapid and, in some parts, deep stream, is not
+fit to travel at this time of night."
+
+"You are lonely about here," said the stranger, as he shivered by the
+fire.
+
+"Yes, rather; but we are used to it."
+
+"You have a family, too; that must help to lighten the hours away, and
+help you over the long evenings."
+
+"So you may think, stranger, and, at times, so it is; but when food runs
+short, it is a long while to daylight, before any more money can be had.
+To be sure, we have fish in the river, and we have what we can grow in
+the garden; but these are not all the wants that we feel, and those
+others are sometimes pinching. However, we are thankful for what we
+have, and complain but little when we can get no more; but sometimes we
+do repine--though I cannot say we ought--but I am merely relating the
+fact, whether it be right or wrong."
+
+"Exactly. How old is your daughter?"
+
+"She is seventeen come Allhallow's eve."
+
+"That is not far hence," said the stranger. "I hope I may be in this
+part of the country--and I think I shall--I will on that eve pay you a
+visit; not one on which I shall be a burden to you, but one more useful
+to you, and more consonant to my character."
+
+"The future will tell us all about that," said the ferryman; "at present
+we will see what we can do, without complaining, or taxing anybody."
+
+The stranger and the ferryman sat conversing for some time before the
+fire, and then the latter pointed out to him which was his bed--one made
+up near the fire, for the sake of its warmth; and then the ferryman
+retired to the next room, a place which was merely divided by an
+imperfect partition.
+
+However, they all fell soundly asleep. The hours on that day had been
+longer than usual; there was not that buoyancy of spirit; when they
+retired, they fell off into a heavy, deep slumber.
+
+From this they were suddenly aroused by loud cries and piercing screams
+from one of the family.
+
+So loud and shrill were the cries, that they all started up, terrified
+and bewildered beyond measure, unable to apply their faculties to any
+one object.
+
+"Help--help, father!--help!" shrieked the voice of the young girl whom
+we have before noticed.
+
+The ferryman jumped up, and rushed to the spot where his daughter lay.
+
+"Fanny," he said--"Fanny, what ails thee--what ails thee? Tell me, my
+dear child."
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed, almost choked--"oh, father! are we all alone? I am
+terrified."
+
+"What ails thee--what ails thee? Tell me what caused you to scream out
+in such a manner?"
+
+"I--I--that is I, father, thought--but no, I am sure it was reality.
+Where is the stranger?"
+
+"A light--a light!" shouted the fisherman.
+
+In another moment a light was brought him, and he discovered the
+stranger reclining in his bed, but awake, and looking around him, as if
+in the utmost amazement.
+
+"What has happened?" he said--"what has happened?"
+
+"That is more than I know as yet," the man replied. "Come, Fanny," he
+added, "tell me what it is you fear. What caused you to scream out in
+that dreadful manner?"
+
+"Oh, father--the vampyre!"
+
+"Great God! what do you mean, Fanny, by that?"
+
+"I hardly know, father. I was fast asleep, when I thought I felt
+something at my throat; but being very sound asleep, I did not
+immediately awake. Presently I felt the sharp pang of teeth being driven
+into the flesh of my neck--I awoke, and found the vampyre at his repast.
+Oh, God! oh, God! what shall I do?"
+
+"Stay, my child, let us examine the wound," said the fisherman, and he
+held the candle to the spot where the vampyre's teeth had been applied.
+There, sure enough, were teeth marks, such as a human being's would make
+were they applied, but no blood had been drawn therefrom.
+
+"Come, come, Fanny; so far, by divine Providence, you are not injured;
+another moment, and the mischief would have been done entire and
+complete, and you would have been his victim."
+
+Then turning to the stranger, he said,--
+
+"You have had some hand in this. No human being but you could come into
+this place. The cottage door is secured. You must be the vampyre."
+
+"I!"
+
+"Yes; who else could?"
+
+"I!--As Heaven's my judge--but there, it's useless to speak of it; I
+have not been out of my bed. In this place, dark as it is, and less used
+to darkness than you, I could not even find my way about.--It is
+impossible."
+
+"Get out of your bed, and let me feel," said the ferryman,
+peremptorily--"get out, and I will soon tell."
+
+The stranger arose, and began to dress himself, and the ferryman
+immediately felt the bed on which he had been lying; but it was ice
+cold--so cold that he started upon his legs in an instant, exclaiming
+with vehemence,--
+
+"It is you, vile wretch! that has attempted to steal into the cottage of
+the poor man, and then to rob him of his only child, and that child of
+her heart's blood, base ingrate!"
+
+"My friend, you are wrong, entirely wrong. I am not the creature you
+believe me. I have slept, and slept soundly, and awoke not until your
+daughter screamed."
+
+"Scoundrel!--liar!--base wretch! you shall not remain alive to injure
+those who have but one life to lose."
+
+As he spoke, the ferryman made a desperate rush at the vampyre, and
+seized him by the throat, and a violent struggle ensued, in which the
+superior strength of the ferryman prevailed, and he brought his
+antagonist to the earth, at the same time bestowing upon him some
+desperate blows.
+
+"Thou shall go to the same element from which I took thee," said the
+ferryman, "and there swim or sink as thou wilt until some one shall drag
+thee ashore, and when they do, may they have a better return than I."
+
+As he spoke, he dragged along the stranger by main force until they came
+to the bank of the river, and then pausing, to observe the deepest part,
+he said,--
+
+"Here, then, you shall go."
+
+The vampyre struggled, and endeavoured to speak, but he could not; the
+grasp at his throat prevented all attempts at speech; and then, with a
+sudden exertion of his strength, the ferryman lifted the stranger up,
+and heaved him some distance into the river.
+
+Then in deep water sank the body.
+
+The ferryman watched for some moments, and farther down the stream he
+saw the body again rise upon the current and struggling slightly, as for
+life--now whirled around and around, and then carried forward with the
+utmost velocity.
+
+This continued as far as the moonlight enabled the ferryman to see, and
+then, with a slow step and clouded brow, he returned to his cottage,
+which he entered, and closed the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XC.
+
+DR. CHILLINGWORTH AT THE HALL.--THE ENCOUNTER OF MYSTERY.--THE
+CONFLICT.--THE RESCUE, AND THE PICTURE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+There have been many events that have passed rapidly in this our
+narrative; but more have yet to come before we can arrive at that point
+which will clear up much that appears to be most mysterious and
+unaccountable.
+
+Doctor Chillingworth, but ill satisfied with the events that had yet
+taken place, determined once more upon visiting the Hall, and there to
+attempt a discovery of something respecting the mysterious apartment in
+which so much has already taken place.
+
+He communicated his design to no one; he resolved to prosecute the
+inquiry alone. He determined to go there and await whatever might turn
+up in the shape of events. He would not for once take any companion;
+such adventures were often best prosecuted alone--they were most easily
+brought to something like an explanatory position, one person can often
+consider matters more coolly than more. At all events, there is more
+secrecy than under any other circumstances.
+
+Perhaps this often is of greater consequence than many others; and,
+moreover, when there is more than one, something is usually overdone.
+Where one adventurous individual will rather draw back in a pursuit,
+more than one would induce them to urge each other on.
+
+In fact, one in such a case could act the part of a spy--a secret
+observer; and in that case can catch people at times when they could not
+under any other circumstances be caught or observed at all.
+
+"I will go," he muttered; "and should I be compelled to run away again,
+why, nobody knows anything about it and nobody will laugh at me."
+
+This was all very well; but Mr. Chillingworth was not the man to run
+away without sufficient cause. But there was so much mystery in all this
+that he felt much interested in the issue of the affair. But this issue
+he could not command; at the same time he was determined to sit and
+watch, and thus become certain that either something or nothing was to
+take place.
+
+Even the knowledge of that much--that some inexplicable action was still
+going on--was far preferable to the uncertainty of not knowing whether
+what had once been going on was still so or not, because, if it had
+ceased, it was probable that nothing more would ever be known concerning
+it, and the mystery would still be a mystery to the end of time.
+
+"It shall be fathomed if there be any possibility of its being
+discovered," muttered Chillingworth. "Who would have thought that so
+quiet and orderly a spot as this, our quiet village, would have suffered
+so much commotion and disturbance? Far from every cause of noise and
+strife, it is quite as great a matter of mystery as the vampyre business
+itself.
+
+"I have been so mixed up in this business that I must go through with
+it. By the way, of the mysteries, the greatest that I have met with is
+the fact of the vampyre having anything to do with so quiet a family as
+the Bannerworths."
+
+Mr. Chillingworth pondered over the thought; but yet he could make
+nothing of it. It in no way tended to elucidate anything connected with
+the affair, and it was much too strange and singular in all its parts to
+be submitted to any process of thought, with any hope of coming to
+anything like a conclusion upon the subject--that must remain until some
+facts were ascertained, and to obtain them Mr. Chillingworth now
+determined to try.
+
+This was precisely what was most desirable in the present state of
+affairs; while things remained in the present state of uncertainty,
+there would be much more of mystery than could ever be brought to light.
+
+One or two circumstances cleared up, the minor ones would follow in the
+same train, and they would be explained by the others; and if ever that
+happy state of things were to come about, why, then there would be a
+perfect calm in the town.
+
+As Mr. Chillingworth was going along, he thought he observed two men
+sitting inside a hedge, close to a hay-rick, and thinking neither of
+them had any business there, he determined to listen to their
+conversation, and ascertain if it had any evil tendency, or whether it
+concerned the late event.
+
+Having approached near the gate, and they being on the other side, he
+got over without any noise, and, unperceived by either of them, crept
+close up to them.
+
+"So you haven't long come from sea?"
+
+"No; I have just landed."
+
+"How is it you have thrown aside your seaman's clothes and taken to
+these?"
+
+"Just to escape being found out."
+
+"Found out! what do you mean by that? Have you been up to anything?"
+
+"Yes, I have, Jack. I have been up to something, worse luck to me; but
+I'm not to be blamed either."
+
+"What is it all about?" inquired his companion. "I always thought you
+were such a steady-going old file that there was no going out of the
+even path with you."
+
+"Nor would there have been, but for one simple circumstance."
+
+"What was that?"
+
+"I will tell you, Jack--I will tell you; you will never betray me, I am
+sure."
+
+"Never, by heavens!"
+
+"Well, then, listen--it was this. I had been some time aboard our
+vessel. I had sailed before, but the captain never showed any signs of
+being a bad man, and I was willing enough to sail with him again.
+
+"He knew I was engaged to a young woman in this country, and that I was
+willing to work hard to save money to make up a comfortable home for us
+both, and that I would not sail again, but that I intended to remain
+ashore, and make up my mind to a shore life."
+
+"Well, you would have a house then?"
+
+"Exactly; and that's what I wished to do. Well, I made a small venture
+in the cargo, and thought, by so doing, that I should have a chance of
+realizing a sum of money that would put us both in a comfortable line of
+business.
+
+"Well, we went on very smoothly until we were coming back. We had
+disposed of the cargo, and I had received some money, and this seemed to
+cause our captain to hate me, because I had been successful; but I
+thought there was something else in it than that, but I could not tell
+what it was that made him so intolerably cross and tyrannous.
+
+"Well, I found out, at length, he knew my intended wife. He knew her
+very well, and at the same time he made every effort he could to induce
+me to commit some act of disobedience and insubordination; but I would
+not, for it seemed to me he was trying all he could to prevent my doing
+my duty with anything like comfort.
+
+"However, I learned the cause of all this afterwards. It was told me by
+one of the crew.
+
+"'Bill,' said my mate, 'look out for yourself.'
+
+"'What's in the wind?' said I.
+
+"'Only the captain has made a dead set at you, and you'll be a lucky man
+if you escape.'
+
+"'What's it all about?' said I. 'I cannot understand what he means. I
+have done nothing wrong. I don't see why I should suddenly be treated in
+this way.'
+
+"'It's all about your girl, Bill.'
+
+"'Indeed!' said I. 'What can that have to do with the captain? he knows
+nothing of her.'
+
+"'Oh, yes, he does,' he said. 'If it were not for you he would have the
+girl himself.'
+
+"'I see now,' said I.
+
+"'Ay, and so can a blind man if you open his eyes; but he wants to make
+you do wrong--to goad you on to do something that will give him the
+power of disgracing you, and, perhaps, of punishing you.'
+
+"'He won't do that,' said I.
+
+"'I am glad to hear you say so, Bill; for, to my mind, he has made up
+his mind to go the whole length against you. I can't make it out, unless
+he wishes you were dead.'
+
+"'I dare say he does,' said I; 'but I will take care I will live to
+exact a reckoning when he comes ashore.'
+
+"'That is the best; and when we are paid off, Bill, if you will take it
+out of him, and pay him off, why, I don't care if I lend you a hand.'
+
+"'We'll say more about that, Dick,' said I, 'when we get ashore and are
+paid off. If we are overheard now, it will be said that we are
+conspiring, or committing mutiny, or something of that sort.'
+
+"'You are right, Bill,' he said--'you are right. We'll say no more about
+this now, but you may reckon upon me when we are no longer under his
+orders.'
+
+"'Then there's no danger, you know.'
+
+"Well, we said nothing about this, but I thought of it, and I had cause
+enough, too, to think of it; for each day the captain grew more and more
+tyrannous and brutal. I knew not what to do, but kept my resolution of
+doing my duty in spite of all he could do, though I don't mind admitting
+I had more than one mind to kill him and myself afterwards.
+
+"However, I contrived to hold out for another week or two, and then we
+came into port, and were released from his tyranny. I got paid off, and
+then I met my messmate, and we had some talk about the matter.
+
+"'The worst of it is,' said I, 'we shall have some difficulty to catch
+him; and, if we can, I'll be sworn we shall give him enough to last him
+for at least a voyage or two.'
+
+"'He ought to have it smart,' said my messmate; 'and I know where he is
+to be found.'
+
+"'Do you?--at what hour?'
+
+"'Late at night, when he may be met with as he comes from a house where
+he spends his evenings."
+
+"'That will be the best time in the world, when we shall have less
+interference than at any other time in the day. But we'll have a turn
+to-night if you will be with me, as he will be able to make too good a
+defence to one. It will be a fight, and not a chastisement.'
+
+"'It will. I will be with you; you know where to meet me. I shall be at
+the old spot at the usual time, and then we will go.'
+
+"We parted; and, in the evening, we both went together, and sought the
+place where we should find him out, and set upon him to advantage.
+
+"He was nearly two hours before he came; but when he did come, we
+saluted him with a rap on the head, that made him hold his tongue; and
+then we set to, and gave him such a tremendous drubbing, that we left
+him insensible; but he was soon taken away by some watchmen, and we
+heard that he was doing well; but he was dreadfully beaten; indeed, it
+would take him some weeks before he could be about in his duties.
+
+"He was fearfully enraged, and offered fifty pounds reward to any one
+who could give him information as to who it was that assaulted him.
+
+"I believe he had a pretty good notion of who it was; but he could not
+swear to me; but still, seeing he was busying himself too much about me,
+I at once walked away, and went on my way to another part of the
+country."
+
+"To get married?"
+
+"Ay, and to get into business."
+
+"Then, things are not quite so bad as I thought for at first."
+
+"No--no, not so bad but what they might have been worse a great deal;
+only I cannot go to sea any more, that's quite certain."
+
+"You needn't regret that."
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"Why not know? Are you not going to be married?--ain't that much
+better?"
+
+"I can't say," replied the sailor; "there's no knowing how my bargain
+may turn out; if she does well, why, then the cruising is over; but
+nothing short of that will satisfy me; for if my wife is at all not what
+I wish her to be, why, I shall be off to sea."
+
+"I don't blame you, either; I would do so too, if it were possible; but
+you see, we can't do so well on land as you do at sea; we can be
+followed about from pillar to post, and no bounds set to our
+persecution."
+
+"That's true enough," said the other; "we can cut and run when we have
+had enough of it. However, I must get to the village, as I shall sleep
+there to-night, if I find my quarters comfortable enough."
+
+"Come on, then, at once," said his companion; "it's getting dark now;
+and you have no time to lose."
+
+These two now got up, and walked away towards the village; and
+Chillingworth arose also, and pursued his way towards the Hall, while he
+remarked to himself,--
+
+"Well--well, they have nothing to do with that affair at all events.
+By-the-bye, I wonder what amount of females are deserted in the navy;
+they certainly have an advantage over landsmen, in the respect of being
+tied to tiresome partners; they can, at least, for a season, get a
+release from their troubles, and be free at sea."
+
+However, Mr. Chillingworth got to the Hall, and unobserved, for he had
+been especially careful not to be seen; he had watched on all sides, and
+no signs of a solitary human being had he seen, that could in any way
+make the slightest observation upon him.
+
+Indeed, he had sheltered himself from observation at every point of his
+road, especially so when near Bannerworth Hall, where there were plenty
+of corners to enable him to do so; and when he arrived there, he entered
+at the usual spot, and then sat down a few moments in the bower.
+
+"I will not sit here," he muttered. "I will go and have a watch at that
+mysterious picture; there is the centre of attraction, be it what it
+may."
+
+As he spoke, he arose and walked into the house, and entered the same
+apartment which has been so often mentioned to the reader.
+
+Here he took a chair, and sat down full before the picture, and began to
+contemplate it.
+
+"Well, for a good likeness, I cannot say I ever saw anything more
+unprepossessing. I am sure such a countenance as that could never have
+won a female heart. Surely, it is more calculated to terrify the
+imagination, than to soothe the affections of the timid and shrinking
+female.
+
+"However, I will have an inspection of the picture, and see if I can
+make anything of it."
+
+As he spoke, he put his hand upon the picture with the intention of
+removing it, when it suddenly was thrust open, and a man stepped down.
+
+The doctor was for a moment completely staggered, it was so utterly
+unexpected, and he stepped back a pace or two in the first emotion of
+his surprise; but this soon passed by, and he prepared to close with his
+antagonist, which he did without speaking a word.
+
+There was a fair struggle for more than two or three minutes, during
+which the doctor struggled and fought most manfully; but it was evident
+that Mr. Chillingworth had met with a man who was his superior in point
+of strength, for he not only withstood the utmost force that
+Chillingworth could bring against him, but maintained himself, and
+turned his strength against the doctor.
+
+Chillingworth panted with exertion, and found himself gradually losing
+ground, and was upon the point of being thrown down at the mercy of his
+adversary, who appeared to be inclined to take all advantages of him,
+when an occurrence happened that altered the state of affairs
+altogether.
+
+While they were struggling, the doctor borne partially to the earth--but
+yet struggling, suddenly his antagonist released his hold, and staggered
+back a few paces.
+
+"There, you swab--take that; I am yard-arm and yard-arm with you, you
+piratical-looking craft--you lubberly, buccaneering son of a fish-fag."
+
+Before, however, Jack Pringle, for it was he who came so opportunely to
+the rescue of Doctor Chillingworth, could find time to finish the
+sentence, he found himself assailed by the very man who, but a minute
+before, he had, as he thought, placed _hors de combat_.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A desperate fight ensued, and the stranger made the greatest efforts to
+escape with the picture, but found he could not get off without a
+desperate struggle. He was, at length, compelled to relinquish the hope
+of carrying that off, for both Mr. Chillingworth and Jack Pringle were
+engaged hand to hand; but the stranger struck Jack so heavy a blow on
+the head, that made him reel a few yards, and then he escaped through
+the window, leaving Jack and Mr. Chillingworth masters of the field, but
+by no means unscathed by the conflict in which they had been engaged.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCI.
+
+THE GRAND CONSULTATION BROKEN UP BY MRS. CHILLINGWORTH, AND THE
+DISAPPEARANCE OF VARNEY.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Remarkable was the change that had taken place in the circumstances of
+the Bannerworth family. From a state of great despondency, and, indeed,
+absolute poverty, they had suddenly risen to comfort and independence.
+
+It seemed as if the clouds that had obscured their destiny, had now,
+with one accord, dissipated, and that a brighter day was dawning. Not
+only had the circumstances of mental terror which had surrounded them
+given way in a great measure to the light of truth and reflection, but
+those pecuniary distresses which had pressed upon them for a time, were
+likewise passing away, and it seemed probable that they would be in a
+prosperous condition.
+
+_The acquisition of the title deeds of the estate_, which they thought
+had passed away from the family for ever, became to them, in their
+present circumstances, an immense acquisition, and brought to their
+minds a feeling of great contentment.
+
+Many persons in their situation would have been extremely satisfied at
+having secured so strong an interest in the mind of the old admiral, who
+was very wealthy, and who, from what he had already said and done, no
+doubt fully intended to provide handsomely for the Bannerworth family.
+
+And not only had they this to look forward to, if they had chosen to
+regard it as an advantage, but they knew that by the marriage of Flora
+with Charles Holland she would have a fortune at her disposal, while he
+(Charles) would be the last man in the world to demur at any reasonable
+amount of it being lavished upon her mother and her brothers.
+
+But all this did not suit the high and independent spirit of Henry
+Bannerworth. He was one who would rather have eaten the dust that he
+procured for himself by some meritorious exertion, than have feasted on
+the most delicate viands placed before him from the resources of
+another.
+
+But now that he knew this small estate, the title deeds of which had
+been so singularly obtained, had once really belonged to the family, but
+had been risked and lost at the gaming-table, he had no earthly scruple
+in calling such property again his own.
+
+As to the large sum of money which Sir Francis Varney in his confessions
+had declared to have found its way into the possession of Marmaduke
+Bannerworth, Henry did not expect, and scarcely wished to become
+possessed of wealth through so tainted a source.
+
+"No," he said to himself frequently; "no--I care not if that wealth be
+never forthcoming, which was so badly got possession of. Let it sink
+into the earth, if, indeed, it be buried there; or let it rot in some
+unknown corner of the old mansion. I care not for it."
+
+In this view of the case he was not alone, for a family more unselfish,
+or who cared so little for money, could scarcely have been found; but
+Admiral Bell and Charles Holland argued now that they had a right to the
+amount of money which Marmaduke Bannerworth had hidden somewhere, and
+the old admiral reasoned upon it rather ingeniously, for he said,--
+
+"I suppose you don't mean to dispute that the money belongs to somebody,
+and in that case I should like to know who else it belonged to, if not
+to you? How do you get over that, master Henry?"
+
+"I don't attempt to get over it at all," said Henry; "all I say is, that
+I do dislike the whole circumstances connected with it, and the manner
+in which it was come by; and, now that we have a small independence, I
+hope it will not be found. But, admiral, we are going to hold a family
+consultation as to what we shall do, and what is to become of Varney. He
+has convinced me of his relationship to our family, and, although his
+conduct has certainly been extremely equivocal, he has made all the
+amends in his power; and now, as he is getting old, I do not like to
+throw him upon the wide world for a subsistence."
+
+"You don't contemplate," said the admiral, "letting him remain with you,
+do you?"
+
+"No; that would be objectionable for a variety of reasons; and I could
+not think of it for a moment."
+
+"I should think not. The idea of sitting down to breakfast, dinner, tea,
+and supper with a vampyre, and taking your grog with a fellow that sucks
+other people's blood!"
+
+"Really, admiral, you do not really still cling to the idea that Sir
+Francis Varney is a vampyre."
+
+"I really don't know; he clings to it himself, that's all I can say; and
+I think, under those circumstances, I might as well give him the benefit
+of his own proposition, and suppose that he is a vampyre."
+
+"Really, uncle," said Charles Holland, "I did think that you had
+discarded the notion."
+
+"Did you? I have been thinking of it, and it ain't so desirable to be a
+vampyre, I am sure, that any one should pretend to it who is not;
+therefore, I take the fellow upon his own showing. He is a vampyre in
+his own opinion, and so I don't see, for the life of me, why he should
+not be so in ours."
+
+"Well," said Henry, "waving all that, what are we to do with him?
+Circumstances seem to have thrown him completely at our mercy. What are
+we to do with him, and what is to become of him for the future?"
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do," said the admiral. "If he were ten times a
+vampyre, there is some good in the fellow; and I will give him enough to
+live upon if he will go to America and spend it. They will take good
+care there that he sucks no blood out of them; for, although an American
+would always rather lose a drop of blood than a dollar, they keep a
+pretty sharp look out upon both."
+
+"The proposal can be made to him," said Henry, "at all events. It is one
+which I don't dislike, and probably one that he would embrace at once;
+because he seems, to me, to have completely done with ambition, and to
+have abandoned those projects concerning which, at one time, he took
+such a world of trouble."
+
+"Don't you trust to that," said the admiral. "What's bred in the bone
+don't so easily get out of the flesh; and once or twice, when Master
+Varney has been talking, I have seen those odd looking eyes of his flash
+up for a moment, as if he were quite ready to begin his old capers
+again, and alarm the whole country side."
+
+"I must confess," said Charles Holland, "that I myself have had the
+impression once or twice that Varney was only subdued for a time, and
+that, with a proper amount of provocation, he would become again a very
+serious fellow, and to the full as troublesome as he has been."
+
+"Do you doubt his sincerity?" said Henry.
+
+"No, I do not do that, Henry: I think Varney fully means what he says;
+but I think, at the same time, that he has for so long lead a strange,
+wild, and reckless life, that he will find it very far from easy, if
+indeed possible, to shake off his old habits and settle down quietly, if
+not to say comfortably."
+
+"I regret," said Henry, "that you have such an impression; but, while I
+do so, I cannot help admitting that it is, to a considerable extent, no
+more than a reasonable one; and perhaps, after all, my expectation that
+Varney will give us no more trouble, only amounts to a hope that he will
+not do so, and nothing more. But let us consider; there seems to be some
+slight difference of opinion among us, as to whether we should take up
+our residence at this new house of ours, which we did not know we owned,
+at Dearbrook, or proceed to London, and there establish ourselves, or
+again return to Bannerworth Hall, and, by a judicious expenditure of
+some money, make that a more habitable place than it has been for the
+last twenty years."
+
+"Now, I'll tell you what," said the admiral, "I would do. It's quite out
+of the question for any body to live long unless they see a ship; don't
+you think so, Miss Flora?"
+
+"Why, how can you ask Flora such a question, uncle," said Charles
+Holland, "when you know she don't care a straw about ships, and only
+looks upon admirals as natural curiosities?"
+
+"Excepting one," said Flora, "and he is an admiral who is natural but no
+curiosity, unless it be that you, can call him such because he is so
+just and generous, and, as for ships, who can help admiring them; and if
+Admiral Bell proposes that we live in some pleasant, marine villa by the
+sea-coast, he shall have my vote and interest for the proceeding."
+
+"Bravo! Huzza!" cried the admiral. "I tell you what it is, Master
+Charley--you horse marine,--I have a great mind to cut you out, and have
+Miss Flora myself."
+
+"Don't, uncle," said Charles; "that would be so very cruel, after she
+has promised me so faithfully. How do you suppose I should like it; come
+now, be merciful."
+
+At this moment, and before any one could make another remark, there came
+rather a sharp ring at the garden-gate bell, and Henry exclaimed,--
+
+"That's Mr. Chillingworth, and I am glad he has come in time to join our
+conference. His advice is always valuable; and, moreover, I rather think
+he will bring us some news worth the hearing."
+
+The one servant who they had to wait upon them looked into the room, and
+said,--"If you please, here is Mrs. Chillingworth."
+
+"Mistress? you mean Mr."
+
+"No; it is Mrs. Chillingworth and her baby."
+
+"The devil!" said the admiral; "what can she want?"
+
+"I'll come and let you know," said Mrs. Chillingworth, "what I want;"
+and she darted into the room past the servant. "I'll soon let you know,
+you great sea crab. I want my husband; and what with your vampyre, and
+one thing and another, I haven't had him at home an hour for the past
+three weeks. What am I to do? There is all his patients getting well as
+fast as they can without him; and, when they find that out, do you think
+they will take any more filthy physic? No, to be sure not; people ain't
+such fools as to do anything of the sort."
+
+"I'll tell you what we will do, ma'am," said the admiral; "we'll all get
+ill at once, on purpose to oblige ye; and I'll begin by having the
+measles."
+
+"You are an old porpoise, and I believe it all owing to you that my
+husband neglects his wife and family. What's vampyres to him, I should
+like to know, that he should go troubling about them? I never heard of
+vampyres taking draughts and pills."
+
+"No, nor any body else that had the sense of a goose," said the admiral;
+"but if it's your husband you want, ma'am, it's no use your looking for
+him here, for here he is not."
+
+"Then where is he? He is running after some of your beastly vampyres
+somewhere, I'll be bound, and you know where to send for him."
+
+"Then you are mistaken; for, indeed, we don't. We want him ourselves,
+ma'am, and can't find him--that's the fact."
+
+"It's all very well talking, sir, but if you were a married woman, with
+a family about you, and the last at the breast, you'd feel very
+different from what you do now."
+
+"I'm d----d if I don't suppose I should," said the admiral; "but as for
+the last, ma'am, I'd soon settle that. I'd wring its neck, and shove it
+overboard."
+
+"You would, you brute? It's quite clear to me you never had a child of
+your own."
+
+"Mrs. Chillingworth," said Henry, "I think you have no right to complain
+to us of your domestic affairs. Where your husband goes, and what he
+does, is at his own will and pleasure, and, really, I don't see that we
+are to be made answerable as to whether he is at home or abroad; to say
+nothing of the bad taste--and bad taste it most certainly is, of talking
+of your private affairs to other people."
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Mrs. Chillingworth; "that's your idea, is it, you
+no-whiskered puppy?"
+
+"Really, madam, I cannot see what my being destitute of whiskers has to
+do with the affair; and I am inclined to think my opinion is quite as
+good without them as with them."
+
+"I will speak," said Flora, "to the doctor, when I see him."
+
+"Will you, Miss Doll's-eyes? Oh, dear me! you'll speak to the doctor,
+will you?"
+
+"What on earth do you want?" said Henry. "For your husband's sake, whom
+we all respect, we wish to treat you with every imaginable civility; but
+we tell you, candidly, that he is not here, and, therefore, we cannot
+conceive what more you can require of us."
+
+"Oh, it's a row," said the admiral; "that's what she wants--woman like.
+D----d a bit do they care what it's about as long as there's a
+disturbance. And now, ma'am, will you sit down and have a glass of
+grog?"
+
+"No, I will not sit down; and all I can say is, that I look upon this
+place as a den full of snakes and reptiles. That's my opinion; so I'll
+not stay any longer; but, wishing that great judgments may some day come
+home to you all, and that you may know what it is to be a mother, with
+five babies, and one at the breast, I despise you all and leave you."
+
+So saying, Mrs. Chillingworth walked from the place, feeling herself
+highly hurt and offended at what had ensued; and they were compelled to
+let her go just as she was, without giving her any information, for they
+had a vivid recollection of the serious disturbance she had created on a
+former occasion, when she had actually headed a mob, for the purpose of
+hunting out Varney, the vampyre, from Bannerworth Hall, and putting an
+end consequently, as she considered, to that set of circumstances which
+kept the doctor so much from his house, to the great detriment of a not
+very extensive practice.
+
+"After all," said Flora, "Mrs. Chillingworth, although she is not the
+most refined person in the world, is to be pitied."
+
+"What!" cried the admiral; "Miss Doll's-eyes, are you taking her part?"
+
+"Oh, that's nothing. She may call me what she likes."
+
+"I believe she is a good wife to the doctor," said Henry,
+"notwithstanding his little eccentricities; but suppose we now at once
+make the proposal we were thinking of to Sir Francis Varney, and so get
+him to leave England as quickly as possible and put an end to the
+possibility of his being any more trouble to anybody."
+
+"Agreed--agreed. It's the best thing that can be done, and it will be
+something gained to get his consent at once."
+
+"I'll run up stairs to him," said Charles, "and call him down at once. I
+scarcely doubt for a moment his acquiescence in the proposal."
+
+Charles Holland rose, and ran up the little staircase of the cottage to
+the room which, by the kindness of the Bannerworth family, had been
+devoted to the use of Varney. He had not been gone above two minutes,
+when he returned, hastily, with a small scrap of paper in his hand,
+which he laid before Henry, saying,--
+
+"There, what think you of that?"
+
+Henry, upon taking up the paper, saw written upon it the words,--
+
+"_The Farewell of Varney the Vampyre_."
+
+"He is gone," said Charles Holland. "The room is vacant. I saw at a
+glance that he had removed his hat, and cloak, and all that belonged to
+him. He's off, and at so short a warning, and in so abrupt a manner,
+that I fear the worst."
+
+"What can you fear?"
+
+"I scarcely know what; but we have a right to fear everything and
+anything from his most inexplicable being, whose whole conduct has been
+of that mysterious nature, as to put him past all calculation as regards
+his motives, his objects, or his actions. I must confess that I would
+have hailed his departure from England with feelings of satisfaction;
+but what he means now, by this strange manoeuvre, Heaven, and his own
+singular intellect, can alone divine."
+
+"I must confess," said Flora, "I should not at all have thought this of
+Varney. It seems to me as if something new must have occurred to him.
+Altogether, I do not feel any alarm concerning his actions as regards
+us. I am convinced of his sincerity, and, therefore, do not view with
+sensations of uneasiness this new circumstance, which appears at present
+so inexplicable, but for which we may yet get some explanation that will
+be satisfactory to us all."
+
+"I cannot conceive," said Henry, "what new circumstances could have
+occurred to produce this effect upon Varney. Things remain just as they
+were; and, after all, situated as he is, if any change had taken place
+in matters out of doors, I do not see how he could become acquainted
+with them, so that his leaving must have been a matter of mere
+calculation, or of impulse at the moment--Heaven knows which--but can
+have nothing to do with actual information, because it is quite evident
+he could not get it."
+
+"It is rather strange," said Charles Holland, "that just as we were
+speculating upon the probability of his doing something of this sort, he
+should suddenly do it, and in this singular manner too."
+
+"Oh," said the old admiral, "I told you I saw his eye, that was enough
+for me. I knew he would do something, as well as I know a mainmast from
+a chain cable. He can't help it; it's in the nature of the beast, and
+that's all you can say about it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCII.
+
+THE MISADVENTURE OF THE DOCTOR WITH THE PICTURE.
+
+
+The situation of Dr. Chillingworth and Jack Pringle was not of that
+character that permitted much conversation or even congratulation. They
+were victors it was true, and yet they had but little to boast of
+besides the victory.
+
+Victory is a great thing; it is like a gilded coat, it bewilders and
+dazzles. Nobody can say much when you are victorious. What a sound! and
+yet how much misery is there not hidden beneath it.
+
+This victory of the worthy doctor and his aid amounted to this, they
+were as they were before, without being any better, but much the worse,
+seeing they were so much buffetted that they could hardly speak, but sat
+for some moments opposite to each other, gasping for breath, and staring
+each other in the face without speaking.
+
+The moonlight came in through the window and fell upon the floor, and
+there were no sounds that came to disturb the stillness of the scene,
+nor any object that moved to cast a shadow upon the floor. All was still
+and motionless, save the two victors, who were much distressed and
+bruised.
+
+"Well!" said Jack Pringle, with a hearty execration, as he wiped his
+face with the back of his hand; "saving your presence, doctor, we are
+masters of the field, doctor; but it's plaguey like capturing an empty
+bandbox after a hard fight."
+
+"But we have got the picture, Jack--we have got the picture, you see,
+and that is something. I am sure we saved that."
+
+"Well, that may be; and a pretty d----d looking picture it is after all.
+Why, it's enough to frighten a lady into the sulks. I think it would be
+a very good thing if it were burned."
+
+"Well," said the doctor, "I would sooner see it burned than in the hands
+of that--"
+
+"What?" exclaimed Jack.
+
+"I don't know," said Mr. Chillingworth; "but thief I should say, for it
+was somewhat thief-like to break into another man's house and carry off
+the furniture."
+
+"A pirate--a regular land shark."
+
+"Something that is not the same as an honest man, Jack; but, at all
+events, we have beaten him back this time."
+
+"Yes," said Jack, "the ship's cleared; no company is better than bad
+company, doctor."
+
+"So it is, and yet it don't seem clear in terms. But, Jack, it you
+hadn't come in time, I should have been but scurvily treated. He was too
+powerful for me; I was as nigh being killed as ever I have been; but you
+were just in time to save me."
+
+"Well, he was a large, ugly fellow, sure enough, and looked like an old
+tree."
+
+"Did you see him?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure I did."
+
+"Well, I could not catch a glimpse of his features. In fact, I was too
+much employed to see anything, and it was much too dark to notice
+anything particular, even if I had had leisure."
+
+"Why, you had as much to do as you could well manage, I must say that,
+at all events. I didn't see much of him myself; only he was a tall,
+out-of-the-way sort of chap--a long-legged shark. He gave me such a dig
+or two as I haven't had for a long while, nor don't want to get again;
+though I don't care if I face the devil himself. A man can't do more
+than do his best, doctor."
+
+"No, Jack; but there are very few who do do their best, and that's the
+truth. You have, and have done it to some purpose too. But I have had
+enough for one day; he was almost strong enough to contend against us
+both."
+
+"Yes, so he was."
+
+"And, besides that, he almost carried away the picture--that was a great
+hindrance to him. Don't you think we could have held him if we had not
+been fighting over the picture?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure we could; we could have gone at him bodily, and held
+him. He would not have been able to use his hands. We could have hung on
+him, and I am sure if I came to grapple yard-arm and yard-arm, he would
+have told a different tale; however, that is neither here nor there. How
+long had you been here?"
+
+"Not very long," replied the doctor, whose head was a little confused by
+the blows which he had received. "I can't now tell how long, but only a
+short time, I think."
+
+"Where did he come from?" inquired Jack.
+
+"Come from, Jack?"
+
+"Yes, doctor, where did he came from?--the window, I suppose--the same
+way he went out, I dare say--it's most likely."
+
+"Oh, no, no; he come down from behind the picture. There's some mystery
+in that picture, I'll swear to it; it's very strange he should make such
+a desperate attempt to carry it away."
+
+"Yes; one would think," said Jack, "there was more in it than we can
+see--that it is worth more than we can believe; perhaps somebody sets
+particular store by it."
+
+"I don't know," said Mr. Chillingworth, shaking his head, "I don't know
+how that may be; but certain it is, the picture was the object of his
+visit here--that is very certain."
+
+"It was; he was endeavouring to carry it off," said Jack; "it would be a
+very good ornament to the black hole at Calcutta."
+
+"The utility of putting it where it cannot be seen," remarked Mr.
+Chillingworth, "I cannot very well see; though I dare say it might be
+all very well."
+
+"Yes--its ugly features would be no longer seen; so far, it would be a
+good job. But are you going to remain here all night, and so make a long
+watch of it, doctor?"
+
+"Why, Jack," said the doctor, "I did intend watching here; but now the
+game is disturbed, it is of no use remaining here. We have secured the
+picture, and now there will be no need of remaining in the house; in
+fact, there is no fear of robbery now."
+
+"Not so long as we are here," said Jack Pringle; "the smugglers won't
+show a head while the revenue cutter is on the look out."
+
+"Certainly not, Jack," said Mr. Chillingworth; "I think we have scared
+them away--the picture is safe."
+
+"Yes--so long as we are here."
+
+"And longer, too, I hope."
+
+Jack shook his head, as much as to intimate that he had many doubts upon
+such a point, and couldn't be hurried into any concession of opinion of
+the safety of such a picture as that--much as he disliked it, and as
+poor an opinion as he had of it.
+
+"Don't you think it will be safe?"
+
+"No," said Jack.
+
+"And why not?" said Mr. Chillingworth, willing to hear what Jack could
+advance against the opinion he had expressed, especially as he had
+disturbed the marauder in the very act of robbery.
+
+"Why, you'll be watched by this very man; and when you are gone, he will
+return in safety, and take this plaguey picture away with him."
+
+"Well, he might do so," said Mr. Chillingworth, after some thought; "he
+even endangered his own escape for the purpose of carrying it off."
+
+"He wants it," said Jack.
+
+"What, the picture?"
+
+"Aye, to be sure; do you think anybody would have tried so hard to get
+away with it? He wants it; and the long and the short of it is, he will
+have it, despite all that can be done to prevent it; that's my opinion."
+
+"Well, there is much truth in that; but what to do I don't know."
+
+"Take it to the cottage," suggested Jack. "The picture must be more than
+we think for; suppose we carry it along."
+
+"That is no bad plan of yours, Jack," said Mr. Chillingworth; "and,
+though a little awkward, yet it is not the worst I have heard;
+but--but--what will they say, when they see this frightful face in that
+quiet, yet contented house?"
+
+"Why, they'll say you brought it," said Jack; "I don't see what else
+they can say, but that you have done well; besides, when you come to
+explain, you will make the matter all right to 'em."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Chillingworth; "and, as the picture now seems to be the
+incomprehensible object of attack, I will secure that, at all events."
+
+"I'll help you."
+
+"Thank you, Jack; your aid will be welcome; at least, it was so just
+now."
+
+"All right, doctor," said Jack. "I may be under your hands some day."
+
+"I'll physic you for nothing," said Mr. Chillingworth. "You saved my
+life. One good turn deserves another; I'll not forget."
+
+"Thank you," said Jack, as he made a wry face. "I hope you won't have
+occasion. I'd sooner have a can of grog than any bottle of medicine you
+can give me; I ain't ungrateful, neither."
+
+"You needn't name it; I am getting my breath again. I suppose we had
+better leave this place, as soon as we conveniently can."
+
+"Exactly. The sooner the better; we can take it the more leisurely as we
+go."
+
+The moon was up; there were no clouds now, but there was not a very
+strong light, because the moon was on the wane. It was one of those
+nights during which an imperceptible vapour arises, and renders the moon
+somewhat obscure, or, at least, it robs the earth of her rays; and then
+there were shadows cast by the moon, yet they grew fainter, and those
+cast upon the floor of the apartment were less distinct than at first.
+
+There seemed scarce a breath of air stirring; everything was quiet and
+still; no motion--no sound, save that of the breathing of the two who
+sat in that mysterious apartment, who gazed alternately round the place,
+and then in each other's countenances. Suddenly, the silence of the
+night was disturbed by a very slight, but distinct noise, which struck
+upon them with peculiar distinctness; it was a gentle tap, tap, at the
+window, as if some one was doing it with their fingernail.
+
+They gazed on each other, for some moments, in amazement, and then at
+the window, but they saw nothing; and yet, had there been anything, they
+must have seen it, but there was not even a shadow.
+
+"Well," said Mr. Chillingworth, after he had listened to the tap, tap,
+several times, without being able to find out or imagine what it could
+arise from, "what on earth can it be?"
+
+"Don't know," said Jack, very composedly, squinting up at the window.
+"Can't see anything."
+
+"Well, but it must be something," persisted Mr. Chillingworth; "it must
+be something."
+
+"I dare say it is; but I don't see anything. I can't think what it can
+be, unless--"
+
+"Unless what? Speak out," said the doctor, impatiently.
+
+"Why, unless it is Davy Jones himself, tapping with his long
+finger-nails, a-telling us as how we've been too long already here."
+
+"Then, I presume, we may as well go; and yet I am more disposed to deem
+it some device of the enemy to dislodge us from this place, for the
+purpose of enabling them to effect some nefarious scheme or other they
+have afloat."
+
+"It may be, and is, I dare say, a do of some sort or other," said Jack;
+"but what' can it be?"
+
+"There it is again," said the doctor; "don't you hear it? I can, as
+plain as I can hear myself."
+
+"Yes," said Jack; "I can hear it plain enough, and can see it, too; and
+that is more. Yes, yes, I can tell all about it plain enough."
+
+"You can? Well, then, shew me," said the doctor, as he strode up to the
+window, before which Jack was standing gazing upon one particular spot
+of the shattered window with much earnestness.
+
+"Where is it?"
+
+"Look there," said Jack, pointing with his finger to a particular spot,
+to which the doctor directed his attention, expecting to see a long,
+skinny hand tapping against the glass; but he saw nothing.
+
+"Where is it?"
+
+"Do you see that twig of ivy, or something of the sort?" inquired Jack.
+
+"Yes, I do."
+
+"Very well, watch that; and when the wind catches it--and there is but
+very little--it lifts it up, and then, falling down again, it taps the
+glass."
+
+Just as he spoke, there came a slight gust of wind; and it gave a
+practical illustration to his words; for the tapping was heard as often
+as the plant was moved by the wind.
+
+"Well," said Mr. Chillingworth, "however simple and unimportant the
+matter may be, yet I cannot but say I am always well pleased to find a
+practical explanation of it, so that there will be no part left in
+doubt."
+
+"There is none about that," said Jack.
+
+"None. Well, we are not beset, then. We may as well consider of the
+manner of our getting clear of this place. What sort of burthen this
+picture may be I know not; but I will make the attempt to carry it."
+
+"Avast, there," said Jack; "I will carry it: at all events, I'll take
+the first spell, and, if I can't go on, we'll turn and turn about."
+
+"We can divide the weight from the first, and then neither of us will be
+tired at all."
+
+"Just as you please, sir," said Jack Pringle. "I am willing to obey
+orders; and, if we are to get in to-night before they are all a-bed, we
+had better go at once; and then we shall not disturb them."
+
+"Good, Jack," said Mr. Chillingworth; "very good: let us begin to beat
+our retreat at once."
+
+"Very good," said Jack.
+
+They both rose and approached the picture, which stood up in one corner,
+half reclining against the wall; the light, at least so much as there
+was, fell upon it, and gave it a ghastly and deathly hue, which made Mr.
+Chillingworth feel an emotion he could not at all understand; but, as
+soon as he could, he withdrew his eyes from off the picture, and they
+proceeded to secure it with some cord, so that they might carry it
+between them the easier--with less trouble and more safety.
+
+These preparations did not take long in making, and, when completed,
+they gave another inquiring look round the chamber, and Mr.
+Chillingworth again approached the window, and gazed out upon the garden
+below, but saw nothing to attract his attention.
+
+Turning away, he came to the picture, with which Jack Pringle had been
+standing. They proceeded towards the stairs, adopting every precaution
+they could take to prevent any surprise and any attempt upon the object
+of their solicitude.
+
+Then they came to the great hall, and, having opened the door, they
+carried it out; then shutting the door, they both stood outside of
+Bannerworth Hall; and, before taking the picture up in their hands, they
+once more looked suspiciously around them.
+
+There was nothing to be seen, and so, shouldering the ominous portrait,
+they proceeded along the garden till they conveyed it into the roadway.
+
+"Now," said Jack, "we are off; we can scud along under press of sail,
+you know."
+
+"I would rather not," said the doctor, "for two reasons; one of which
+is, I can't do it myself, and the other is, we should run the risk of
+injuring the picture; besides this, there is no reason for so doing."
+
+"Very well," said Jack, "make it agreeable to yourself, doctor. See you,
+Jack's alive, and I am willing to do all I can to help you."
+
+"I am very glad of your aid," said Mr. Chillingworth; "so we will
+proceed slowly. I shall be glad when we are there; for there are few
+things more awkward than this picture to carry."
+
+"It is not heavy," said Jack, giving it a hitch up, that first pulled
+the doctor back, and then pushed him forward again.
+
+"No; but stop, don't do that often, Jack, or else I shall be obliged to
+let go, to save myself from falling," said the doctor.
+
+"Very sorry," said Jack; "hope it didn't inconvenience you; but I could
+carry this by myself."
+
+"And so could I," returned Mr. Chillingworth; "but the probability is
+there would be some mischief done to it, and then we should be doing
+more harm than good."
+
+"So we should," said Jack.
+
+They proceeded along with much care and caution. It was growing late
+now, and no one was about--at least, they met none. People did not roam
+about much after dark, especially since the reports of the vampyre
+became current, for, notwithstanding all their bravery and violence
+while in a body, yet to meet and contend with him singly, and unseen,
+was not at all a popular notion among them; indeed, they would sooner go
+a mile out of their way, or remain in doors, which they usually did.
+
+The evening was not precisely dark, there was moonlight enough to save
+it from that, but there was a mist hanging about, that rendered objects,
+at a short distance, very indistinct.
+
+Their walk was uninterrupted by any one, and they had got through half
+the distance without any disturbance or interruption whatever.
+
+When they arrived at the precincts of the village, Jack Pringle said to
+Dr. Chillingworth, "Do you intend going through the village, doctor?"
+
+"Why not? there will be nobody about, and if there should be, we shall
+be safe enough from any molestation, seeing there are none here who
+would dare to harm us; it is the shortest way, too."
+
+"Very good," said Jack; "I am agreeable, and as for any one harming me,
+they know better; but, at all events, there's company, and there's less
+danger, you know, doctor; though I'm always company to myself, but
+haven't any objection to a messmate, now and then."
+
+They pursued their way in silence, for some distance, the doctor not
+caring about continuing the talk of Jack, which amounted to nothing;
+besides, he had too much to do, for, notwithstanding the lightness of
+the picture, which Jack had endeavoured to persuade the doctor of, he
+found it was heavy and ungainly; indeed, had he been by himself he would
+have had some trouble to have got it away.
+
+"We are nearly there," said Jack, putting down his end of the picture,
+which brought Doctor Chillingworth to a standstill.
+
+"Yes, we are; but what made you stop?"
+
+"Why, you see," said Jack, giving his trowsers a hitch, "as I said
+before, we are nearly there."
+
+"Well, what of that? we intended to go there, did we not?" inquired
+Chillingworth.
+
+"Yes, exactly; that is, you intended to do so, I know, but I didn't."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" inquired Chillingworth; "you are a complete
+riddle to-night, Jack; what is the matter with you?"
+
+"Nothing; only, you see, I don't want to go into the cottage, 'cause,
+you see, the admiral and I have had what you may call a bit of a growl,
+and I am in disgrace there a little, though I don't know why, or
+wherefore; I always did my duty by him, as I did by my country. The ould
+man, however, takes fits into his head; at the same time I shall take
+some too; Jack's as good as his master, ashore, at all events."
+
+"Well, then, you object to go in?" said Chillingworth.
+
+"That is the state of the case; not that I'm afraid, or have any cause
+to be ashamed of myself; but I don't want to make anybody else
+uncomfortable, by causing black looks."
+
+"Very well, Jack," said the doctor. "I am much obliged to you, and, if
+you don't like to come, I won't press you against your inclination."
+
+"I understand, doctor. I will leave you here, if you can manage the rest
+of the way by yourself; there are not two hundred yards now to go, so
+you are all safe; so good bye."
+
+"Good bye, Jack," said Doctor Chillingworth, who stood wiping his
+forehead, whilst the picture was standing up against the poles.
+
+"Do you want a hand up first?"
+
+"No, thank you; I can get it up very well without any trouble--it's not
+so heavy."
+
+"Good bye, then," said Jack; and, in a few moments more, Jack Pringle
+was out of sight, and the doctor was alone with the ominous picture. He
+had not far to go, and was within hail of the cottage; but it was late,
+and yet he believed he should find them up, for the quietude and
+calmness of the evening hour was that which most chimed with their
+feelings. At such a time they could look out upon the face of nature,
+and the freedom of thought appeared the greater, because there was no
+human being to clash with the silence and stillness of the scene.
+
+"Well," muttered Chillingworth, "I'll go at once to the cottage with my
+burthen. How they will look at me, and wonder what could induce me to
+bring this away. I can hardly help smiling at the thought of how they
+will look at the apparition I shall make."
+
+Thus filled with notions that appeared to please him, the doctor
+shouldered the picture, and walked slowly along until he reached the
+dead wall that ran up to the entrance, or nearly so, of the gardens.
+
+There was a plantation of young trees that overhung the path, and cast a
+deep shadow below--a pleasant spot in hot weather.
+
+The doctor had been carrying the picture, resting the side of it on the
+small of his arm, and against his shoulder; but this was an inconvenient
+posture, because the weight of the picture cut his arm so much, that he
+was compelled to pause, and shift it more on his shoulder.
+
+"There," he muttered, "that will do for the present, and last until I
+reach the cottage garden."
+
+He was proceeding along at a slow and steady pace, bestowing all his
+care and attention to the manner of holding the picture, when he was
+suddenly paralysed by the sound of a great shout of such a peculiar
+character, that he involuntarily stopped, and the next moment, something
+heavy came against him with great force, just as if a man had jumped
+from the wall on to him.
+
+This was the truth, for, in another moment, and before he could recover
+himself, he found that there was an attempt to deprive him of the
+picture.
+
+This at once aroused him, and he made an instant and a vigorous defence;
+but he was compelled to let go his hold of the picture, and turn to
+resist the infuriated attack that was now commenced upon himself.
+
+For some moments it was doubtful who would be the victor; but the wind
+and strength of the doctor were not enough to resist the powerful
+adversary against whom he had to contend, and the heavy blows that were
+showered down upon him.
+
+At first he was enabled to bear up against this attack; and then he
+returned many of the blows with interest; but the stunning effect of the
+blows he received himself, was such that he could not help himself, and
+felt his senses gradually failing, his strength becoming less and less.
+
+In a short time, he received such a blow, that he was laid senseless on
+the earth in an instant.
+
+How long he remained thus he could not say; but it could not have been
+long, for all around him seemed just as it was before he was attacked.
+
+The moon had scarcely moved, and the shadows, such as they were, were
+falling in the same direction as before.
+
+"I have not been long here," he muttered, after a few moments'
+reflection; "but--but--"
+
+He stopped short; for, on looking around him, he saw the object of his
+solicitude was gone. The picture was nowhere to be seen. It had been
+carried off the instant he had been vanquished.
+
+"Gone!" he said, in a low, disconsolate tone; "and after all I have
+done!"
+
+He wiped his hand across his brow, and finding it cut, he looked at the
+back of his hand, and saw by the deep colour that it was blood, indeed,
+he could now feel it trickle down his face.
+
+What to do he hardly knew; he could stand, and after having got upon his
+feet, he staggered back against the wall, against which he leaned for
+support, and afterwards he crept along with the aid of its support,
+until he came to the door.
+
+He was observed from the window, where Henry and Charles Holland, seeing
+him come up with such an unsteady gait, rushed to the door to ascertain
+what was the matter.
+
+"What, doctor!" exclaimed Henry Bannerworth; "what is the matter?"
+
+"I am almost dead, I think," said Chillingworth. "Lend me your arm,
+Henry."
+
+Henry and Charles Holland immediately stepped out, and took him between
+them into the parlour, and placed him upon a couch.
+
+"What on earth has happened, doctor?--have you got into disgrace with
+the populace?"
+
+"No, no; give me some drink--some water, I am very faint--very faint."
+
+"Give him some wine, or, what's better, some grog," said the admiral.
+"Why, he's been yard-arm with some pirate or other, and he's damaged
+about the figure-head. You ain't hurt in your lower works, are you,
+doctor?" said the admiral.
+
+But the doctor took no notice of the inquiry; but eagerly sipped the
+contents of a glass that Charles Holland had poured out of a bottle
+containing some strong Hollands, and which appeared to nerve him much.
+
+"There!" said the admiral, "that will do you good. How did all this
+damage to your upper works come about, eh?"
+
+"Let him wash his face and hands first; he will be better able to talk
+afterwards."
+
+"Oh, thank you," said Chillingworth. "I am much better; but I have had
+some hard bruises."
+
+"How did it happen?"
+
+"I went by myself to watch in the room where the picture was in
+Bannerworth Hall."
+
+"Where the picture was!" said Henry; "where it is, you mean, do you not,
+doctor?"
+
+"No; where it was, and where it is not now."
+
+"Gone!"
+
+"Yes, gone away; I'll tell you all about it. I went there to watch, but
+found nobody or nothing there; but suddenly a man stepped out from
+behind the picture, and we had a fight over it; after which, just as I
+was getting the worst of it, Jack Pringle came in."
+
+"The dog!" muttered the admiral.
+
+"Yes, he came in just in time, I believe, to save my life; for the man,
+whoever he was, would not have hesitated about it."
+
+"Well, Jack is a good man," said the admiral; "there may be worse, at
+least."
+
+"Well, we had a desperate encounter for some minutes, during which this
+fellow wanted to carry off the picture."
+
+"Carry off the picture?"
+
+"Yes; we had a struggle for that; but we could not capture him; he was
+so violent that he broke away and got clear off."
+
+"With the picture?"
+
+"No, he left the picture behind. Well, we were very tired and bruised,
+and we sat down to recover ourselves from our fatigue, and to consider
+what was best to be done; but we were some time before we could leave,
+and then we determined that we would take the picture away with us, as
+it seemed to be coveted by the robber, for what object we cannot tell."
+
+"Well, well--where is the picture?"
+
+"You shall hear all about it in a minute, if you'll let me take my time.
+I am tired and sore. Well, we brought the picture out, and Jack helped
+me carry it till he came within a couple of hundred yards of the
+cottage, and there left me."
+
+"The lubber!" said the admiral, interjectionally.
+
+"Well, I rested awhile, and then taking the picture on my shoulders, I
+proceeded along with it until I came to the wall, when suddenly I heard
+a great shout, and then down came something heavy upon me, just as if a
+man had jumped down upon me."
+
+"And--and--"
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, "it was--"
+
+"Was what?" inquired the admiral.
+
+"Just what you all seemed to anticipate; you are all before me, but that
+was it."
+
+"A man?"
+
+"Yes; I had a struggle with him, and got nearly killed, for I am not
+equal to him in strength. I was sadly knocked about, and finally all the
+senses were knocked out of me, and I was, I suppose, left for dead."
+
+"And what became of the picture?"
+
+"I don't know; but I suppose it was taken away, as, when I came to
+myself, it was gone; indeed, I have some faint recollection of seeing
+him seize the portrait as I was falling."
+
+There was a pause of some moments, during which all the party appeared
+to be employed with their own thoughts, and the whole were silent.
+
+"Do you think it was the same man who attacked you in the house that
+obtained the picture?" at last inquired Henry Bannerworth.
+
+"I cannot say, but I think it most probable that it was the same;
+indeed, the general appearance, as near as I could tell in the dark, was
+the same; but what I look upon as much stronger is, the object appears
+to be the same in both cases."
+
+"That is very true," said Henry Bannerworth--"very true; and I think it
+more than probable myself. But come, doctor, you will require rest and
+nursing after your dangers."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCIII.
+
+THE ALARM AT ANDERBURY.--THE SUSPICIONS OF THE BANNERWORTH FAMILY, AND
+THE MYSTERIOUS COMMUNICATION.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+About twenty miles to the southward of Bannerworth Hall was a good-sized
+market-town, called Anderbury. It was an extensive and flourishing
+place, and from the beauty of its situation, and its contiguity to the
+southern coast of England, it was much admired; and, in consequence,
+numerous mansions and villas of great pretension had sprang up in its
+immediate neighbourhood.
+
+Betides, there were some estates of great value, and one of these,
+called Anderbury-on-the-Mount, in consequence of the mansion itself,
+which was of an immense extent, being built upon an eminence, was to be
+let, or sold.
+
+This town of Anderbury was remarkable not only for the beauty of its
+aspect, but likewise for the quiet serenity of its inhabitants, who were
+a prosperous, thriving race, and depended very much upon their own
+resources.
+
+There were some peculiar circumstances why Anderbury-on-the-Mount was to
+let. It had been for a great number of years in possession of a family
+of the name of Milltown, who had resided there in great comfort and
+respectability, until an epidemic disorder broke out, first among the
+servants, and then spreading to the junior branches of the family, and
+from them to their seniors, produced such devastation, that in the
+course of three weeks there was but one young man left of the whole
+family, and he, by native vigour of constitution, had baffled the
+disorder, and found himself alone in his ancestral halls, the last of
+his race.
+
+Soon a settled melancholy took possession of him, and all that had
+formerly delighted him now gave him pain, inasmuch as it brought to his
+mind a host of recollections of the most agonising character.
+
+In vain was it that the surrounding gentry paid him every possible
+attention, and endeavoured to do all that was in their power to
+alleviate the unhappy circumstances in which he was placed. If he
+smiled, it was in a sad sort, and that was very seldom; and at length he
+announced his intention of leaving the neighbourhood, and seeking
+abroad, and in change of scene, for that solace which he could not
+expect to find in his ancestral home, after what had occurred within its
+ancient walls.
+
+There was not a chamber but which reminded him of the past--there was
+not a tree or a plant of any kind or description but which spoke to him
+plainly of those who were now no more, and whose merry laughter had
+within his own memory made that ancient place echo with glee, filling
+the sunny air with the most gladsome shouts, such as come from the lips
+of happy youth long before the world has robbed it of any of its romance
+or its beauty.
+
+There was a general feeling of regret when this young man announced the
+fact of his departure to a foreign land; for he was much respected, and
+the known calamities which he had suffered, and the grief under which he
+laboured, invested his character with a great and painful interest.
+
+An entertainment was given to him upon the eve of his departure, and on
+the next day he was many miles from the place, and the estate of
+Anderbury-on-the-Mount was understood to be sold or let.
+
+The old mansion had remained, then, for a year or two vacant, for it was
+a place of too much magnitude, and required by far too expensive an
+establishment to keep it going, to enable any person whose means were
+not very large to think of having anything to do with it.
+
+So, therefore, it remained unlet, and wearing that gloomy aspect which a
+large house, untenanted, so very quickly assumes.
+
+It was quite a melancholy thing to look upon it, and to think what it
+must have once been, and what it might be still, compared to what it
+actually was; and the inhabitants of the neighbourhood had made up their
+minds that Anderbury-on-the-Mount would remain untenanted for many a
+year to come, and, perhaps, ultimately fall into ruin and decay.
+
+But in this they were doomed to be disappointed, for, on the evening of
+a dull and gloomy day, about one week after the events we have recorded
+as taking place at Bannerworth Hall and its immediate neighbourhood, a
+travelling carriage, with four horses and an out-rider, came dashing
+into the place, and drew up at the principal inn in the town, which was
+called the Anderbury Arms.
+
+The appearance of such an equipage, although not the most unusual thing
+in the world, in consequence of the many aristocratic families who
+resided in the neighbourhood, caused, at all events, some sensation,
+and, perhaps, the more so because it drove up to the inn instead of to
+any of the mansions of the neighbourhood, thereby showing that the
+stranger, whoever he was, came not as a visitor, but either merely
+baited in the town, being on his road somewhere else, or had some
+special business in it which would soon be learned.
+
+The out-rider, who was in handsome livery, had gallopped on in advance
+of the carriage a short distance, for the purpose of ordering the best
+apartments in the inn to be immediately prepared for the reception of
+his master.
+
+"Who is he?" asked the landlord.
+
+"It's the Baron Stolmuyer Saltsburgh."
+
+"Bless my heart, I never heard of him before; where did he come
+from--somewhere abroad I suppose?"
+
+"I can't tell you anything of him further than that he is immensely
+rich, and is looking for a house. He has heard that there is one to let
+in this immediate neighbourhood, and that's what has brought him from
+London, I suppose."
+
+"Yes, there is one; and it is called Anderbury-on-the-Mount."
+
+"Well, he will very likely speak to you about it himself, for here he
+comes."
+
+By this time the carriage had halted at the door of the hotel, and, the
+door being opened, and the steps lowered, there alighted from it a tall
+man attired in a kind of pelisse, or cloak, trimmed with rich fur, the
+body of it being composed of velvet. Upon his head he wore a travelling
+cap, and his fingers, as he grasped the cloak around him, were seen to
+be covered with rings of great value.
+
+Such a personage, coming in such style, was, of course, likely to be
+honoured in every possible way by the landlord of the inn, and
+accordingly he was shown most obsequiously to the handsomest apartment
+in the house, and the whole establishment was put upon the alert to
+attend to any orders he might choose to give.
+
+He had not been long in the place when he sent for the landlord, who,
+hastily scrambling on his best coat, and getting his wife to arrange the
+tie of his neckcloth, proceeded to obey the orders of his illustrious
+guest, whatever they might chance to be.
+
+He found the Baron Stolmuyer reclining upon a sofa, and having thrown
+aside his velvet cloak, trimmed with rich fur, he showed that underneath
+it he wore a costume of great richness and beauty, although, certainly,
+the form it covered was not calculated to set it off to any great
+advantage, for the baron was merely skin and bone, and looked like a man
+who had just emerged from a long illness, for his face was ghastly pale,
+and the landlord could not help observing that there was a strange
+peculiarity about his eyes, the reason of which he could not make out.
+
+"You are the landlord of this inn, I presume," said the baron, "and,
+consequently, no doubt well acquainted with the neighbourhood?"
+
+"I have the honour to be all that, sir. I have been here about sixteen
+years, and in that time I certainly ought to know something of the
+neighbourhood."
+
+"'Tis well; some one told me there was a little cottage sort of place to
+let here, and as I am simple and retired in my habits I thought that it
+might possibly suit me."
+
+"A little cottage, sir! There are certainly little cottages to let, but
+not such as would suit you; and if I might have presumed, sir, to think,
+I should have considered Anderbury-on-the-Mount, which is now to let,
+would have been the place for you. It is a large place, sir, and
+belonged to a good family, although they are now all dead and gone,
+except one, and it's he who wants to let the old place."
+
+"Anderbury-on-the-Mount," said the baron, "was the name of the place
+mentioned to me; but I understood it was a little place."
+
+"Oh! sir, that is quite a mistake; who told you so? It's the largest
+place about here; there are a matter of twenty-seven rooms in it, and it
+stands altogether upon three hundred acres of ground."
+
+"And have you the assurance," said the baron, "to call that anything but
+a cottage, when the castle of the Stolmuyers, at Saltzburgh, has one
+suite of reception rooms thirty in number, opening into each other, and
+the total number of apartments in the whole building is two hundred
+and sixty, it is surrounded by eight miles of territory."
+
+"The devil!" said the landlord. "I beg your pardon, sir, but when I am
+astonished, I generally say the devil. They want eight hundred pounds a
+year for Anderbury-on-the-Mount."
+
+"A mere trifle. I will sleep here to-night, and in the morning I will go
+and look at the place. It is near the sea?"
+
+"Half a mile, sir, exactly, from the beach; and one of the most curious
+circumstances of all connected with it is, that there is a subterranean
+passage from the grounds leading right away down to the sea-coast. A
+most curious place, sir, partly cut out of the cliff, with cellars in it
+for wine, and other matters, that in the height of summer are kept as
+cool as in the deep winter time. It's more for curiosity than use, such
+a place; and the old couple, that now take care of the house, make a
+pretty penny, I'll be bound, though they won't own it, by showing that
+part of the place."
+
+"It may suit me, but I shall be able to give a decisive answer when I
+see it on the morrow. You will let my attendants have what they require,
+and see that my horses be well looked to."
+
+"Certainly, oh! certainly, sir, of course; you might go far, indeed,
+sir, before you found an inn where everything would be done as things
+are done here. Is there anything in particular, sir, you would like for
+dinner?"
+
+"How can I tell that, idiot, until the dinner time arrives?"
+
+"Well, but, sir, in that case, you know, we scarcely know what to do,
+because you see, sir, you understand--"
+
+"It is very strange to me that you can neither see nor understand your
+duty. I am accustomed to having the dinner tables spread with all that
+money can procure; then I choose, but not before, what it suits me to
+partake of."
+
+"Wil, sir, that is a very good way, and perhaps we ain't quite so used
+to that sort of thing as we ought to be in these parts; but another
+time, sir, we shall know better what we are about, without a doubt, and
+I only hope, sir, that we shall have you in the neighbourhood for a long
+time; and so, sir, putting one thing to another, and then drawing a
+conclusion from both of them, you see, sir, you will be able to
+understand."
+
+"Peace! begone! what is the use of all this bellowing to me--I want it
+not--I care not for it."
+
+The baron spoke these words so furiously, that the landlord was rather
+terrified than otherwise, and left the room hastily, muttering to
+himself that he had never come across such a tiger, and wondering where
+the baron could have possibly come from, and what amount of wealth he
+could be possessed of, that would enable him to live in such a princely
+style as he mentioned.
+
+If the Baron Stolmuyer of Saltzburgh had wished ever so much to impress
+upon the minds of all persons in the neighbourhood the fact of his
+wealth and importance, he could not have adopted a better plan to
+accomplish that object than by first of all impressing such facts upon
+the mind of the landlord of the Anderbury Arms, for in the course of
+another hour it was tolerably well spread all over the town, that never
+had there been such a guest at the Anderbury Arms; and that he called
+Anderbury-on-the-Mount, with all its rooms--all its outbuildings, and
+its three hundred acres of ground, a cottage.
+
+This news spread like wildfire, awaking no end of speculation, and
+giving rise to the most exaggerated rumours, so that a number of persons
+came to the inn on purpose to endeavour to get a look at the baron; but
+he did not stir from his apartments, so that these wondermongers were
+disappointed, and even forced to go away as wise as they came; but in
+the majority of cases they made up their minds that in the morning they
+should surely be able to obtain a glimpse of him, which was considered a
+great treat, for a man with an immense income is looked upon in England
+as a natural curiosity.
+
+The landlord took his guest at his word as regards the dinner, and
+provided such a repast as seldom, indeed, graced the board at the
+Anderbury Arms--a repast sufficient for twenty people, and certainly
+which was a monstrous thing to set before one individual.
+
+The baron, however, made no remark, but selected a portion from some of
+the dishes, and those dishes that he did select from, were of the
+simplest kind, and not such as the landlord expected him to take, so
+that he really paid about one hundred times the amount he ought to have
+done for what actually passed his lips.
+
+And then what a fidget the landlord was in about his wines, for he
+doubted not but such a guest would be extremely critical and hard to
+please; but, to his great relief, the baron declined taking any wine,
+merely washing down his repast with a tumbler of cool water; and then,
+although the hour was very early, he retired at once to rest.
+
+The landlord was not disposed to disregard the injunction which the
+baron had given him to attend carefully on his servants and horses, and
+after giving orders that nothing should be stinted as regarded the
+latter, he himself looked to the creature-comforts of the former, and he
+did this with a double motive, for not only was he anxious to make the
+most he could out of the baron in the way of charges, but he was
+positively panting with curiosity to know more about so singular a
+personage, and he thought that surely the servants must be able to
+furnish him with some particulars regarding their eccentric master.
+
+In this, however, he was mistaken, for although they told him all they
+knew, that amounted to so little as really not to be worth the learning.
+
+They informed him that they had been engaged all in the last week, and
+that they knew nothing of the baron whatever, or where he came from, or
+what he was, excepting that he paid them most liberal wages, and was not
+very exacting in the service he required of them.
+
+This was very unsatisfactory, and when the landlord started on a
+mission, which he considered himself bound to perform, to a Mr. Leek, in
+the town, who had the letting of Anderbury-on-the-Mount, he was quite
+vexed to think what a small amount of information he was able to carry
+to him.
+
+"I can tell him," he said to himself as he went quickly towards the
+agent's residence; "I can tell him the baron's name, and that in the
+morning he wants to look at Anderbury-on-the-Mount; but that's all I
+know of him, except that he is a most extraordinary man--indeed, the
+most extraordinary that I ever came near."
+
+Mr. Leek, the house agent, notwithstanding the deficiency of the facts
+contained in the landlord's statement, was well enough satisfied to hear
+that any one of apparent wealth was inquiring after the large premises
+to let, for, as he said truly to the landlord,--
+
+"The commission on letting and receiving the rentals of such a property
+is no joke to me."
+
+"Precisely," said the landlord. "I thought it was better to come and
+tell you at once, for there can be no doubt that he is enormously rich."
+
+"If that be satisfactorily proved, it's of no consequence what he is, or
+who he is, and you may depend I shall be round to the inn early in the
+morning to attend upon him; and in that case, perhaps, if you have any
+conversation with him, you will be so good as to mention that I will
+show him over the premises at his own hour, and you shall not be
+forgotten, you may depend, if any arrangement is actually come to. It
+will be just as well for you to tell him what a nice property it is, and
+that it is to be let for eight hundred a year, or sold outright for
+eight thousand pounds."
+
+"I will, you may depend, Mr. Leek. A most extraordinary man you will
+find him; not the handsomest in the world, I can tell you, but handsome
+is as handsome does, say I; and, if he takes Anderbury-on-the-Mount, I
+have no doubt but he will spend a lot of money in the neighbourhood, and
+we shall all be the better of that, of course, as you well know, sir."
+
+This then was thoroughly agreed upon between these high contracting
+powers, and the landlord returned home very well satisfied, indeed, with
+the position in which he had put the affair, and resolved upon urging on
+the baron, as far as it lay within his power so to do, to establish
+himself in the neighbourhood, and to allow him to be purveyor-in-general
+to his household, which, if the baron continued in his liberal humour,
+would be unquestionably a very pleasant post to occupy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCIV.
+
+THE VISITOR, AND THE DEATH IN THE SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGE.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+About an hour and a half after the baron had retired to rest, and while
+the landlord was still creeping about enjoining silence on the part of
+the establishment, so that the slumbers of a wealthy and, no doubt,
+illustrious personage should not be disturbed, there arrived a horseman
+at the Anderbury Arms.
+
+He was rather a singular-looking man, with a shifting, uneasy-looking
+glance, as if he were afraid of being suddenly pounced upon and
+surprised by some one; and although his apparel was plain, yet it was
+good in quality, and his whole appearance was such as to induce
+respectful attention.
+
+The only singular circumstance was, that such a traveller, so well
+mounted, should be alone; but that might have been his own fancy, so
+that the absence of an attendant went for nothing. Doubtless, if the
+whole inn had not been in such a commotion about the illustrious and
+wealthy baron, this stranger would have received more consideration and
+attention than he did.
+
+Upon alighting, he walked at once into what is called the coffee-room of
+the hotel, and after ordering some refreshments, of which he partook but
+sparingly, he said, in a mild but solemn sort of tone, to the waiter who
+attended upon him,--
+
+"Tell the Baron Stolmuyer, of Saltzburgh, that there is one here who
+wants to see him."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," said the waiter, "but the baron is gone to
+bed."
+
+"It matters not to me. If you nor no one else in this establishment will
+deliver the message I charge you with, I must do so myself."
+
+"I'll speak to my master, sir; but the baron is a very great gentleman
+indeed, and I don't think my master would like to have him disturbed."
+
+The stranger hesitated for a time, and then he said,--
+
+"Show me the baron's apartment. Perhaps I ought not to ask any one
+person connected with this establishment to disturb him, when I am quite
+willing to do so myself. Show me the way."
+
+"Well, but, sir, the baron may get in a rage, and say, very naturally,
+that we had no business to let anybody walk up to his room and disturb
+him, because we wouldn't do so ourselves. So that you see, sir, when you
+come to consider, it hardly seems the right sort of thing."
+
+"Since," said the stranger, rising, "I cannot procure even the common
+courtesy of being shown to the apartment of the person whom I seek, I
+must find him myself."
+
+As he spoke he walked out of the room, and began ascending the
+staircase, despite the remonstrances of the waiter, who called after him
+repeatedly, but could not induce him to stop; and when he found that
+such was the case, he made his way to the landlord, to give the alarm
+that, for all he knew to the contrary, some one had gone up stairs to
+murder the baron.
+
+This information threw the landlord into such a fix, that he knew not
+what to be at. At one moment he was for rushing up stairs and
+endeavouring to interfere, and at another he thought the best plan would
+be to pretend that he knew nothing about it.
+
+While he was in this state of uncertainty, the stranger succeeded in
+making his way up stairs to the floor from which proceeded the bedrooms,
+and, apparently, having no fear whatever of the Baron Stolmuyer's
+indignation before his eyes, he opened door after door, until he came to
+one which led him into the apartment occupied by that illustrious
+individual.
+
+The baron, half undressed only, lay in an uneasy slumber upon the bed,
+and the stranger stood opposite to him for some minutes, as if
+considering what he should do.
+
+"It would be easy," he said, "to kill him; but it will pay me better to
+spare him. I may be wrong in supposing that he has the means which I
+hope he has; but that I shall soon discover by his conversation."
+
+Stretching out, his hand, he tapped the baron lightly on the shoulder,
+who thereupon opened his eyes and sprang to his feet instantly, glancing
+with fixed earnestness at the intruder, upon whose face shone the light
+of a lamp which was burning in the apartment.
+
+Then the baron shrunk back, and the stranger, folding his arms, said,--
+
+"You know me. Let our interview be as brief as possible. There needs no
+explanations between us, for we both know all that could be said. By
+some accident you have become rich, while I continue quite otherwise. It
+matters not how this has occurred, the fact is everything. I don't know
+the amount of your possessions; but, from your style of living, they
+must be great, and therefore it is that I make no hesitation in asking
+of you, as a price for not exposing who and what you are, a moderate
+sum."
+
+"I thought that you were dead."
+
+"I know you did; but you behold me here, and, consequently, that
+delusion vanishes."
+
+"What sum do you require, and what assurance can I have that, when you
+get it, the demand will not be repeated on the first opportunity?"
+
+"I can give you no such assurance, perhaps, that would satisfy you
+entirely; but, for more reasons than I choose to enter into, I am
+extremely anxious to leave England at once and forever. Give me the
+power to do so that I require, and you will never hear of me again."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The baron hesitated for some few seconds, during which he looked
+scrutinizingly at his companion, and then he said, in a tone of voice
+that seemed as if he were making the remark to himself rather than to
+the other,--
+
+"You look no older than you did when last we parted, and that was years
+ago."
+
+"Why should I look older? You know as well as I that I need not. But, to
+be brief, I do not wish to interfere with any plans or projects you may
+have on hand. I do not wish to be a hindrance to you. Let me have five
+thousand pounds, and I am off at once and forever, I tell you."
+
+"Five thousand! the man raves--five thousand pounds! Say one thousand,
+and it is yours."
+
+"No; I have fixed my price; and if you do not consent, I now tell you
+that I will blazon forth, even in this house, who and what you are; and,
+let your schemes of ambition or of cupidity be what they may, you may be
+assured that I will blast them all."
+
+"This is no place in which to argue such a point; come out into the open
+air; 'walls have ears;' but come out, and I will give you such special
+reasons why you should not now press your claim at all, that you shall
+feel much beholden to me for them, and not regret your visit."
+
+"If that we come to terms, I no more desire than you can do that any one
+should overhear our conversation. I prefer the open air for any
+conference, be it whatever it may--much prefer it; and therefore most
+willingly embrace your proposition. Come out."
+
+The baron put on his travelling cap, and the rich velvet cloak, edged
+with fur, that he possessed, and leaving his chamber a few paces in
+advance of his strange visitor, he descended the staircase, followed by
+him. In the hall of the hotel they found the landlord and almost the
+whole of the establishment assembled, in deep consultation as to whether
+or not any one was to go up stairs and ascertain if the stranger who had
+sought the baron's chamber was really a friend or an enemy.
+
+But when they saw the two men coming down, at all events apparently
+amicably, it was a great relief, and the landlord rushed forward and
+opened the door, for which piece of service he got a very stately bow
+from the baron, and a slight inclination of the head from his visitor,
+and then they both passed out.
+
+"I have ascertained," said the man who came on horseback, "that for the
+last week in London you have lived in a style of the most princely
+magnificence, and that you came down here, attended as if you were one
+of the first nobles of the land."
+
+"These things amuse the vulgar," said the baron. "I do not mind
+admitting to you that I contemplate residing on this spot, and perhaps
+contracting a marriage."
+
+"Another marriage?"
+
+"And why not? If wives will die suddenly, and no one knows why, who is
+to help it. I do not pretend to control the fates."
+
+"This, between us, is idle talk indeed--most idle; for we know there are
+certain circumstances which account for the strangest phenomena; but
+what roaring sound is that which comes so regularly and steadily upon
+the ear."
+
+"It is the sea washing upon the coast. The tide is no doubt advancing,
+and, as the eddying surges roll in upon the pebbly shore, they make
+what, to my mind, is this pleasant music."
+
+"I did not think we were so near the ocean. The moon is rising; let us
+walk upon the beach, and as that sound is such pleasant music, you shall
+hear it while I convince you what unpleasant consequences will arise
+from a refusal of the modest and moderate terms I offer you."
+
+"We shall see, we shall see; but I must confess it does seem to me most
+extraordinary that you ask of me a positive fortune, for fear you should
+deprive me of a portion of one; but you cannot mean what you say."
+
+While they were talking they reached a long strip of sand which was by
+the seashore, at the base of some cliffs, through which was excavated
+the passage from the coast into the grounds of Anderbury House, and
+which had been so expatiated upon by the landlord of the inn, in his
+description of the advantages attendant upon that property.
+
+There were some rude steps, leading to a narrow arched door-way, which
+constituted an entrance to this subterraneous region; and as the
+moonlight streamed over the wide waste of waters, and fell upon this
+little door-way in the face of the cliff, he became convinced that it
+was the entrance to that excavation, and he eyed it curiously.
+
+"What place is that?" said his companion.
+
+"It is a private entrance to the grounds of a mansion in this
+neighbourhood."
+
+"Private enough, I should presume; for if there be any other means of
+reaching the house, surely no one would go through such a dismal hole as
+that towards it; but come, make up your mind at once. There need be no
+quarrelling upon the subject of our conference, but let it be a plain
+matter of yes or no. Is it worth your while to be left alone in peace,
+or is it not?"
+
+"It is worth my while, but not at such a price as that you mentioned;
+and I cannot help thinking that some cheaper mode of accomplishing the
+same object will surely present itself very shortly."
+
+"I do not understand you; you talk ambiguously."
+
+"But my acts," said the baron, "shall be clear and plain enough, as you
+shall see. Could you believe it possible that I was the sort of person
+to submit tamely to any amount of extortion you chose to practise upon
+me. There was a time when I thought you possessed great sense and
+judgment when I thought that you were a man who weighed well the chances
+of what you were about; but now I know to the contrary; and I think for
+less than a thousand pounds I may succeed in ridding myself of you."
+
+"I do not understand you; you had better beware how you tamper with me,
+for I am not one who will be calmly disposed to put up with much. The
+sense, tact, and worldly knowledge which you say you have before, from
+time to time, given me credit for, belongs to me still, and I am not
+likely easily to commit myself."
+
+"Indeed; do you think you bear such a charmed life that nothing can
+shake it?"
+
+"I think nothing of the sort; but I know what I can do--I am armed."
+
+"And I; and since it comes to this, take the reward of your villany; for
+it was you who made me what I am, and would now seek to destroy my every
+hope of satisfaction."
+
+As the baron spoke he drew from his breast a small pistol, which, with
+the quickness of thought, he held full in the face of his companion, and
+pulled the trigger.
+
+There can be no doubt on earth that his intention was to commit the
+murder, but the pistol missed fire, and he was defeated in his intention
+at that moment. Then the stranger laughed scornfully, and drawing a
+pistol from his pocket, he presented it at the baron's head, saying,--
+
+"Do I not bear a charmed life? If I had not, should I have escaped death
+from you now? No, I could not; but you perceive that even a weapon that
+might not fail you upon another occasion is harmless against me; and can
+you expect that I will hesitate now to take full and ample revenge upon
+you for this dastardly attempt?"
+
+These words were spoken with great volubility, so much so, indeed, that
+they only occupied a few very brief seconds in delivering; and then,
+perhaps, the baron's career might have ended, for it seemed to be fully
+the intention of the other to conclude what he said by firing the pistol
+in his face; but the wily aspect of the baron's countenance was, after
+all, but a fair index of the mind, and, just as the last words passed
+the lips of his irritated companion, he suddenly dropped in a crouching
+position to the ground, and, seizing his legs, threw him over his head
+in an instant.
+
+The pistol was discharged, at the same moment, and then, with a shout of
+rage and satisfaction, the baron sprang upon his foe, and, kneeling upon
+his breast, he held aloft in his hand a glittering dagger, the
+highly-polished blade of which caught the moonbeams, and reflected them
+into the dazzled eyes of the conquered man, whose fate now appeared to
+be certain.
+
+"Fool!" said the baron, "you must needs, then, try conclusions with me,
+and, not content with the safety of insignificance, you must be absurd
+enough to think it possible you could extort from me whatever sums your
+fancy dictated, or with any effect threaten me, if I complied not with
+your desires."
+
+"Have mercy upon me. I meant not to take your life; and, therefore, why
+should you take mine?"
+
+"You would have taken it, and, therefore, you shall die. Know, too, as
+this is your last moment, that, vampyre as you are, and as I, of all
+men, best know you to be, I will take especial care that you shall be
+placed in some position after death where the revivifying moonbeams may
+not touch you, so that this shall truly be your end, and you shall rot
+away, leaving no trace behind of your existence, sufficient to contain
+the vital principle."
+
+"No--no! you cannot--will not. You will have mercy."
+
+"Ask the famished tiger for mercy, when you intrude upon his den."
+
+As he spoke the baron ground his teeth together with rage, and, in an
+instant, buried the poniard in the throat of his victim. The blade went
+through to the yellow sand beneath, and the murderer still knelt upon
+the man's chest, while he who had thus received so fatal a blow tossed
+his arms about with agony, and tried in vain to shriek.
+
+The nature of the wound, however, prevented him from uttering anything
+but a low gurgling sound, for he was nearly choked with his own blood,
+and soon his eyes became fixed and of a glassy appearance; he stretched
+out his two arms, and dug his fingers deep into the sand.
+
+The baron drew forth the poniard, and a gush of blood immediately
+followed it, and then one deep groan testified to the fact, that the
+spirit, if there be a spirit, had left its mortal habitation, and winged
+its flight to other realms, if there be other realms for it to wing its
+flight to.
+
+"He is dead," said the baron, and, at the same moment, a roll of the
+advancing tide swept over the body, drenching the living, as well as the
+dead, with the brine of the ocean.
+
+The baron stooped and rinsed the dagger in the advancing tide from the
+clotted blood which had clung to it, and then, wiping it carefully, he
+returned it to its sheath, which was hidden within the folds of his
+dress; and, rising from his kneeling posture upon the body, he stood by
+its side, with folded arms, gazing upon it, for some minutes, in
+silence, heedless of the still advancing water, which was already
+considerably above his feet.
+
+Then he spoke in his ordinary accents, and evidently caring nothing for
+the fact that he had done such a deed.
+
+"I must dispose of this carcase," he said, "which now seems so lifeless,
+for the moon is up, and if its beams fall upon it, I know, from former
+experience, what will happen; it will rise again, and walk the earth,
+seeking for vengeance upon me, and the thirst for that vengeance will
+become such a part of its very nature, that it will surely accomplish
+something, if not all that it desires."
+
+After a few moments' consideration, he stooped, and, with more strength
+than one would have thought it possible a man reduced almost, as he was,
+to a skeleton could have exerted, he lifted the body, and carried it
+rapidly up the beach towards the cliffs. He threw it down upon the stone
+steps that led to the small door of the excavation in the cliff, and it
+fell upon them with a sickening sound, as if some of the bones were
+surely broken by the fall.
+
+The object, then, of the baron seemed to be to get this door open, if he
+possibly could; but that was an object easier to be desired than carried
+into effect, for, although he exerted his utmost power, he did not
+succeed in moving it an inch, and he began evidently to think that it
+would be impossible to do so.
+
+But yet he did not give up the attempt at once, but looking about upon
+the beach, until he found a large heavy stone, he raised it in his arms,
+and, approaching the door, he flung it against it with such tremendous
+force, that it flew open instantly, disclosing within a dark and narrow
+passage.
+
+Apparently rejoiced that he had accomplished this much, he stopped
+cautiously within the entrance, and then, taking from a concealed pocket
+that was in the velvet cloak which he wore a little box, he produced
+from it some wax-lights and some chemical matches, which, by the
+slightest effort, he succeeded in igniting, and then, with one of the
+lights in his hand to guide him on his way, he went on exploring the
+passage, and treading with extreme caution as he went, for fear of
+falling into any of the ice-wells which were reported to be in that
+place.
+
+After proceeding about twenty yards, and finding that there was no
+danger, he became less cautious; but, in consequence of such less
+caution, he very nearly sacrificed his life, for he came upon an
+ice-well which seemed a considerable depth, and into which he had nearly
+plunged headlong.
+
+He started back with some degree of horror; but that soon left him, and
+then, after a moment's thought, he sought for some little nook in the
+wall, in which he might place the candle, and soon finding one that
+answered the purpose well, he there left it, having all the appearance
+of a little shrine, while he proceeded again to the mouth of that
+singular and cavernous-looking place. He had, evidently, quite made up
+his mind what to do, for, without a moment's hesitation, he lifted the
+body again, and carried it within the entrance, walking boldly and
+firmly, now that he knew there was no danger between him and the light,
+which shed a gleam through the darkness of the place of a very faint and
+flickering character.
+
+He reached it rapidly, and when he got to the side of the well, he,
+without a moment's hesitation, flung it headlong down, and, listening
+attentively, he heard it fall with a slight plash, as if there was some
+water at the bottom of the pit.
+
+It was an annoyance, however, for him to find that the distance was not
+so deep as he had anticipated, and when he took the light from the niche
+where he had placed it, and looked earnestly down, he could see the
+livid, ghastly-looking face of the dead man, for the body had
+accidentally fallen upon its back, which was a circumstance he had not
+counted upon, and one which increased the chances greatly of its being
+seen, should any one be exploring, from curiosity, that not very
+inviting place.
+
+This was annoyance, but how could it be prevented, unless, indeed, he
+chose to descend, and make an alteration in the disposition of the
+corpse? But this was evidently what he did not choose to do; so, after
+muttering to himself a few words expressive of his intention to leave it
+where it was, he replaced the candle, after extinguishing it, in the box
+from whence he had taken it, and carefully walked out of the dismal
+place.
+
+The moonbeams were shining very brightly and beautifully upon the face
+of the cliffs, when he emerged from the subterranean passage, so that he
+could see the door, the steps, and every object quite distinctly; and,
+to his gratification, he found that he had not destroyed any fastening
+that was to the door, but that when it was slammed shut, it struck so
+hard and fast, that the strength of one man could not possibly move it,
+even the smallest fraction of an inch.
+
+"I shall be shown all this to-morrow," he said; "and if I take this
+house I must have an alteration made in this door, so that it may open
+with a lock, instead of by main violence, as at present; but if, in the
+morning, when I view Anderbury House, I can avoid an entrance into this
+region, I will do so, and at my leisure, if I become the possessor of
+the estate, I can explore every nook and cranny of it."
+
+He then folded his cloak about him, after pulling the door as closely as
+he could. He walked slowly and thoughtfully back to the inn. It was
+quite evident that the idea of the murder he had committed did not annoy
+him in the least, and that in his speculations upon the subject he
+congratulated himself much upon having so far succeeded in getting rid
+of certainly a most troublesome acquaintance.
+
+"'Tis well, indeed," he said, "that just at this juncture he should
+throw himself in my way, and enable me so easy to feel certain that I
+shall never more be troubled with him. Truly, I ran some risk, and when
+my pistol missed fire, it seemed as if my evil star was in its
+ascendant, and that I was doomed myself to become the victim of him whom
+I have laid in so cold a grave. But I have been victorious, and I am
+willing to accept the circumstance as an omen of the past--that my
+fortunes are on the change. I think I shall be successful now, and with
+the ample means which I now possess, surely, in this country, where gold
+is loved so well, I shall be able to overcome all difficulties, and to
+unite myself to some one, who--but no matter, her fate is an after
+consideration."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCV.
+
+THE MARRIAGE IN THE BANNERWORTH FAMILY ARRANGED.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+After the adventure of the doctor with regard to the picture about which
+such an air of mystery and interest has been thrown, the Bannerworth
+family began to give up all hopes of ever finding a clue to those
+circumstances concerning which they would certainly have liked to have
+known the truth, but of which it was not likely they would ever hear
+anything more.
+
+Dr. Chillingworth now had no reserve, and when he had recovered
+sufficiently to feel that he could converse without an effort, he took
+an opportunity, while the whole of the family were present, to speak of
+what had been his hopes and his expectations.
+
+"You are all aware," he said, "now, of the story of Marmaduke
+Bannerworth, and what an excessively troublesome person he was, with all
+deference, to you, Henry; first of all, as to spending all his money at
+the gaming-table, and leaving his family destitute; and then, when he
+did get a lump of money which might have done some good to those he left
+behind him--hiding it somewhere where it could not be found at all, and
+so leaving you all in great difficulty and distress, when you might have
+been independent."
+
+"That's true enough, doctor," said Henry; "but you know the old
+proverb,--that ill-gotten wealth never thrives; so that I don't regret
+not finding this money, for I am sure we should have been none the
+happier with it, and perhaps not so happy."
+
+"Oh, bother the old proverb; thirty or forty thousand pounds is no
+trifle to be talked lightly of, or the loss of which to be quietly put
+up with, on account of a musty proverb. It's a large sum, and I should
+like to have placed it in your hands."
+
+"But as you cannot, doctor, there can be no good possibly done by
+regretting it."
+
+"No, certainly; I don't mean that; utter regret is always a very foolish
+thing; but it's questionable whether something might not be done in the
+matter, after all, for you, as it appears, by all the evidence we can
+collect, that it must have been Varney, after all, who jumped down upon
+me from the garden-wall in so sudden a manner: and, if the picture be
+valuable to him, it must be valuable to us."
+
+"But how are we to get it, and if we could, I do not see that it would
+be of much good to anybody, for, after all, it is but a painting."
+
+"There you go again," said the doctor, "depreciating what you know
+nothing about; now, listen to me, Master Henry, and I will tell you.
+That picture evidently had some sort of lining at the back, over the
+original canvas; and do you think I would have taken such pains to bring
+it away with me if that lining had not made me suspect that between it
+and the original picture the money, in bank notes, was deposited?"
+
+"Had you any special reason for supposing such was the case?"
+
+"Yes; most unquestionably I had; for when I got the picture fairly down,
+I found various inequalities in the surface of the back, which led me to
+believe that rolls of notes were deposited, and that the great mistake
+we had all along made was in looking behind the picture, instead of at
+the picture itself. I meant immediately to have cut it to pieces when I
+reached here with it; but now it has got into the hands of somebody
+else, who knows, I suspect, as much I do."
+
+"It is rather provoking."
+
+"Rather provoking! is that the way to talk of the loss of Heaven knows
+how many thousands of pounds! I am quite aggravated myself at the idea
+of the thing, and it puts me in a perfect fever to think of it, I can
+assure you."
+
+"But what can we do?"
+
+"Oh! I propose an immediate crusade against Varney, the vampyre, for who
+but he could have made such an attack upon me, and force me to deliver
+up such a valuable treasure?"
+
+"Never heed it, doctor," said Flora; "let it go; we have never had or
+enjoyed that money, so it cannot matter, and it is not to be considered
+as the loss of an actual possession, because we never did actually
+possess it."
+
+"Yes," chimed in the admiral; "bother the money! what do we care about
+it; and, besides, Charley Holland is going to be very busy."
+
+"Busy!" said the doctor, "how do you mean?"
+
+"Why, isn't he going to be married directly to Flora, here, and am not I
+going to settle the whole of my property upon him on condition that he
+takes the name of Bell instead of Holland? for, you see, his mother was
+my sister, and of course her name was Bell. As for his father Holland,
+it can't matter to him now what Charley is called; and if he don't take
+the name of Bell I shall be the last in the family, for I am not likely
+to marry, and have any little Bells about me."
+
+"No," said the doctor; "I should say not; and that's the reason why you
+want to ring the changes upon Charles Holland's name. Do you see the
+joke, admiral?"
+
+"I can't say I do--where is it? It's all very well to talk of jokes, but
+if I was like Charles, going to be married, I shouldn't be in any joking
+humour, I can tell you, but quite the reverse; and as for you and your
+picture, if you want it, doctor, just run after Varney yourself for it;
+or, stay--I have a better idea than that--get your wife to go and ask
+him for it, and if she makes half such a clamour about his ears that she
+did about ours, he will give it her in a minute, to get rid of her."
+
+"My wife!--you don't mean to say she has been here?"
+
+"Yes, but she has though. And now, doctor, I can tell you I have seen a
+good deal of service in all parts of the world, and, of course, picked
+up a little experience; and, if I were you, some of these days, when
+Mrs. Chillingworth ain't very well, I'd give her a composing draught
+that would make her quiet enough."
+
+"Ah! that's not my style of practice, admiral; but I am sorry to hear
+that Mrs. Chillingworth has annoyed you so much."
+
+"Pho, pho, man!--pho, pho! do you think she could annoy me? Why, I have
+encountered storms and squalls in all latitudes, and it isn't a woman's
+tongue now that can do anything of an annoying character, I can tell
+you; far from it--very far from it; so don't distress yourself upon that
+head. But come, doctor, we are going to have the wedding the day after
+to-morrow."
+
+"No, no," said Flora; "the week after next, you mean,"
+
+"Is it the week after next? I'll be hanged if I didn't think it was the
+day after to-morrow; but of course you know best, as you have settled it
+all among you. I have nothing to do with it."
+
+"Of course, I shall, with great pleasure," returned the doctor, "be
+present on the interesting occasion; but do you intend taking possession
+of Bannerworth Hall again?"
+
+"No, certainly not," said Henry; "we propose going to the Dearbrook
+estate, and there remaining for a time to see how we all like it. We
+may, perchance, enjoy it very much, for I have heard it spoken of as an
+attractive little property enough, and one that any one might fancy,
+after being resident a short time upon it."
+
+"Well," said the admiral; "that is, I believe, settled among us, but I
+am sure we sha'n't like it, on account of the want of the sea. Why, I
+tell you, I have not seen a ship myself for this eighteen months;
+there's a state of things, you see, that won't do to last, because one
+would get dry-mouldy: it's a shocking thing to see nothing but land,
+land, wherever you go."
+
+From the preceding conversation may be gathered what were the designs of
+the Bannerworth family, and what progress had been made in carrying them
+out. From the moment they had discovered the title-deeds of the
+Dearbrook property, they had ceased to care about the large sum of money
+which Marmaduke Bannerworth had been supposed to have hidden in some
+portion of Bannerworth Hall.
+
+They had already passed through quite enough of the busy turmoils of
+existence to be grateful for anything that promised ease and competence,
+and that serenity of mind which is the dearest possession which any one
+can compass.
+
+Consequently was it, that, with one accord, they got rid of all yearning
+after the large sum which the doctor was so anxious to procure for them,
+and looked forward to a life of great happiness and contentment. On the
+whole, too, when they came to talk the matter over quietly among
+themselves, they were not sorry that Varney had taken himself off in the
+way he had, for really it was a great release; and, as he had couched
+his farewell in words which signified it was a final one, they were
+inclined to think that he must have left England, and that it was not
+likely they should ever again encounter him, under any circumstances
+whatever.
+
+It was to be considered quite as a whim of the old admiral's, the
+changing of Charles Holland's name to Bell; but, as Charles himself said
+when the subject was broached to him,--"I am so well content to be
+called whatever those to whom I feel affection think proper, that I give
+up my name of Holland without a pang, willingly adopting in its stead
+one that has always been hallowed in my remembrance with the best and
+kindest recollections."
+
+And thus this affair was settled, much to the satisfaction of Flora, who
+was quite as well content to be called Mrs. Bell as to be called Mrs.
+Holland, since the object of her attachment remained the same. The
+wedding was really fixed for the week after that which followed the
+conversation we have recorded; but the admiral was not at all disposed
+to allow Flora and his nephew Charles to get through such an important
+period of their lives without some greater demonstration and show than
+could be made from the little cottage where they dwelt; and consequently
+he wished that they should leave that and proceed at once to a larger
+mansion, which he had his eye upon a few miles off, and which was to be
+had furnished for a time, at the pleasure of any one.
+
+"And we won't shut ourselves up," said the admiral; "but we will find
+out all the Christian-like people in the neighbourhood, and invite them
+to the wedding, and we will have a jolly good breakfast together, and
+lots of music, and a famous lunch; and, after that, a dinner, and then a
+dance, and all that sort of thing; so that there shall be no want of
+fun."
+
+As may be well supposed, both Charles and Flora shrunk from so public an
+affair; but, as the old man had evidently set his heart upon it, they
+did not like to say they positively would not; so, after a vain attempt
+to dissuade him from removing at all from the cottage until they removed
+for good, they gave up the point to him, and he had it all his own way.
+
+He took the house, for one month, which had so taken his fancy, and
+certainly a pretty enough place it was, although they found out
+afterwards, that why it was he was so charmed with it consisted in the
+fact that it bore the name of a vessel which he had once commanded; but
+this they did not know until a long time afterwards, when it slipped out
+by mere accident.
+
+They stipulated with the admiral that there should not be more than
+twenty guests at the breakfast which was to succeed the marriage
+ceremony; and to that he acceded; but Henry whispered to Charles
+Holland,--
+
+"I know this public wedding to be distasteful to you, and most
+particularly do I know it is distasteful to Flora; so, if you do not
+mind playing a trick upon the old man, I can very easily put you in the
+way of cheating him entirely."
+
+"Indeed; I should like to hear, and, what is more, I should like to
+practise, if you think it will not so entirely offend him as to make him
+implacable."
+
+"Not at all, not at all; he will laugh himself, when he comes to know
+it, as much as any of us; the present difficulty will be to procure
+Flora's connivance; but that we must do the best way we can by
+persuasion."
+
+What this scheme was will ultimately appear; but, certain it is, that
+the old admiral had no suspicion of what was going on, and proceeded to
+make all his arrangements accordingly.
+
+From his first arrival in the market town--in the neighbourhood of which
+was Bannerworth Hall--it will be recollected that he had taken a great
+fancy to the lawyer, in whose name a forged letter had been sent him,
+informing him of the fact that his nephew, Charles Holland, intended
+marrying into a family of vampyres.
+
+It was this letter, as the reader is aware, which brought the old
+admiral and Jack Pringle into the neighbourhood of the Hall; and,
+although it was a manoeuvre to get rid of Charles Holland, which failed
+most signally, there can be no doubt but that such a letter was the
+production of Sir Francis Varney, and that he wrote it for the express
+purpose of getting rid of Charles from the Hall, who had begun
+materially to interfere with his plans and projects there.
+
+After some conversation with himself, the admiral thought that this
+lawyer would be just the man to recommend the proper sort of people to
+be invited to the wedding of Charles and Flora; so he wrote to him,
+inviting himself to dinner, and received back a very gracious reply from
+the lawyer, who declared that the honour of entertaining a gentleman
+whom he so much respected as Admiral Bell, was greater than he had a
+right to expect by a great deal, and that he should feel most grateful
+for his company, and await his coming with the greatest impatience.
+
+"A devilish civil fellow, that attorney," said the admiral, as he put
+the letter in his pocket, "and almost enough to put one in conceit of
+lawyers."
+
+"Yes," said Jack Pringle, who had overheard the admiral read the letter.
+
+"Yes, we will honour him; and I only hope he will have plenty of grog;
+because, you see, if he don't--D--n it! what's that? Can't you keep
+things to yourself?"
+
+This latter exclamation arose from the fact that the admiral was so
+indignant at Jack for listening to what he had been saying, as to throw
+a leaden inkstand, that happened to be upon the table, at his head.
+
+"You mutinous swab!" he said, "cannot a gentleman ask me to dinner, or
+cannot I ask myself, without you putting your spoke in the windlass, you
+vagabond?"
+
+"Oh! well," said Jack, "if you are out of temper about it, I had better
+send my mark to the lawyer, and tell him that we won't come, as it has
+made some family differences."
+
+"Family, you thief!" said the admiral. "What do you mean? What family do
+you think would own you? D--n me, if I don't think you came over in some
+strange ship. But, I tell you what it is, if you interfere in this
+matter, I'll be hanged if I don't blow your brains out."
+
+"And you'll be hanged if you do," said Jack, as he walked out of the
+room; "so it's all one either way, old fizgig."
+
+"What!" roared the admiral, as he sprang up and ran after Jack. "Have I
+lived all these years to be called names in my own ship--I mean my own
+house? What does the infernal rascal mean by it?"
+
+The admiral, no doubt, would have pursued Jack very closely, had not
+Flora intercepted him, and, by gentle violence, got him back to the
+room. No one else could have ventured to have stopped him, but the
+affection he had for her was so great that she could really accomplish
+almost anything with him; and, by listening quietly to his complaints of
+Jack Pringle--which, however, involved a disclosure of the fact which he
+had intended to keep to himself, that he had sought the lawyer's
+advice--she succeeded in soothing him completely, so that he forgot his
+anger in a very short time.
+
+But the old man's anger, although easily aroused, never lasted very
+long; and, upon the whole, it was really astonishing what he put up with
+from Jack Pringle, in the way of taunts and sneers, of all sorts and
+descriptions, and now and then not a little real abuse.
+
+And, probably, he thought likewise that Jack Pringle did not mean what
+he said, on the same principle that he (the admiral), when he called
+Jack a mutinous swab and a marine, certainly did not mean that Jack was
+those things, but merely used them as expletives to express a great
+amount of indignation at the moment, because, as may be well supposed,
+nothing in the world could be worse, in Admiral Bell's estimation, that
+to be a mutinous swab or a marine.
+
+It was rather a wonder, though, that, in his anger some day, he did not
+do Jack some mischief; for, as we have had occasion to notice in one or
+two cases, the admiral was not extremely particular as to what sorts of
+missiles he used when he considered it necessary to throw something at
+Jack's head.
+
+It would not have been a surprising thing if Jack had really made some
+communication to the lawyer; but he did stop short at that amount of
+pleasantry, and, as he himself expressed it, for once in a way he let
+the old man please himself.
+
+The admiral soon forgot this little dispute, and then pleased himself
+with the idea that he should pass a pleasant day with the attorney.
+
+"Ah! well," he said; "who would have thought that ever I should have
+gone and taken dinner with a lawyer--and not only done that, but invited
+myself too! It shows us all that there may be some good in all sorts of
+men, lawyers included; and I am sure, after this, I ought to begin to
+think what I never thought before, and that is, that a marine may
+actually be a useful person. It shows that, as one gets older, one gets
+wiser."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It was an immense piece of liberality for a man brought up, as Admiral
+Bell had been, in decidedly one of the most prejudiced branches of the
+public service, to make any such admissions as these. A very great thing
+it was, and showed a liberality of mind such as, even at the present
+time, is not readily found.
+
+It is astonishing, as well as amusing, to find how the mind assimilates
+itself to the circumstances in which it is placed, and how society,
+being cut up into small sections, imagines different things merely as a
+consequence of their peculiar application. We shall find that even
+people, living at different ends of a city, will look with a sort of
+pity and contempt upon each other; and it is much to be regretted that
+public writers are found who use what little ability they may possess in
+pandering to their feelings.
+
+It was as contemptible and silly as it was reprehensible for a late
+celebrated novelist to pretend that he believed there was at place
+called Bloomsbury-square, but he really did not know; because that was
+merely done for the purpose of raising a silly laugh among persons who
+were neither respectable on account of their abilities or their conduct.
+
+But to return from this digression. The admiral, attired in his best
+suit, which always consisted of a blue coat, the exact colour of the
+navy uniform, an immense pale primrose coloured waistcoat, and white
+kerseymere continuations, went to the lawyer's as had been arranged.
+
+If anything at all could flatter the old man's vanity successfully, it
+certainly would be the manner in which he was received at the lawyer's
+house, where everything was done that could give him satisfaction.
+
+A very handsome repast was laid before him, and, when the cloth was
+removed, the admiral broached the subject upon which he wished to ask
+the advice of his professional friend. After telling him of the wedding
+that was to come off, he said,--
+
+"Now, I have bargained to invite twenty people; and, of course, as that
+is exclusive of any of the family, and as I don't know any people about
+this neighbourhood except yourself, I want you and your family to come
+to start with, and then I want you to find me out some more decent
+people to make up the party."
+
+"I feel highly flattered," said the attorney, "that, in such a case as
+this, you should have come to me, and my only great fear is, that I
+should not be able to give you satisfaction."
+
+"Oh! you needn't be afraid of that; there is no fear on that head; so I
+shall leave it all to you to invite the folks that you think proper."
+
+"I will endeavour, certainly, admiral, to do my best. Of course, living
+in the town, as I have for many years, I know some very nice people as
+well as some very queer ones."
+
+"Oh! we don't want any of the queer ones; but let those who are invited
+be frank, hearty, good-tempered people, such as one will be glad to meet
+over and over again without any ceremony--none of your simpering people,
+who are afraid to laugh for fear of opening their mouths too wide, but
+who are so mighty genteel that they are afraid to enjoy anything for
+fear it should be vulgar."
+
+"I understand you, admiral, perfectly, and shall endeavour to obey your
+instructions to the very letter; but, if I should unfortunately invite
+anybody you don't like, you must excuse me for making such a mistake."
+
+"Oh, of course--of course. Never mind that; and, if any disagreeable
+fellow comes, we will smother him in some way."
+
+"It would serve him right, for no one ought to make himself
+disagreeable, after being honoured with an invitation from you; but I
+will be most especially careful, and I hope that such a circumstance
+will not occur."
+
+"Never mind. If it should, I'll tell you what I'll do; I'll set Jack
+Pringle upon him, and if he don't worry his life out it will be a
+strange thing to me."
+
+"Oh," said the lawyer, "I am glad you have mentioned him, for it gives
+me an opportunity of saying that I have done all in my power to make him
+comfortable."
+
+"All in your power to make him comfortable! What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that I have placed such a dinner before him as will please him;
+I told him to ask for just whatever he likes."
+
+The admiral looked at the lawyer with amazement, for a few moments, in
+silence, and then he said,
+
+"D--n it! why, you don't mean to tell me, that that rascal is here."
+
+"Oh, yes; he came about ten minutes I before you arrived, and said you
+were coming, and he has been down stairs feasting all the while since."
+
+"Stop a bit. Do you happen to have any loaded fire arms in the house?"
+
+"We have got an old bunderbuss; but what for, admiral?"
+
+"To shoot that scoundrel, Pringle. I'll blow his brains out, as sure as
+fate. The impudence of his coming here, directly against my orders,
+too."
+
+"My dear sir, calm yourself, and think nothing of it; it's of no
+consequence whatever."
+
+"No consequence; where is that blunderbuss of yours? Do you mean to tell
+me that mutiny is of no consequence? Give me the blunderbuss."
+
+"But, my clear sir, we only keep it _in terrorem_, and have no bullets."
+
+"Never mind that, we can cram in a handful of nails, or brass buttons,
+or hammer up a few halfpence--anything of that sort will do to settle
+his business with."
+
+"How do you get on, old Tarbarrel?" said Jack, putting his head in at
+the door. "Are you making yourself comfortable? I'll be hanged if I
+don't think you have a drop too much already, you look so precious red
+about the gills. I have been getting on famous, and I thought I'd just
+hop up for a minute to make your mind easy about me, and tell you so."
+
+It was quite evident that Jack had done justice to the good cheer of the
+lawyer, for he was rather unsteady, and had to hold by the door-post to
+support himself, while there was such a look of contentment upon his
+countenance as contrasted with the indignation that was manifest upon
+the admiral's face that, as the saying is, it would have made a cat
+laugh to see them.
+
+"Be off with ye, Jack," said the lawyer; "be off with ye. Go down stairs
+again and enjoy yourself. Don't you see that the admiral is angry with
+you."
+
+"Oh, he be bothered," said Jack; "I'll soon settle him if he comes any
+of his nonsense; and mind, Mr. Lawyer, whatever you do, don't you give
+him too much to drink."
+
+The lawyer ran to the door, and pushed Jack out, for he rightly enough
+suspected that the quietness of the admiral was only that calm which
+precedes a storm of more than usual amount and magnitude, so he was
+anxious to part them at once.
+
+He then set about appeasing, as well as he could, the admiral's anger,
+by attributing the perseverance of Jack, in following him wherever he
+went, to his great affection for him, which, combined with his
+ignorance, might make him often troublesome when he had really no
+intention of being so.
+
+This was certainly the best way of appeasing the old man; and, indeed,
+the only way in which it could be done successfully, and the proof that
+it was so, consisted in the fact, that the admiral did consent, at the
+suggestion of the attorney, to forgive Jack once more for the offence he
+had committed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCVI.
+
+THE BARON TAKES ANDERBURY HOUSE, AND DECIDES UPON GIVING A GRAND
+ENTERTAINMENT.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It was not considered anything extraordinary that, although the Baron
+Stolmuyer of Saltzburgh went out with the mysterious stranger who had
+arrived at the Anderbury Arms to see him, he should return without him
+for certainly he was not bound to bring him back, by any means whatever.
+
+Moreover, he entered the inn so quietly, and with such an appearance of
+perfect composure, that no one could have suspected for a moment that he
+had been guilty really of the terrific crime which had been laid to his
+charge--a crime which few men could have committed in so entirely
+unmoved and passionless a manner as he had done it.
+
+But he seemed to consider the taking of a human life as a thing not of
+the remotest consequence, and not to be considered at all as a matter
+which was to put any one out of the way, but as a thing to be done when
+necessity required, with all the ease in the world, without arousing or
+awaking any of those feelings of remorse which one would suppose ought
+to find a place in the heart of a man who had been guilty of such
+monstrous behaviour.
+
+He walked up to his own apartment again, and retired to rest with the
+same feeling, apparently, of calmness, and the same ability to taste of
+the sweets of repose as had before characterized him.
+
+The stranger's horse, which was a valuable and beautiful animal,
+remained in the stable of the inn, and as, of course, that was
+considered a guarantee for his return, the landlord, when he himself
+retired to rest, left one of his establishment sitting up to let in the
+man who now lay so motionless and so frightful in appearance in one of
+the ice-wells of the mysterious passage leading from the base of the
+cliff, to the grounds of Anderbury House.
+
+But the night wore on, and the man who had been left to let the stranger
+in, after making many efforts to keep himself awake, dropped into sound
+repose, which he might just as well have done in the first instance,
+inasmuch as, although he knew it not, he was engaged in the vain task of
+waiting for the dead.
+
+The morning was fresh and beautiful, and, at a far earlier hour than a
+person of his quality was expected to make his appearance, the baron
+descended from his chamber; for, somehow or other, by common consent, it
+seems to be agreed that great personages must be late in rising, and
+equally late in going to bed.
+
+But the baron was evidently not so disposed to turn night into day, and
+the landlord congratulated himself not a little upon the fact that he
+was ready for his illustrious guest when he descended so unexpectedly
+from his chamber as he did.
+
+An ample breakfast was disposed of; that is to say, it was placed upon
+the table, and charged to the baron, who selected from it what he
+pleased; and when the meal was over the landlord ventured to enter the
+apartment, and said to him, with all due humility,--
+
+"If you please, sir, Mr. Leek, who has the letting of
+Anderbury-on-the-Mount, that is, Anderbury House, as it is usually
+called, is here, sir, and would be happy to take your orders as to when
+you would be pleased to look at those premises?"
+
+"I shall be ready to go in half a hour," said the baron; "and, as the
+distance is not great, I will walk from here to the mansion."
+
+This message was duly communicated to Mr. Leek, who thereupon determined
+upon waiting until the baron should announce his readiness to depart
+upon the expedition; and he was as good as his word, for, in about
+half-an-hour afterwards, he descended to the hall, and then Mr. Leek was
+summoned, who came out of the bar with such a grand rush, that he fell
+over a mat that was before him, and saluted the baron by digging his
+head into his stomach, and then falling sprawling at his feet, and
+laying hold of his ankle.
+
+This little incident was duly apologised for, and explained; after which
+Mr. Leek walked on through the town, towards Anderbury-on-the-Mount,
+followed by the illustrious personage whom he sincerely hoped he should
+be able to induce to take it.
+
+It was a curious thing to see how they traversed the streets together;
+for while the baron walked right on, and with a solemn and measured
+step, Mr. Leek managed to get along a few paces in front of him,
+sideways, so that he could keep up a sort of conversation upon the
+merits of Anderbury House, and the neighbourhood in general, without
+much effort; to which remarks the baron made such suitable and dignified
+replies as a baron would be supposed to make.
+
+"You will find, sir," said Mr. Leek, "that everything about Anderbury is
+extremely select, and amazingly correct; and I am sure a more delightful
+place to live in could not be found."
+
+"Ah!" said the baron; "very likely."
+
+"It's lively, too," continued Mr. Leek; "very lively; and there are two
+chapels of ease, besides the church."
+
+"That's a drawback," said the baron.
+
+"A drawback, sir! well, I am sorry I mentioned it; but perhaps you are a
+Roman Catholic, sir, and, in that case, the chapels of ease have no
+interest for you."
+
+"Not the slightest; but do not, sir, run away with any assumption
+concerning my religious opinions, for I am not a Roman Catholic."
+
+"No, sir, no, sir; nor more am I; and, as far as I think, and my opinion
+goes, I say, why shouldn't a gentleman with a large fortune be what he
+likes, or nothing, if he likes that better? but here we are, sir, close
+to one of the entrances of Anderbury House. There are three principal
+entrances, you understand, sir, on three sides of the estate, and the
+fourth side faces the sea, where there is that mysterious passage that
+leads down from the grounds to the beach, which, perhaps, you have heard
+of, sir."
+
+"The landlord of the inn mentioned it."
+
+"We consider it a great curiosity, sir, I can assure you, in these
+parts--a very great curiosity; and it's an immense advantage to the
+house, because, you see, sir, in extremely hot weather, all sorts of
+provisions can be taken down there, and kept at such a very low
+temperature as to be quite delightful."
+
+"That is an advantage."
+
+Mr. Leek rang the bell that hung over one of the entrances, and his
+summons for admission was speedily answered by the old couple who had
+charge of the premises, and then, with a view of impressing them with a
+notion of the importance of the personage whom he had brought to look at
+the place, he said, aloud,--
+
+"The Baron Stoltmayor, of Saltsomething, has come to look at the
+premises."
+
+This announcement was received with all due deference and respect, and
+the task of showing the baron the premises at once fairly commenced.
+
+"Here you have," said Mr. Leek, assuming an oratorical attitude--"here
+you have the umbrageous trees stooping down to dip their leaves in the
+purling waters; here you have the sweet foliage lending a delicious
+perfume to the balmy air; here you have the murmuring waterfalls playing
+music of the spheres to the listening birds, who sit responsive upon the
+dancing boughs; here you have all the fragrance of the briny ocean,
+mingling with the scent of a bank of violets, and wrapping the senses in
+Elysium; here you may never tire of an existence that presents
+never-ending charms, and that, in the full enjoyment of which, you may
+live far beyond the allotted span of man."
+
+"Enough--enough," said the baron.
+
+"Here you have the choicest exotics taking kindly to a soil gifted by
+nature with the most extraordinary powers of production; and all that
+can pamper the appetite or yield delight to the senses, is scattered
+around by nature with a liberal hand. It is quite impossible that
+royalty should come near the favoured spot without visiting it as a
+thing of course; and I forgot to mention that a revenue is derived from
+some cottages, which, although small, is yet sufficient to pay the tithe
+on the whole estate."
+
+"There, there--that will do."
+
+"Here you have purling rills and cascades, and fish-ponds so redundant
+with the finny tribe, that you have but to wish for sport, and it is
+yours; here you have in the mansion, chambers that vie with the
+accommodation of a palace--ample dormitories and halls of ancient
+grandeur; here you have--"
+
+"Stop," said the baron, "stop; I cannot be pestered in this way with
+your description. I have no patience to listen to such mere words--show
+me the house at once, and let me judge for myself."
+
+"Certainly, sir; oh! certainly; only I thought it right to give you a
+slight description of the place as it really was: and now, sir, that we
+have reached the house, I may remark that here we have--"
+
+"Silence!" said the baron; "if you begin with here we have, I know not
+when you will leave off. All I require of you is to show me the place,
+and to answer any question which I may put to you concerning it. I will
+draw my own conclusions, and nothing you can say, one way or another,
+will affect my imagination."
+
+"Certainly, sir, certainly; I shall only be too happy to answer any
+questions that may be put to me by a person of your lordship's great
+intelligence; and all I can remark is, that when you reach the
+drawing-room floor, any person may truly say, here you have--I really
+beg your pardon, sir--I had not the slightest intention of saying here
+you have, I assure you; but the words came out quite unawares, I assure
+you."
+
+"Peace--peace!" cried again the baron; "you disturb me by this incessant
+clatter."
+
+Thus admonished, Mr. Leek was now quiet, and allowed the baron in his
+own way to make what investigation he pleased concerning Anderbury
+House.
+
+The investigation was not one that could be gone over in ten minutes;
+for the house was extremely extensive, and the estate altogether
+presented so many features of beauty and interest, that it was
+impossible not to linger over it for a considerable period of time.
+
+The grounds were most extensive, and planted with such a regard to order
+and regularity, everything being in its proper place, that it was a
+pleasure to see an estate so well kept. And although the baron was not a
+man who said much, it was quite evident, by what little he did utter,
+that he was very well pleased with Anderbury-on-the-Mount.
+
+"And now," said Mr. Leek, "I will do myself the pleasure, sir, of
+showing your grace the subterranean passage."
+
+At this moment a loud ring at one of the entrance gates was heard, and
+upon the man who had charge of the house answering the summons for
+admission, he found that it was a gentleman, who gave a card on which
+was the name of Sir John Westlake, and who desired to see the premises.
+
+"Sir John Westlake," said Mr. Leek; "oh! I recollect he did call at my
+office, and say that he thought of taking Anderbury-on-the-Mount. A
+gentleman of great and taste is Sir John, but I must tell him, baron,
+that you have the preference if you choose to embrace it."
+
+At this moment the stranger advanced, and when he saw the baron, he
+bowed courteously, upon which Mr. Leek said,--
+
+"I regret, Sir John, that if you should take a fancy to the place, I am
+compelled first of all to give this gentleman the refusal of it."
+
+"Certainly," said Sir John Westlake; "do not let me interfere with any
+one. I have nearly made up my mind, and came to look over the property
+again; but of course, if this gentleman is beforehand with me, I must be
+content. I wish particularly to go down to the subterranean passage to
+the beach, if it is not too much trouble."
+
+"Trouble! certainly not, sir. Here, Davis, get some links, and we can go
+at once; and as this gentleman likewise has seen everything but that
+strange excavation, he will probably descend with us."
+
+"Certainly," said the baron; "I shall have great pleasure;" and he said
+it with so free and unembarrassed an air, that no one could have
+believed for a moment in the possibility that such a subject of fearful
+interest to him was there to be found.
+
+The entrance from the grounds into this deep cavernous place was in a
+small but neat building, that looked like a summer-house; and now,
+torches being procured, and one lit, a door was opened, which conducted
+at once into the commencement of the excavation; and Mr. Leek heading
+the way, the distinguished party, as that gentleman loved afterwards to
+call it in his accounts of the transaction, proceeded into the very
+bowels of the earth, as it were, and quickly lost all traces of the
+daylight.
+
+The place did not descend by steps, but by a gentle slope, which it
+required some caution to traverse, because, being cut in the chalk,
+which in some places was worn very smooth, it was extremely slippery;
+but this was a difficulty that a little practice soon overcame, and as
+they went on the place became more interesting every minute.
+
+Even the baron allowed Mr. Leek to make a speech upon the occasion, and
+that gentleman said,--
+
+"You will perceive that this excavation must have been made, at a great
+expense, out of the solid cliff, and in making it some of the most
+curious specimens of petrifaction and fossil remains were found. You see
+that the roof is vaulted, and that it is only now and then a lump of
+chalk has fallen in, or a great piece of flint; and now we come to one
+of the ice-wells."
+
+They came to a deep excavation, down which they looked, and when the man
+held the torch beneath its surface, they could dimly see the bottom of
+it, where there was a number of large pieces of flint stone, and,
+apparently, likewise, the remains of broken bottles.
+
+"There used to be a windlass at the top of this," said Mr. Leek, "and
+the things were let down in a basket. They do say that ice will keep for
+two years in one of these places."
+
+"And are there more of these excavations?" said the baron.
+
+"Oh, dear, yes, sir; there are five or six of them for different
+purposes; for when the family that used to live in Anderbury House had
+grand entertainments, which they sometimes had in the summer season,
+they always had a lot of men down here, cooling wines, and passing them
+up from hand to hand to the house."
+
+From the gradual slope of this passage down to the cliffs, and the
+zigzag character of it, it may be well supposed that it was of
+considerable extent. Indeed, Mr. Leek asserted that it was half a mile
+in actual measured length.
+
+The baron was not at all anxious to run any risk of a discovery of the
+dead body which he had cast into that ice-well which was nearest to the
+opening on to the beach, so, as he went on, he negatived the different
+proposals that were made to look down into the excavations, and
+succeeded in putting a stop to that species of inquiry in the majority
+of instances, but he could not wholly do so.
+
+Perhaps it would have been better for his purpose if he had encouraged a
+look into every one of the ice-wells; for, in that case, their
+similarity of appearance might have tired out Sir John Westlake before
+they got to the last one; but as it was, when they reached the one down
+which the body had been precipitated, he had the mortification to hear
+Mr. Leek say,--
+
+"And now, Sir John, and you, my lord baron, as we have looked at the
+first of these ice wells and at none of the others, suppose we look at
+the last."
+
+The baron was afraid to say anything; because, if the body were
+discovered, and identified as that of the visitor at the inn, and who
+had been seen last with him, any reluctance on his part to have that
+ice-well examined, might easily afterwards be construed into a very
+powerful piece of circumstantial evidence against him.
+
+He therefore merely bowed his assent, thinking that the examination
+would be but a superficial one, and that, in consequence, he should
+escape easily from any disagreeable consequences.
+
+But this the fates ordained otherwise; and there seemed no hope of that
+ice-well in particular escaping such an investigation as was sure to
+induce some uncomfortable results.
+
+"Davis," said Mr. Leek, "these places are not deep, you see, and I was
+thinking that if you went down one of them, it would be as well; for
+then you would be able to tell the gentlemen what the bottom was fairly
+composed of, you understand."
+
+"Oh, I don't mind, sir," said Davis. "I have been down one of them
+before to-day, I can tell you, sir."
+
+"I do not see the necessity," said Sir John Westlake, "exactly, of such
+a thing; but still if you please, and this gentleman wishes--"
+
+"I have no wish upon the occasion," said the baron; "and, like yourself,
+cannot see the necessity."
+
+"Oh, there is no trouble," said Mr. Leek; "and it's better, now you are
+here, that you see and understand all about it. How can you get down,
+Davis?"
+
+"Why, sir, it ain't above fourteen feet altogether; so I sha'n't have
+any difficulty, for I can hang by my hands about half the distance, and
+drop the remainder."
+
+As he spoke he took off his coat, and then stuck the link he carried
+into a cleft of the rock, that was beside the brink of the excavation.
+
+The baron now saw that there would be no such thing as avoiding a
+discovery of the fact of the dead body being in that place, and his only
+hope was, that in its descent it might have become so injured as to defy
+identification.
+
+But this was a faint hope, because he recollected that he had himself
+seen the face, which was turned upwards, and the period after death was
+by far too short for him to have any hope that decomposition could have
+taken place even to the most limited extent.
+
+The light, which was stuck in a niche, shed but a few inefficient rays
+down into the pit, and, as the baron stood, with folded arms, looking
+calmly on, he expected each moment a scene of surprise and terror would
+ensue.
+
+Nor was he wrong; for scarcely had the man plunged down into that deep
+place, than he uttered a cry of alarm and terror, and shouted,--
+
+"Murder! murder! Lift me out. There is a dead man down here, and I have
+jumped upon him."
+
+"A dead man!" cried Mr. Leek and Sir John Westlake in a breath.
+
+"How very strange!" said the baron.
+
+"Lend me a hand," cried Davis; "lend me a hand out; I cannot stand this,
+you know. Lend me a hand out, I say, at once."
+
+This was easier to speak of than to do, and Mr. Davis began to discover
+that it was easier by far to get into a deep pit, than to get out of
+one, notwithstanding that his assertion of having been down into those
+places was perfectly true; but then he had met with nothing alarming,
+and had been able perfectly at his leisure to scramble out the best way
+he could.
+
+Now, however, his frantic efforts to release himself from a much more
+uncomfortable situation than he had imagined it possible for him to get
+into, were of so frantic a nature, that he only half buried himself in
+pieces of chalk, which he kept pulling down with vehemence from the
+sides of the pit, and succeeded in accomplishing nothing towards his
+rescue.
+
+"Oh! the fellow is only joking," said the baron, "and amusing himself at
+our expense."
+
+But the manner in which the man cried for help, and the marked terror
+which was in every tone, was quite sufficient to prove that he was not
+acting; for if he were, a more accomplished mimic could not have been
+found on the stage than he was.
+
+"This is serious," said Sir John Westlake, "and cannot be allowed. Have
+you any ropes here by which we can assist him from the pit? Don't be
+alarmed, my man, for if there be a dead body in the pit, it can't harm
+you. Take your time quietly and easily, and you will assuredly get out."
+
+"Aye," said the baron, "the more haste, the worst speed, is an English
+proverb, and in this case it will be fully exemplified. This man would
+easily leave the pit, if he would have the patience, with care and
+quietness, to clamber up its sides."
+
+It would appear that Davis felt the truth of these exhortations, for
+although he trembled excessively, he did begin to make some progress in
+his ascent, and get so high, that Mr. Leek was enabled to get hold of
+his hand, and give him a little assistance, so that, in another minute
+or so, he was rescued from his situation, which was not one of peril,
+although it was certainly one of fright.
+
+He trembled so excessively, and stuttered and stammered, that for some
+minutes no one could understand very well what he said; but at length,
+upon making himself intelligible, he exclaimed,--
+
+"There has been a murder! there has been a murder committed, and the
+body thrown into the ice pit. I felt that I jumped down upon something
+soft, and when I put down my hand to feel what it was, it came across a
+dead man's face, and then, of course, I called out."
+
+"You certainly did call out."
+
+"Yes, and so would anybody, I think, under such circumstances. I suppose
+I shall be hung now, because I had charge of the house?"
+
+"That did not strike me until this moment," said the baron; "but if
+there be a dead body in that pit, it certainly places this man in a very
+awkward position."
+
+"What the deuce do you mean?" said Davis; "I don't know no more about it
+than the child unborn. There is a dead man in the ice-well, and that is
+all I know about it; but whether he has been there a long time, or a
+short time, I don't know any more than the moon, so it's no use
+bothering me about it."
+
+"My good man," said the baron, "it would be very wrong indeed to impute
+to you any amount of criminality in this business, since you may be
+entirely innocent; and I, for one, believe that you are so, for I cannot
+think that any guilty man would venture into the place where he had put
+the body of his victim, in the way that you ventured into that pit. I
+say I cannot believe it possible, and therefore I think you innocent,
+and will take care to see that no injustice is done you; but at the same
+time I cannot help adding, that I think, of course, you will find
+yourself suspected in some way."
+
+"I am very much obliged to you, sir," said Davis; "but as I happen to be
+quite innocent, I am very easy about it, and don't care one straw what
+people say. I have not been in this excavation for Heaven knows how
+long."
+
+"But what's to be done?" said Mr. Leek. "I suppose it's our duty to do
+something, under such circumstances."
+
+"Unquestionably," said the baron; "and the first thing to be done, is to
+inform the police of what has happened, so that the body may be got up;
+and as I have now seen enough of the estate to satisfy me as regards its
+capabilities, I decide at once upon taking it, if I can agree upon the
+conditions of the tenancy, and I will purchase it, if the price be such
+as I think suitable."
+
+"Well," said Mr. Leek, "if anything could reconcile me to the
+extraordinary circumstance that has just occurred, it certainly is,
+baron, the having so desirable a tenant for Anderbury-on-the-Mount as
+yourself. But we need not traverse all this passage again, for it is
+much nearer now to get out upon the sea-coast at once, as we are so
+close to the other opening upon the beach. It seems to me that we ought
+to proceed at once to the town, and give information to the authorities
+of the discovery which we have made."
+
+"It is absolutely necessary," said the baron, "so to do; so come along
+at once. I shall proceed to my inn, and as, of course, I have seen
+nothing more than yourselves, and consequently could only repeat your
+evidence, I do not see that my presence is called for. Nevertheless, of
+course, if the justices think it absolutely necessary that I should
+appear, I can have no possible objection to so do."
+
+This was as straightforward as anything that could be desired, and,
+moreover, it was rather artfully put together, for it seemed to imply
+that he, Mr. Leek, would be slighted, if his evidence was not considered
+sufficient.
+
+"Of course," said Mr. Leek; "I don't see at all why, as you, sir, have
+only the same thing to say as myself, I should not be sufficient."
+
+"Don't call upon me on any account," said Sir John Westlake.
+
+"Oh! no, no," cried Mr. Leek; "there is no occasion. I won't, you may
+depend, if it can be helped."
+
+Sir John, in rather a nervous and excited manner, bade them good day,
+before they got quite into the town, and hurried off; while the baron,
+with a dignified bow, when he reached the door of his hotel, said to Mr.
+Leek,--
+
+"Of course I do not like the trouble of judicial investigations more
+than anybody else, and therefore, unless it is imperatively necessary
+that I should appear, I shall take it as a favour to be released from
+such a trouble."
+
+"My lord baron," said Mr. Leek, "you may depend that I shall mention
+that to the magistrates and the coroner, and all those sort of people;"
+and then Mr. Leek walked away, but he muttered to himself, as he did so,
+"They will have him, as sure as fate, just because he is a baron; and
+his name will look well in the 'County Chronicle.'"
+
+Mr. Leek then repaired immediately to the house of one of the principal
+magistrates, and related what had occurred, to the great surprise of
+that gentleman, who suggested immediately the propriety of making the
+fact known to the coroner of the district, as it was more his business,
+than a magistrate's, in the first instance, since nobody was accused of
+the offence.
+
+This suggestion was immediately followed, and that functionary directed
+that the body should be removed from where it was to the nearest
+public-house, and immediately issued his precept for an inquiry into the
+case.
+
+By this time the matter had begun to get bruited about in the town, and
+of course it went from mouth to mouth with many exaggerations; and
+although it by no means did follow that a murder had been committed
+because a dead body had been found, yet, such was the universal
+impression; and the matter began to be talked about as the murder in the
+subterranean passage leading to Anderbury House, with all the gusto
+which the full particulars of some deed of blood was calculated to
+inspire. And how it spread about was thus:--
+
+The fact was, that Mr. Leek was so anxious to let Anderbury-on-the-Mount
+to the rich Baron Stolmuyer, of Saltzburgh, that he got a friend of his
+to come and personate Sir John Westlake, while he, the baron, was
+looking at the premises, in order to drive him at once to a conclusion
+upon the matter; so that what made Sir John so very anxious that he
+should not be called forward in the matter, consisted in the simple fact
+that he was nothing else than plain Mr. Brown, who kept a hatter's shop
+in the town; but he could not keep his own counsel, and, instead of
+holding his tongue, as he ought to have done, about the matter, he told
+it to every one he met, so that in a short time it was generally known
+that something serious and startling had occurred in the subterranean
+passage to Anderbury House, and a great mob of persons thronged the
+beach in anxious expectation of getting more information on the matter.
+
+The men, likewise, who had been ordered by the coroner to remove the
+body, soon reached the spot, and they gave an increased impetus to the
+proceedings, by opening the door of the subterranean passage, and then
+looking earnestly along the beach as if in expectation of something or
+somebody of importance.
+
+When eagerly questioned by the mob, for the throng of persons now
+assembled quite amounted to a mob, to know what they waited for, one of
+them said,--
+
+"A coffin was to have been brought down to take the body in."
+
+This announcement at once removed anything doubtful that might be in the
+minds of any of them upon the subject, and at once proclaimed the fact
+not only that there was a dead body, but that if they looked out they
+would see it forthwith.
+
+The throng thickened, and by the time two men were observed approaching
+with a coffin on their shoulders, there was scarcely anybody left in the
+town, except a few rare persons, indeed, who were not so curious as
+their neighbours.
+
+It was not an agreeable job, even to those men who were not the most
+particular in the world, to be removing so loathsome a spectacle as that
+which they were pretty sure to encounter in the ice-well; but they did
+not shrink from it, and, by setting about it as a duty, they got through
+it tolerably well.
+
+They took with them several large torches, and then, one having
+descended into the pit, fastened a rope under the arms of the dead man,
+and so he was hauled out, and placed in the shell that was ready to
+receive him.
+
+They were all surprised at the fresh and almost healthful appearance of
+the countenance, and it was quite evident to everybody that if any one
+had known him in life, they could not have the least possible difficulty
+in recognising him now that he was no more.
+
+And the only appearance of injury which he exhibited was in that
+dreadful wound which had certainly proved his death, and which was
+observable in his throat the moment they looked upon him.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The crush to obtain a sight of the body was tremendous at the moment it
+was brought out, and a vast concourse of persons followed it in
+procession to the town, where the greatest excitement prevailed. It was
+easily discovered that no known person was missing, and some who had
+caught a sight of the body, went so far as to assert that it must have
+been in the ice-well for years, and that the extreme cold had preserved
+it in all its original freshness.
+
+The news, of course, came round, although not through the baron, for he
+did not condescend to say one word about it at the inn, and it was the
+landlord who first started the suggestion of--"What suppose it is the
+gentleman who left his horse here?"
+
+This idea had no sooner got possession of his brain, than it each moment
+seemed to him to assume a more reasonable and tangible form, and without
+saying any more to any one else about it, he at once started off to
+where the body lay awaiting an inquest, to see if his suspicions were
+correct.
+
+When he arrived at the public-house and asked to see the body, he was at
+once permitted to do so; for the landlord knew him, and was as curious
+as he could be upon the subject by any possibility. One glance, of
+course, was sufficient, and the landlord at once said,--
+
+"Yes, I have seen him before, though I don't know his name. He came to
+my house last night, and left his horse there; and, although I only saw
+him for a moment as he passed through the hall, I am certain I am not
+mistaken. I dare say all my waiters will recognise him, as well as the
+Baron Stolmuyer of Saltzburgh, who is staying with me, and who no doubt
+knows very well who he is, for he went out with him late and came home
+alone, and I ordered one of my men to wait up all night in order to let
+in this very person who is now lying dead before us."
+
+"The deuce you did! But you don't suppose the baron murdered him, do
+you?"
+
+"It's a mystery to me altogether--quite a profound mystery. It's very
+unlikely, certainly; and what's the most extraordinary part of the whole
+affair is, how the deuce could he come into one of the ice-wells
+belonging to Anderbury House. That's what puzzles me altogether."
+
+"Well, it will all come out, I hope, at the inquest, which is to be held
+at four o'clock to day. There must have been foul play somewhere, but
+the mystery is where, and that Heaven only knows, perhaps."
+
+"I shall attend," said the landlord, "of course, to identify him; and I
+suppose, unless anybody claims the horse, I may as well keep possession
+of it."
+
+"Don't you flatter yourself that you will get the horse out of the
+transaction. Don't you know quite well that the government takes
+possession of everything as don't belong to nobody?"
+
+"Yes; but I have got him, and possession, you know, is nine points of
+the law."
+
+"It may be so; but their tenth point will get the better of you for all
+that. You take my word for it, the horse will be claimed of you; but I
+don't mind, as an old acquaintance, putting you up to a dodge."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"Why, I'll tell you what happened with a friend of mine; but don't think
+it was me for if it was I would tell you at once, so don't think it. He
+kept a country public-house; and, one day, an elderly gentleman came in,
+and appeared to be unwell. He just uttered a word or two, and then
+dropped down dead. He happened to have in his fob a gold repeater, that
+was worth, at least a hundred guineas, and my friend, before anybody
+came, took it out, and popped in, in its stead, an old watch that he
+had, which was not worth a couple of pounds."
+
+"It was running a risk."
+
+"It was; but it turned out very well, because the old gentleman happened
+to be a very eccentric person, and was living alone, so that his friends
+really did not know what he had, or what he had not, but took it for
+granted that any watch produced belonged to him. So, if I were you in
+this case, when the gentleman's horse is claimed. I'd get the d--dest
+old screw I could, and let them have that."
+
+"You would?"
+
+"Indeed would I, and glory in it, too, as the very best thing that could
+be done. Now, a horse is of use to you?"
+
+"I believe ye, it is."
+
+"Exactly; but what's the use of it to government? and, what's more, if
+it went to the government, there might be some excuse; but the
+government will know no more about it, and make not so much as I shall.
+Some Jack-in-office will lay hold of it as a thing of course and a
+perquisite, when you might just as well, and a great deal better, too,
+keep it yourself, for it would do you some good, as you say, and none to
+them."
+
+"I'll do it; it is a good and a happy thought. There is no reason on
+earth why I shouldn't do it, and I will. I have made up my mind to it
+now."
+
+"Well, I am glad you have. What do you think now the dead man's horse is
+worth?"
+
+"Oh! fifty or sixty guineas value."
+
+"Then very good. Then, when the affair is all settled, I will trouble
+you for twenty pounds.
+
+"You?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure. Who else do you suppose is going to interfere with
+you? One is enough, ain't it, at a time; and I think, after giving you
+such advice as I have, that I am entitled, at all events, to something."
+
+"I tell you what," said the landlord of the hotel, "taking all things
+into consideration, I have altered my mind rather, and won't do it."
+
+"Very good. You need not; only mind, if you do, I am down upon you like
+a shot."
+
+The excitement contingent upon the inquest was very great; indeed, the
+large room in the public-house, where it was held, was crowded to
+suffocation with persons who were anxious to be present at the
+proceedings. When the landlord reached home, of course he told his
+guest, the baron, of the discovery he had made, that the murdered man
+was the strange visitor of the previous night; for now, from the
+frightful wound he had received in his throat, the belief that he was
+murdered became too rational a one to admit of any doubts, and was that
+which was universally adopted in preference to any other suggestion upon
+the occasion; although, no doubt, people would be found who would not
+scruple to aver that he had cut his own throat, after making his way
+into the well belonging to Anderbury House.
+
+The landlord had his own misgivings concerning his guest, the baron, now
+that something had occurred of such an awful and mysterious a nature to
+one who was evidently known to him. It did not seem to be a pleasant
+thing to have such an intimate friend of a man who had been murdered in
+one's house, especially when it came to be considered that he was the
+last person seen in his company, and that, consequently, he was
+peculiarly called upon to give an explanation of how, and under what
+circumstances, he had parted with him.
+
+The baron was sitting smoking in the most unconcerned manner in the
+world, when the landlord came to bring him this intelligence, and, when
+he had heard him to an end, the remark he made was,--
+
+"Really, you very much surprise me; but, perhaps, as you are better
+acquainted with the town than I am, you can tell me who he was?"
+
+"Why, sir, that is what we hoped you would be able to tell us."
+
+"How should I tell you? He introduced himself to me as a Mr. Mitchell, a
+surveyor, and he said that, hearing I talked of purchasing or renting
+Anderbury-on-the-Mount, he came to tell me that the principal side wall,
+that you could see from the beach, was off the perpendicular."
+
+"Indeed, sir!"
+
+"Yes; and as this was a very interesting circumstance to me, considering
+that I really did contemplate such a purchase or renting, and do so
+still, as it was a moonlight night, and he said he could show me in a
+minute what he meant if I would accompany him, I did so; but when we got
+there, and on the road, I heard quite enough of him to convince me that
+he was a little out of his senses, and, consequently, I paid no more
+attention to what he said, but walked home and left him on the beach."
+
+"It's a most extraordinary circumstance, sir; there is no such person, I
+assure you, as Mitchell, a surveyor, in the town; so I can't make it out
+in the least."
+
+"But, I tell you, I consider the man out of his senses, and perhaps that
+may account for the whole affair."
+
+"Oh, yes, sir, that would, certainly; but still, it's a very odd thing,
+because we don't know of such a person at all, and it does seem so
+extraordinary that he should have made his appearance, all of a sudden,
+in this sort of way. I suppose, sir, that you will attend the inquest,
+now, that's to be held upon him?"
+
+"Oh, yes; I have no objection whatever to that; indeed, I feel myself
+bound to do so, because I suppose mine is the latest evidence that can
+be at all produced concerning him."
+
+"Unquestionably, sir; our coroner is a very clever man, and you will be
+glad to know him--very glad to know him, sir, and he will be glad to
+know you, so I am sure it will be a mutual gratification. It's at four
+o'clock the inquest is to be, and I dare say, sir, if you are there by
+half-past, it will be time enough."
+
+"No doubt of that; but I will be punctual."
+
+We have already said the room in which the inquest was to be held was
+crowded almost to suffocation, and not only was that the case, but the
+lower part of the house was crammed with people likewise; and there can
+be very little doubt but the baron would have shrunk from such an
+investigation from a number of curious eyes, if he could have done so;
+while the landlord of the house would have had no objection, as far as
+his profit was concerned in the sale of a great quantity of beer and
+spirits, to have had such an occurrence every day in the week, if
+possible.
+
+The body lay still in the shell where it had been originally placed.
+After it had been viewed by the jury, and almost every one had remarked
+upon the extraordinary fresh appearance it wore, they proceeded at once
+to the inquiry, and the first witness who appeared was Mr. Leek, who
+deposed to have been in company with some gentlemen viewing Anderbury
+House, and to have found the body in one of the ice-wells of that
+establishment.
+
+This evidence was corroborated by that of Davis, who had so unexpectedly
+jumped into the well, without being aware that it contained already so
+disagreeable a visitor as it did in the person of the murdered man,
+regarding the cause of whose death the present inquiry was instituted.
+
+Then the landlord identified the body as that of a gentleman who had
+come to his house on horseback, and who had afterwards walked out with
+Baron Stolmuyer of Saltzburgh, who was one of his guests.
+
+"Is that gentleman in attendance?" said the coroner.
+
+"Yes, sir, he is; I told him about it, and he has kindly come forward to
+give all the evidence in his power concerning it."
+
+There was a general expression of interest and curiosity when the baron
+stepped forward, attired in his magnificent coat, trimmed with fur, and
+tendered his evidence to the coroner, which, of course, was precisely
+the same as the statement he had made to the landlord of the house; for,
+as he had made up such a well connected story, he was not likely to
+prevaricate or to depart from it in the smallest particular.
+
+He was listened to with breathless attention, and, when he had
+concluded, the coroner, with a preparatory hem! said to him,
+
+"And you have reason to suppose, sir, that this person was out of his
+senses?"
+
+"It seemed to me so; he talked wildly and incoherently, and in such a
+manner as to fully induce such a belief."
+
+"You left him on the beach?"
+
+"I did. I found when I got there that it was only a very small portion,
+indeed, of Anderbury House that was visible; and, although the moon
+shone brightly, I must confess I did not see, myself, any signs of
+deviation from the perpendicular; and, such being the case, I left the
+spot at once, because I could have no further motive in staying; and,
+moreover, it was not pleasant to be out at night with a man whom I
+thought was deranged. I regretted, after making this discovery, that I
+had come from home on such a fool's errand; but as, when one is going to
+invest a considerable sum of money in any enterprise, one is naturally
+anxious to know all about it, I went, little suspecting that the man was
+insane."
+
+"Did you see him after that?"
+
+"Certainly not, until to-day, when I recognised in the body that has
+been exhibited to me the same individual."
+
+"Gentlemen," said the coroner to the jury, "it appears to me that this
+is a most mysterious affair; the deceased person has a wound in his
+throat, which, I have no doubt, you will hear from a medical witness has
+been the cause of death; and the most singular part of the affair is,
+how, if he inflicted it upon himself, he has managed to dispose of the
+weapon with which he did the deed."
+
+"The last person seen in his company," said one of the jury, "was the
+baron, and I think he is bound to give some better explanation of the
+affair."
+
+"I am yet to discover," said the baron, "that the last person who
+acknowledges to having been in the company of a man afterwards murdered,
+must, of necessity, be the murderer?"
+
+"Yes; but how do you account, sir, for there being no weapon found by
+which the man could have done the deed himself?"
+
+"I don't account for it at all--how do you?"
+
+"This is irregular," said the coroner; "call the next witness."
+
+This was a medical man, who briefly stated that he had seen the
+deceased, and that the wound in his throat was amply sufficient to
+account for his death; that it was inflicted with a sharp instrument
+having an edge on each side.
+
+This, then, seemed to conclude the case, and the coroner remarked,--
+
+"Gentlemen of the jury,--I think this is one of those peculiar cases in
+which an open verdict is necessary, or else an adjournment without date,
+so that the matter can be resumed at any time, if fresh evidence can be
+procured concerning it. There is no one accused of the offence, although
+it appears to me impossible that the unhappy man could have committed
+the act himself. We have no reason to throw the least shade of suspicion
+or doubt upon the evidence of the Baron Stolmuyer of Saltzburgh; for as
+far as we know anything of the matter, the murdered man may have been in
+the company of a dozen people after the baron left him."
+
+A desultory conversation ensued, which ended in an adjournment of the
+inquest, without any future day being mentioned for its re-assembling,
+and so the Baron Stolmuyer entirely escaped from what might have been a
+very serious affair to him.
+
+It did not, however, appear to shake him in his resolution of taking
+Anderbury-on-the-Mount, although Mr. Leek very much feared it would; but
+he announced to that gentleman his intention fully of doing so, and told
+him to get the necessary papers drawn up forthwith.
+
+"I hope," he said, "within a few weeks' time to be fairly installed in
+that mansion, and then I will trouble you, Mr. Leek, to give me a list
+of the names of all the best families in the neighbourhood; for I intend
+giving an entertainment on a grand scale in the mansion and grounds."
+
+"Sir," said Mr. Leek, "I shall, with the greatest pleasure, attend upon
+you in every possible way in this affair. This is a very excellent
+neighbourhood, and you will have no difficulty, I assure you, sir, in
+getting together an extremely capital and creditable assemblage of
+persons. There could not be a better plan devised for at once
+introducing all the people who are worth knowing, to you."
+
+"I thank you," said the baron; "I think the place will suit me well;
+and, as the Baroness Stolmuyer of Saltzburgh is dead, I have some idea
+of marrying again; and therefore it becomes necessary and desirable that
+I should be well acquainted with the surrounding families of distinction
+in this neighbourhood."
+
+This was a hint not at all likely to be thrown away upon Mr. Leek, who
+was the grand gossip-monger of the place, and he treasured it up in
+order to see if he could not make something of it which would be
+advantageous to himself.
+
+He knew quite enough of the select and fashionable families in that
+neighbourhood, to be fully aware that neither the baron's age nor his
+ugliness would be any bar to his forming a matrimonial alliance.
+
+"There is not one of them," he said to himself, "who would not marry the
+very devil himself and be called the Countess Lucifer, or any name of
+the kind, always provided there was plenty of money: and that the baron
+has without doubt, so it is equally without doubt he may pick and choose
+where he pleases."
+
+This was quite correct of Mr. Leek, and showed his great knowledge of
+human nature; and we entertain with him a candid opinion, that if the
+Baron Stolmuyer of Saltzburgh had been ten times as ugly as he was, and
+Heaven knows that was needless, he might pick and choose a wife almost
+when he pleased.
+
+This is a general rule; and as, of course, to all general rules there
+are exceptions, this one cannot be supposed to be free from them. Under
+all circumstances, and in all classes of society, there are
+single-minded beings who consult the pure dictates of their own hearts,
+and who, disdaining those things which make up the amount of the
+ambition of meaner spirits, stand aloof as bright and memorable examples
+to the rest of human nature.
+
+Such a being was Flora Bannerworth. She would never have been found to
+sacrifice herself to the fancied advantages of wealth and station, but
+would have given her heart and hand to the true object of her affection,
+although a sovereign prince had made the endeavour to wean her from it.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Varney the Vampire, by Thomas Preskett Prest
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14833 ***