Initial commit: Varney the Vampire; Or, the Feast of Blood (ebook 14833)HEAD main

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committer: pgww <pgww@lists.pglaf.org> 2025-09-12 14:38:33 -0700
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+    <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Varney, The Vampyre by
+    Thomas Preskett Prest.</title>
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+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14833 ***</div>
+
+    <div class="trans-note">
+        <p>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.</p>
+        <p>The Table of Contents was added by the transcriber.</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/title.png"
+             alt="title page">
+    </div>
+
+    <h1>VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE:</h1>
+
+    <h3>OR,</h3>
+
+    <h2>THE FEAST OF BLOOD.</h2>
+
+    <h3>A Romance.</h3>
+
+    <h4>"Art thou a spirit of health or goblin damned?"</h4>
+
+    <h4>LONDON:</h4>
+
+    <h4>PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY E. LLOYD, 12, SALISBURY-SQUARE,
+    FLEET-STREET.</h4>
+    <hr>
+
+    <h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+    <div class="toc">
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_I'>CHAPTER
+        I.&mdash;MIDNIGHT.&mdash;THE HAIL-STORM.&mdash;THE DREADFUL
+        VISITOR.&mdash;THE VAMPYRE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_II'>CHAPTER II.&mdash;THE
+        ALARM.&mdash;THE PISTOL SHOT.&mdash;THE PURSUIT AND ITS
+        CONSEQUENCES.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_III'>CHAPTER III.&mdash;THE
+        DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BODY.&mdash;FLORA'S RECOVERY AND
+        MADNESS.&mdash;THE OFFER OF ASSISTANCE FROM SIR FRANCIS
+        VARNEY.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_IV'>CHAPTER IV.&mdash;THE
+        MORNING.&mdash;THE CONSULTATION.&mdash;THE FEARFUL
+        SUGGESTION.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_V'>CHAPTER V.&mdash;THE NIGHT
+        WATCH.&mdash;THE PROPOSAL.&mdash;THE MOONLIGHT.&mdash;THE
+        FEARFUL ADVENTURE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_VI'>CHAPTER VI.&mdash;A GLANCE AT THE
+        BANNERWORTH FAMILY.&mdash;THE PROBABLE CONSEQUENCES OF THE
+        MYSTERIOUS APPARITION'S APPEARANCE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_VII'>CHAPTER VII.&mdash;THE VISIT TO
+        THE VAULT OF THE BANNERWORTHS, AND ITS UNPLEASANT
+        RESULT.&mdash;THE MYSTERY.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_VIII'>CHAPTER VIII.&mdash;THE
+        COFFIN.&mdash;THE ABSENCE OF THE DEAD.&mdash;THE MYSTERIOUS
+        CIRCUMSTANCE, AND THE CONSTERNATION OF GEORGE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_IX'>CHAPTER IX.&mdash;THE OCCURRENCES
+        OF THE NIGHT AT THE HALL.&mdash;THE SECOND APPEARANCE OF
+        THE VAMPYRE, AND THE PISTOL-SHOT.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_X'>CHAPTER X.&mdash;THE RETURN FROM
+        THE VAULT.&mdash;THE ALARM, AND THE SEARCH AROUND THE
+        HALL.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XI'>CHAPTER XI.&mdash;THE
+        COMMUNICATIONS TO THE LOVER.&mdash;THE HEART'S
+        DESPAIR.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XII'>CHAPTER XII.&mdash;CHARLES
+        HOLLAND'S SAD FEELINGS.&mdash;THE PORTRAIT.&mdash;THE
+        OCCURRENCE OF THE NIGHT AT THE HALL.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XIII'>CHAPTER XIII.&mdash;THE OFFER
+        FOR THE HALL.&mdash;THE VISIT TO SIR FRANCIS
+        VARNEY.&mdash;THE STRANGE RESEMBLANCE.&mdash;A DREADFUL
+        SUGGESTION.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XIV'>CHAPTER XIV.&mdash;HENRY'S
+        AGREEMENT WITH SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.&mdash;THE SUDDEN ARRIVAL
+        AT THE HALL.&mdash;FLORA'S ALARM.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XV'>CHAPTER XV.&mdash;THE OLD ADMIRAL
+        AND HIS SERVANT.&mdash;THE COMMUNICATION FROM THE LANDLORD
+        OF THE NELSON'S ARMS.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XVI'>CHAPTER XVI.&mdash;THE MEETING OF
+        THE LOVERS IN THE GARDEN.&mdash;AN AFFECTING
+        SCENE.&mdash;THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF SIR FRANCIS
+        VARNEY.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XVII'>CHAPTER XVII.&mdash;THE
+        EXPLANATION.&mdash;THE ARRIVAL OF THE ADMIRAL AT THE
+        HOUSE.&mdash;A SCENE OF CONFUSION, AND SOME OF ITS
+        RESULTS.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XVIII'>CHAPTER XVIII.&mdash;THE
+        ADMIRAL'S ADVICE.&mdash;THE CHALLENGE TO THE
+        VAMPYRE.&mdash;THE NEW SERVANT AT THE HALL.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XIX'>CHAPTER XIX.&mdash;FLORA IN HER
+        CHAMBER.&mdash;HER FEARS.&mdash;THE MANUSCRIPT.&mdash;AN
+        ADVENTURE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XX'>CHAPTER XX.&mdash;THE DREADFUL
+        MISTAKE.&mdash;THE TERRIFIC INTERVIEW IN THE
+        CHAMBER.&mdash;THE ATTACK OF THE VAMPYRE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXI'>CHAPTER XXI.&mdash;THE CONFERENCE
+        BETWEEN THE UNCLE AND NEPHEW, AND THE ALARM.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXII'>CHAPTER XXII.&mdash;THE
+        CONSULTATION.&mdash;THE DETERMINATION TO LEAVE THE
+        HALL.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXIII'>CHAPTER XXIII.&mdash;THE
+        ADMIRAL'S ADVICE TO CHARLES HOLLAND.&mdash;THE CHALLENGE TO
+        THE VAMPYRE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXIV'>CHAPTER XXIV.&mdash;THE LETTER
+        TO CHARLES.&mdash;THE QUARREL.&mdash;THE ADMIRAL'S
+        NARRATIVE.&mdash;THE MIDNIGHT MEETING.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXV'>CHAPTER XXV.&mdash;THE ADMIRAL'S
+        OPINION.&mdash;THE REQUEST OF CHARLES.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXVI'>CHAPTER XXVI.&mdash;THE MEETING
+        BY MOONLIGHT IN THE PARK.&mdash;THE TURRET WINDOW IN THE
+        HALL.&mdash;THE LETTERS.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXVII'>CHAPTER XXVII.&mdash;THE NOBLE
+        CONFIDENCE OF FLORA BANNERWORTH IN HER LOVER.&mdash;HER
+        OPINION OF THE THREE LETTERS.&mdash;THE ADMIRAL'S
+        ADMIRATION.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXVIII'>CHAPTER XXVIII.&mdash;MR.
+        MARCHDALE'S EXCULPATION OF HIMSELF.&mdash;THE SEARCH
+        THROUGH THE GARDENS.&mdash;THE SPOT OF THE DEADLY
+        STRUGGLE.&mdash;THE MYSTERIOUS PAPER.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXIX'>CHAPTER XXIX.&mdash;A PEEP
+        THROUGH AN IRON GRATING.&mdash;THE LONELY PRISONER IN HIS
+        DUNGEON.&mdash;THE MYSTERY.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXX'>CHAPTER XXX.&mdash;THE VISIT OF
+        FLORA TO THE VAMPYRE.&mdash;THE OFFER.&mdash;THE SOLEMN
+        ASSEVERATION.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXI'>CHAPTER XXXI.&mdash;SIR FRANCIS
+        VARNEY AND HIS MYSTERIOUS VISITOR.&mdash;THE STRANGE
+        CONFERENCE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXII'>CHAPTER XXXII.&mdash;THE
+        THOUSAND POUNDS.&mdash;THE STRANGER'S PRECAUTIONS.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXIII'>CHAPTER XXXIII.&mdash;THE
+        STRANGE INTERVIEW.&mdash;THE CHASE THROUGH THE
+        HALL.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXIV'>CHAPTER XXXIV.&mdash;THE
+        THREAT.&mdash;ITS CONSEQUENCES.&mdash;THE RESCUE, AND SIR
+        FRANCIS VARNEY'S DANGER.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXV'>CHAPTER XXXV.&mdash;THE
+        EXPLANATION.&mdash;MARCHDALE'S ADVICE.&mdash;THE PROJECTED
+        REMOVAL, AND THE ADMIRAL'S ANGER.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXVI'>CHAPTER XXXVI.&mdash;THE
+        CONSULTATION.&mdash;THE DUEL AND ITS RESULTS.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXVII'>CHAPTER XXXVII.&mdash;SIR
+        FRANCIS VARNEY'S SEPARATE OPPONENTS.&mdash;THE
+        INTERPOSITION OF FLORA.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXVIII'>CHAPTER
+        XXXVIII.&mdash;MARCHDALE'S OFFER.&mdash;THE CONSULTATION AT
+        BANNERWORTH HALL.&mdash;THE MORNING OF THE DUEL.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXIX'>CHAPTER XXXIX.&mdash;THE STORM
+        AND THE FIGHT.-THE ADMIRAL'S REPUDIATION OF HIS
+        PRINCIPAL.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XL'>CHAPTER XL.&mdash;THE POPULAR
+        RIOT.&mdash;SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S DANGER.&mdash;THE
+        SUGGESTION AND ITS RESULTS.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XLIV'>CHAPTER XLIV.&mdash;VARNEY'S
+        DANGER, AND HIS RESCUE.&mdash;THE PRISONER AGAIN, AND THE
+        SUBTERRANEAN VAULT.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XLV'>CHAPTER XLV.&mdash;THE OPEN
+        GRAVES.&mdash;THE DEAD BODIES.&mdash;A SCENE OF
+        TERROR.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XLVI'>CHAPTER XLVI.&mdash;THE
+        PREPARATIONS FOR LEAVING BANNERWORTH HALL, AND THE
+        MYSTERIOUS CONDUCT OF THE ADMIRAL AND MR.
+        CHILLINGWORTH.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XLVII'>CHAPTER XLVII.&mdash;THE
+        REMOVAL FROM THE HALL.&mdash;THE NIGHT WATCH, AND THE
+        ALARM.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XLVIII'>CHAPTER XLVIII&mdash;THE STAKE
+        AND THE DEAD BODY.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XLIX'>CHAPTER XLIX&mdash;THE MOB'S
+        ARRIVAL AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.&mdash;THE ATTEMPT TO GAIN
+        ADMISSION.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_L'>CHAPTER L.&mdash;THE MOB'S ARRIVAL
+        AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.&mdash;THE ATTEMPT TO GAIN
+        ADMISSION.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LI'>CHAPTER LI.&mdash;THE ATTACK UPON
+        THE VAMPYRE'S HOUSE.&mdash;THE STORY OF THE
+        ATTACK.&mdash;THE FORCING OF THE DOORS, AND THE
+        STRUGGLE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LII'>CHAPTER LII.&mdash;THE INTERVIEW
+        BETWEEN THE MOB AND SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.&mdash;THE
+        MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.&mdash;THE WINE CELLARS.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LIII'>CHAPTER LIII.&mdash;THE
+        DESTRUCTION OF SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S HOUSE BY
+        FIRE.&mdash;THE ARRIVAL OF THE MILITARY, AND A SECOND
+        MOB.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LIV'>CHAPTER LIV.&mdash;THE BURNING OF
+        VARNEY'S HOUSE.&mdash;A NIGHT SCENE.&mdash;POPULAR
+        SUPERSTITION.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LV'>CHAPTER LV.&mdash;THE RETURN OF
+        THE MOB AND MILITARY TO THE TOWN.&mdash;THE MADNESS OF THE
+        MOB.&mdash;THE GROCER'S REVENGE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LVI'>CHAPTER LVI.&mdash;THE DEPARTURE
+        OF THE BANNERWORTHS FROM THE HALL.&mdash;THE NEW
+        ABODE.&mdash;JACK PRINGLE, PILOT.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LVII'>CHAPTER LVII.&mdash;THE LONELY
+        WATCH, AND THE ADVENTURE IN THE DESERTED HOUSE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LVIII'>CHAPTER LVIII.&mdash;THE
+        ARRIVAL OF JACK PRINGLE.&mdash;MIDNIGHT AND THE
+        VAMPYRE.&mdash;THE MYSTERIOUS HAT.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LIX'>CHAPTER LIX.&mdash;THE
+        WARNING.&mdash;THE NEW PLAN OF OPERATION.&mdash;THE
+        INSULTING MESSAGE FROM VARNEY.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LX'>CHAPTER LX.&mdash;THE INTERRUPTED
+        BREAKFAST AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXI'>CHAPTER LXI.&mdash;THE MYSTERIOUS
+        STRANGER.&mdash;THE PARTICULARS OF THE SUICIDE AT
+        BANNERWORTH HALL.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXII'>CHAPTER LXII.&mdash;THE
+        MYSTERIOUS MEETING IN THE RUIN AGAIN.&mdash;THE VAMPYRE'S
+        ATTACK UPON THE CONSTABLE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXIII'>CHAPTER LXIII.&mdash;THE GUESTS
+        AT THE INN, AND THE STORY OF THE DEAD UNCLE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXIV'>CHAPTER LXIV.&mdash;THE VAMPIRE
+        IN THE MOONLIGHT.&mdash;THE FALSE FRIEND.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXV'>CHAPTER LXV.&mdash;VARNEY'S VISIT
+        TO THE DUNGEON OF THE LONELY PRISONER IN THE RUINS.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXVI'>CHAPTER LXVI.&mdash;FLORA
+        BANNERWORTH'S APPARENT INCONSISTENCY.&mdash;THE ADMIRAL'S
+        CIRCUMSTANCES AND ADVICE.&mdash;MR. CHILLINGWORTH'S
+        MYSTERIOUS ABSENCE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXVII'>CHAPTER LXVII.&mdash;THE
+        ADMIRAL'S STORY OF THE BEAUTIFUL BELINDA.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXVIII'>CHAPTER
+        LXVIII.&mdash;MARCHDALE'S ATTEMPTED VILLANY, AND THE
+        RESULT.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXIX'>CHAPTER LXIX.&mdash;FLORA
+        BANNERWORTH AND HER MOTHER.&mdash;THE EPISODE OF
+        CHIVALRY.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXX'>CHAPTER LXX.&mdash;THE FUNERAL OF
+        THE STRANGER OF THE INN.&mdash;THE POPULAR COMMOTION, AND
+        MRS. CHILLINGWORTH'S APPEAL TO THE MOB.&mdash;THE NEW
+        RIOT.&mdash;THE HALL IN DANGER.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXI'>CHAPTER LXXI.&mdash;THE STRANGE
+        MEETING AT THE HALL BETWEEN MR. CHILLINGWORTH AND THE
+        MYSTERIOUS FRIEND OF VARNEY.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXII'>CHAPTER LXXII.&mdash;THE
+        STRANGE STORY.&mdash;THE ARRIVAL OF THE MOB AT THE HALL,
+        AND THEIR DISPERSION.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXIII'>CHAPTER LXXIII.&mdash;THE
+        VISIT OF THE VAMPIRE.&mdash;THE GENERAL MEETING.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXIV'>CHAPTER LXXIV.&mdash;THE
+        MEETING OF CHARLES AND FLORA.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXV'>CHAPTER LXXV.&mdash;MUTUAL
+        EXPLANATIONS, AND THE VISIT TO THE RUINS.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXVI'>CHAPTER LXXVI.&mdash;THE SECOND
+        NIGHT-WATCH OF MR. CHILLINGWORTH AT THE HALL.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXVII'>CHAPTER LXXVII.&mdash;VARNEY
+        IN THE GARDEN.&mdash;THE COMMUNICATION OF DR. CHILLINGWORTH
+        TO THE ADMIRAL AND HENRY.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXVIII'>CHAPTER LXXVIII.&mdash;THE
+        ALTERCATION BETWEEN VARNEY AND THE EXECUTIONER IN THE
+        HALL.&mdash;THE MUTUAL AGREEMENT.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXIX'>CHAPTER LXXIX.&mdash;THE
+        VAMPYRE'S DANGER.&mdash;THE LAST REFUGE.&mdash;THE RUSE OF
+        HENRY BANNERWORTH.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXX'>CHAPTER LXXX.&mdash;THE
+        DISCOVERY OF THE BODY OF MARCHDALE IN THE RUINS BY THE
+        MOB.&mdash;THE BURNING OF THE CORPSE.&mdash;THE MURDER OF
+        THE HANGMAN.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXXI'>CHAPTER LXXXI.&mdash;THE
+        VAMPYRE'S FLIGHT.&mdash;HIS DANGER, AND THE LAST PLACE OF
+        REFUGE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXXII'>CHAPTER LXXXII.&mdash;CHARLES
+        HOLLAND'S PURSUIT OF THE VAMPYRE.&mdash;THE DANGEROUS
+        INTERVIEW.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXXIII'>CHAPTER LXXXIII.&mdash;THE
+        MYSTERIOUS ARRIVAL AT THE INN.&mdash;THE HUNGARIAN
+        NOBLEMAN.&mdash;THE LETTER TO VARNEY.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXXIV'>CHAPTER LXXXIV.&mdash;THE
+        EXCITED POPULACE.&mdash;VARNEY HUNTED.&mdash;THE PLACE OF
+        REFUGE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXXV'>CHAPTER LXXXV.&mdash;THE
+        HUNGARIAN NOBLEMAN GETS INTO DANGER.&mdash;HE IS FIRED AT,
+        AND SHOWS SOME OF HIS QUALITY.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXXVI'>CHAPTER LXXXVI.&mdash;THE
+        DISCOVERY OF THE POCKET BOOK OF MARMADUKE
+        BANNERWORTH.&mdash;ITS MYSTERIOUS CONTENTS.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXXVII'>CHAPTER LXXXVII.&mdash;THE
+        HUNT FOR VARNEY.&mdash;THE HOUSE-TOPS.&mdash;THE MIRACULOUS
+        ESCAPE.&mdash;THE LAST PLACE OF REFUGE.&mdash;THE
+        COTTAGE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXXVIII'>CHAPTER LXXXVIII.&mdash;THE
+        RECEPTION OF THE VAMPYRE BY FLORA.&mdash;VARNEY
+        SUBDUED.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_LXXXIX'>CHAPTER LXXXIX.&mdash;TELLS
+        WHAT BECAME OF THE SECOND VAMPYRE WHO SOUGHT
+        VARNEY.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XC'>CHAPTER XC.&mdash;DR.
+        CHILLINGWORTH AT THE HALL.&mdash;THE ENCOUNTER OF
+        MYSTERY.&mdash;THE CONFLICT.&mdash;THE RESCUE, AND THE
+        PICTURE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XCI'>CHAPTER XCI.&mdash;THE GRAND
+        CONSULTATION BROKEN UP BY MRS. CHILLINGWORTH, AND THE
+        DISAPPEARANCE OF VARNEY.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XCII'>CHAPTER XCII.&mdash;THE
+        MISADVENTURE OF THE DOCTOR WITH THE PICTURE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XCIII'>CHAPTER XCIII.&mdash;THE ALARM
+        AT ANDERBURY.&mdash;THE SUSPICIONS OF THE BANNERWORTH
+        FAMILY, AND THE MYSTERIOUS COMMUNICATION.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XCIV'>CHAPTER XCIV.&mdash;THE VISITOR,
+        AND THE DEATH IN THE SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGE.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XCV'>CHAPTER XCV.&mdash;THE MARRIAGE
+        IN THE BANNERWORTH FAMILY ARRANGED.</a></p>
+
+        <p><a href='#CHAPTER_XCVI'>CHAPTER XCVI.&mdash;THE BARON
+        TAKES ANDERBURY HOUSE, AND DECIDES UPON GIVING A GRAND
+        ENTERTAINMENT.</a></p>
+    </div>
+    <hr>
+
+    <h2>PREFACE</h2><br>
+
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>To the whole of the Metropolitan Press for their laudatory
+    notices, the Author is peculiarly obliged.</p>
+
+    <p><i>London Sep. 1847</i></p><br>
+    <br>
+    <br>
+    <br>
+
+
+    <h1>VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE;</h1>
+
+    <h3>OR</h3>
+
+    <h2>THE FEAST OF BLOOD</h2>
+
+    <h3>A Romance</h3>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_I'></a>
+
+
+     <div class="figcenter"><img src="images/001.png"
+         alt="001.png"></div>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+    <div class="poem">
+      <div class="stanza">
+         <p>&mdash;&mdash;"How graves give up their dead.</p>
+         <p>And how the night air hideous grows</p>
+         <p>With shrieks!"</p>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+    <h3>MIDNIGHT.&mdash;THE HAIL-STORM.&mdash;THE DREADFUL
+    VISITOR.&mdash;THE VAMPYRE.</h3><br>
+
+    <p>The solemn tones of an old cathedral clock have announced
+    midnight&mdash;the air is thick and heavy&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Sleepers awakened, and thought that what they had heard must
+    be the confused chimera of a dream. They trembled and turned to
+    sleep again.</p>
+
+    <p>All is still&mdash;still as the very grave. Not a sound
+    breaks the magic of repose. What is that&mdash;a strange,
+    pattering noise, as of a million of fairy feet? It is
+    hail&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Oh, how the storm raged! Hail&mdash;rain&mdash;wind. It was,
+    in very truth, an awful night.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;covered
+    with dust are they, and they lend a funereal aspect to the
+    room. The floor is of polished oak.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;their small size saves them; the wind, the hail, the
+    rain, expend their fury in vain.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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&mdash;at least one might judge
+    so, for the name of Him who suffered for all came once faintly
+    from them.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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&mdash;almost of the child, with the
+    more matured beauty and gentleness of advancing years.</p>
+
+    <p>Was that lightning? Yes&mdash;an awful, vivid, terrifying
+    flash&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>The hail continues. The wind continues. The uproar of the
+    elements seems at its height. Now she awakens&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a lull of the wind. The hail was not falling so
+    thickly&mdash;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&mdash;she
+    is awake, and she hears it. What can produce it? Another flash
+    of lightning&mdash;another shriek&mdash;there could be now no
+    delusion.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;she tries to move&mdash;each limb seems weighed
+    down by tons of lead&mdash;she can but in a hoarse faint
+    whisper cry,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Help&mdash;help&mdash;help&mdash;help!"</p>
+
+    <p>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 lifelike. 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.</p>
+
+    <p>And yet now she could not scream&mdash;she could not move.
+    "Help!&mdash;help!&mdash;help!" was all she could say. But, oh,
+    that look of terror that sat upon her face, it was
+    dreadful&mdash;a look to haunt the memory for a
+    lifetime&mdash;a look to obtrude itself upon the happiest
+    moments, and turn them to bitterness.</p>
+
+    <p>The figure turns half round, and the light falls upon the
+    face. It is perfectly white&mdash;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&mdash;the fearful looking teeth&mdash;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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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?&mdash;what did it want
+    there?&mdash;what made it look so hideous&mdash;so unlike an
+    inhabitant of the earth, and yet to be on it?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The storm has ceased&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;can she reach it? Has she power
+    to walk?&mdash;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?</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;oh, what an age of agony. That
+    minute was, indeed, enough for madness to do its full work
+    in.</p>
+
+    <p>With a sudden rush that could not be foreseen&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;a gush of blood, and a hideous
+    sucking noise follows. <i>The girl has swooned, and the vampyre
+    is at his hideous repast!</i></p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_II'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE ALARM.&mdash;THE PISTOL SHOT.&mdash;THE PURSUIT AND ITS
+    CONSEQUENCES.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/004.png"
+             alt="004.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you hear a scream, Harry?" asked a young man,
+    half-dressed, as he walked into the chamber of another about
+    his own age.</p>
+
+    <p>"I did&mdash;where was it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"God knows. I dressed myself directly."</p>
+
+    <p>"All is still now."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; but unless I was dreaming there was a scream."</p>
+
+    <p>"We could not both dream there was. Where did you think it
+    came from?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It burst so suddenly upon my ears that I cannot say."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a tap now at the door of the room where these
+    young men were, and a female voice said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"For God's sake, get up!"</p>
+
+    <p>"We are up," said both the young men, appearing.</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you hear anything?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, a scream."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, search the house&mdash;search the house; where did it
+    come from&mdash;can you tell?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed we cannot, mother."</p>
+
+    <p>Another person now joined the party. He was a man of middle
+    age, and, as he came up to them, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God! what is the matter?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Henry," he cried, "for God's sake support your mother. Can
+    you doubt that these cries come from Flora's room?"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora! Flora!" he cried; "Flora, speak!"</p>
+
+    <p>All was still.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God!" he added; "we must force the door."</p>
+
+    <p>"I hear a strange noise within," said the young man, who
+    trembled violently.</p>
+
+    <p>"And so do I. What does it sound like?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I scarcely know; but it nearest resembles some animal
+    eating, or sucking some liquid."</p>
+
+    <p>"What on earth can it be? Have you no weapon that will force
+    the door? I shall go mad if I am kept here."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have," said the young man. "Wait here a moment."</p>
+
+    <p>He ran down the staircase, and presently returned with a
+    small, but powerful, iron crow-bar.</p>
+
+    <p>"This will do," he said.</p>
+
+    <p>"It will, it will.&mdash;Give it to me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Has she not spoken?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not a word. My mind misgives me that something very
+    dreadful must have happened to her."</p>
+
+    <p>"And that odd noise!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Still goes on. Somehow, it curdles the very blood in my
+    veins to hear it."</p>
+
+    <p>The man took the crow-bar, and with some difficulty
+    succeeded in introducing it between the door and the side of
+    the wall&mdash;still it required great strength to move it, but
+    it did move, with a harsh, crackling sound.</p>
+
+    <p>"Push it!" cried he who was using the bar, "push the door at
+    the same time."</p>
+
+    <p>The younger man did so. For a few moments the massive door
+    resisted. Then, suddenly, something gave way with a loud
+    snap&mdash;it was a part of the lock,&mdash;and the door at
+    once swung wide open.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"It opens&mdash;it opens," cried the young man.</p>
+
+    <p>"Another moment," said the stranger, as he still plied the
+    crowbar&mdash;"another moment, and we shall have free ingress
+    to the chamber. Be patient."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora&mdash;Flora!" he cried.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't rise, Henry," he cried. "Lie still."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"If that has missed its aim," said Mr. Marchdale, "I'll
+    never pull a trigger again."</p>
+
+    <p>As he spoke he dashed forward, and made a clutch at the
+    figure he felt convinced he had shot.</p>
+
+    <p>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!"</p>
+
+    <p>That face was one never to be forgotten. It was hideously
+    flushed with colour&mdash;the colour of fresh blood; the eyes
+    had a savage and remarkable lustre; whereas, before, they had
+    looked like polished tin&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"God help us!" ejaculated Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Be it what or who it may, I'll follow it"</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no&mdash;do not," cried the lady.</p>
+
+    <p>"I must, I will. Let who will come with me&mdash;I follow
+    that dreadful form."</p>
+
+    <p>As he spoke, he took the road it took, and dashed through
+    the window into the balcony.</p>
+
+    <p>"And we, too, George," exclaimed Henry; "we will follow Mr.
+    Marchdale. This dreadful affair concerns us more nearly than it
+    does him."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I see it&mdash;I see it; it makes for the wall."</p>
+
+    <p>They hesitated no longer, but at once rushed into the
+    balcony, and from thence dropped into the garden.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"There&mdash;there&mdash;towards the wall.
+    There&mdash;there&mdash;God! how it bounds along."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Which way, which way?" they both cried in a breath.</p>
+
+    <p>He leant heavily on the arm of George, as he pointed along a
+    vista of trees, and said in a low voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"God help us all. It is not human. Look there&mdash;look
+    there&mdash;do you not see it?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;well indeed they might, and for some minutes
+    they watched the figure making its fruitless efforts to leave
+    the place.</p>
+
+    <p>"What&mdash;what is it?" whispered Henry, in hoarse accents.
+    "God, what can it possibly be?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I know not," replied Mr. Marchdale. "I did seize it. It was
+    cold and clammy like a corpse. It cannot be human."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not human?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Look at it now. It will surely escape now."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no&mdash;we will not be terrified thus&mdash;there is
+    Heaven above us. Come on, and, for dear Flora's sake, let us
+    make an effort yet to seize this bold intruder."</p>
+
+    <p>"Take this pistol," said Marchdale. "It is the fellow of the
+    one I fired. Try its efficacy."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Henry had the weapon, and he pointed it full at the tall
+    form with a steady aim. He pulled the trigger&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have shot him," cried Henry, "I have shot him."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_III'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BODY.&mdash;FLORA'S RECOVERY AND
+    MADNESS.&mdash;THE OFFER OF ASSISTANCE FROM SIR FRANCIS
+    VARNEY.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/007.png"
+             alt="007.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"He is human!" cried Henry; "I have surely killed him."</p>
+
+    <p>"It would seem so," said Mr. Marchdale. "Let us now hurry
+    round to the outside of the wall, and see where he lies."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"There is nothing here," said Harry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing," added his brother.</p>
+
+    <p>"It could not have been a delusion," at length said Mr.
+    Marchdale, with a shudder.</p>
+
+    <p>"A delusion?" exclaimed the brother! "That is not possible;
+    we all saw it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then what terrible explanation can we give?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is too dreadful," said George; "for God's sake, Henry,
+    let us return to ascertain if poor Flora is killed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;poor, beautiful Flora. This is, indeed, a
+    sad, sad fate for you to come to. Flora&mdash;Flora&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And," said Mr. Marchdale, "she may be able to give us some
+    account of this dreadful visitation."</p>
+
+    <p>"True&mdash;true," exclaimed Henry; "we will hasten
+    home."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Speak at once, Martha," said Henry. "Is Flora living?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; but&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Enough&mdash;enough! Thank God she lives; where is she
+    now?"</p>
+
+    <p>"In her own room, Master Henry. Oh, dear&mdash;oh, dear,
+    what will become of us all?"</p>
+
+    <p>Henry rushed up the staircase, followed by George and Mr.
+    Marchdale, nor paused he once until he reached the room of his
+    sister.</p>
+
+    <p>"Mother," he said, before he crossed the threshold, "are you
+    here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am, my dear&mdash;I am. Come in, pray come in, and speak
+    to poor Flora."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come in, Mr. Marchdale," said Henry&mdash;"come in; we make
+    no stranger of you."</p>
+
+    <p>They all then entered the room.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, what is this that has happened&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The mother wrung her hands and wept.</p>
+
+    <p>"It was the storm that first awakened me," added Marchdale;
+    "and then I heard a scream."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Does she sleep?" said Henry, as a tear fell from his eyes
+    upon her pallid cheek.</p>
+
+    <p>"No," replied Mr. Marchdale. "This is a swoon, from which we
+    must recover her."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Heaven, have mercy upon me&mdash;Heaven, have mercy
+    upon me, and save me from that dreadful form."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, God! Oh, God!"</p>
+
+    <p>"You have been terrified. But tell us distinctly what has
+    happened? You are quite safe now."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/009.png"
+             alt="009.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Do not leave me. Oh, do not leave me, any of you. I shall
+    die if left alone now. Oh, save me&mdash;save me. That horrible
+    form! That fearful face!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Tell us how it happened, dear Flora?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Or would you rather endeavour to get some sleep first?"
+    suggested Mr. Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no&mdash;no," she said, "I do not think I shall
+    ever sleep again."</p>
+
+    <p>"Say not so; you will be more composed in a few hours, and
+    then you can tell us what has occurred."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will tell you now. I will tell you now."</p>
+
+    <p>She placed her hands over her face for a moment, as if to
+    collect her scattered, thoughts, and then she added,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;it seized me by
+    the hair. I know no more. I know no more."</p>
+
+    <p>She passed her hand across her neck several times, and Mr.
+    Marchdale said, in an anxious voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You seem, Flora, to have hurt your neck&mdash;there is a
+    wound."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>It was from these wounds the blood had come which was
+    observable upon her night clothing.</p>
+
+    <p>"How came these wounds?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not know," she replied. "I feel very faint and weak,
+    as if I had almost bled to death."</p>
+
+    <p>"You cannot have done so, dear Flora, for there are not
+    above half-a-dozen spots of blood to be seen at all."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You have something to say, Mr. Marchdale, which will throw
+    some light upon this affair."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No sleep-no sleep for me," again screamed Flora. "Dare I be
+    alone to sleep?"</p>
+
+    <p>"But you shall not be alone, dear Flora," said Henry. "I
+    will sit by your bedside and watch you."</p>
+
+    <p>She took his hand in both hers, and while the tears chased
+    each other down her cheeks, she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Promise me, Henry, by all your hopes of Heaven, you will
+    not leave me."</p>
+
+    <p>"I promise!"</p>
+
+    <p>She gently laid herself down, with a deep sigh, and closed
+    her eyes.</p>
+
+    <p>"She is weak, and will sleep long," said Mr. Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"You sigh," said Henry. "Some fearful thoughts, I feel
+    certain, oppress your heart."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush-hush!" said Mr. Marchdale, as he pointed to Flora.
+    "Hush! not here&mdash;not here."</p>
+
+    <p>"I understand," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Let her sleep."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Marchdale, look at that portrait."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Gracious Heaven, how like!"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is&mdash;it is," said Henry. "Those eyes&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"And see the contour of the countenance, and the strange
+    shape of the mouth."</p>
+
+    <p>"Exact&mdash;exact."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And is it so like him who came here?" said the mother.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed. How long ago?"</p>
+
+    <p>"About ninety years."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ninety years. 'Tis a long while&mdash;ninety years."</p>
+
+    <p>"You muse upon it."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no. I do wish, and yet I dread&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"What?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To say something to you all. But not here&mdash;not here.
+    We will hold a consultation on this matter to-morrow. Not
+    now&mdash;not now."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_IV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE MORNING.&mdash;THE CONSULTATION.&mdash;THE FEARFUL
+    SUGGESTION.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/011.png"
+             alt="011.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>There must be a downright physical reason for this
+    effect&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>And how strangely, too, the eyes of that portrait appeared
+    to look upon him&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Help&mdash;help!" she cried, and Henry was by her side in a
+    moment.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are safe, Flora&mdash;you are safe," he said.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is it now?" she said.</p>
+
+    <p>"What&mdash;what, dear Flora?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The dreadful apparition. Oh, what have I done to be made
+    thus perpetually miserable?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Think no more of it, Flora."</p>
+
+    <p>"I must think. My brain is on fire! A million of strange
+    eyes seem gazing on me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Great Heaven! she raves," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hark&mdash;hark&mdash;hark! He comes on the wings of the
+    storm. Oh, it is most horrible&mdash;horrible!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will, Henry&mdash;I will."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; it shall be done. Oh, Henry, what was it&mdash;what do
+    you think it was?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am lost in a sea of wild conjecture. I can form no
+    conclusion; where is Mr. Marchdale?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I believe in his chamber."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I will go and consult with him."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>As is often the case, the terrific storm of the preceding
+    evening had cleared the air, and rendered it deliciously
+    invigorating and lifelike. The weather had been dull, and there
+    had been for some days a certain heaviness in the atmosphere,
+    which was now entirely removed.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He found Mr. Marchdale up and dressed, and apparently in
+    deep and anxious thought. The moment he saw Henry, he
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora is awake, I presume."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, but her mind appears to be much disturbed."</p>
+
+    <p>"From bodily weakness, I dare say."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Henry," said Mr. Marchdale, sadly, "sit down. I am not, as
+    you know, a superstitious man."</p>
+
+    <p>"You certainly are not."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet, I never in all my life was so absolutely staggered
+    as I have been by the occurrences of to-night."</p>
+
+    <p>"Say on."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I&mdash;I am lost in wonder."</p>
+
+    <p>"You promise me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What&mdash;what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That you will not repeat my opinion to any one."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do."</p>
+
+    <p>"On your honour."</p>
+
+    <p>"On my honour, I promise."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Never die!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Never. In a word, Henry, have you never heard
+    of&mdash;of&mdash;I dread to pronounce the word."</p>
+
+    <p>"Speak it. God of Heaven! let me hear it."</p>
+
+    <p>"A <i>vampyre</i>!"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"A vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Even so; one who has to renew a dreadful existence by human
+    blood&mdash;one who lives on for ever, and must keep up such a
+    fearful existence upon human gore&mdash;one who eats not and
+    drinks not as other men&mdash;a vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry dropped into his seat, and uttered a deep groan of the
+    most exquisite anguish.</p>
+
+    <p>"I could echo that groan," said Marchdale, "but that I am so
+    thoroughly bewildered I know not what to think."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God&mdash;good God!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Do not too readily yield belief in so dreadful a
+    supposition, I pray you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I applaud your sentiment, Henry; not willingly would I
+    deliver up myself to so frightful a belief&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have&mdash;I have."</p>
+
+    <p>"I much marvel, then, that the supposition did not occur to
+    you, Henry."</p>
+
+    <p>"It did not&mdash;it did not, Marchdale. It&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let no one presume to insinuate it to her, Henry. I would
+    not have it mentioned to her for worlds."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nor I&mdash;nor I. Good God! I shudder at the very
+    thought&mdash;the mere possibility; but there is no
+    possibility, there can be none. I will not believe it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nor I."</p>
+
+    <p>"No; by Heaven's justice, goodness, grace, and mercy, I will
+    not believe it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I&mdash;I cannot now."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet my pistol bullets hurt him not; he has left the
+    tokens of his presence on the neck of Flora."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"You know that my attachment to you," said Marchdale, "is
+    sincere; and yet, Heaven help us!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Marchdale," added Henry, after a pause of some moments'
+    duration, "I will sit up to-night with my sister."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do&mdash;do!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Think you there is a chance it may come again?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot&mdash;I dare not speculate upon the coming of so
+    dreadful a visitor, Henry; but I will hold watch with you most
+    willingly."</p>
+
+    <p>"You will, Marchdale?"</p>
+
+    <p>"My hand upon it. Come what dangers may, I will share them
+    with you, Henry."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will; and that dreadful-looking portrait, with its
+    perfect likeness to him who came last night."</p>
+
+    <p>"Perfect indeed. Do you intend to remove it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It may well become such."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who comes here? I hear a step."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God, George! what is it?" said Mr. Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Speak it out!" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>Henry sighed deeply, and Marchdale was silent.</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>He sat down, and covering his face with his hands, he wept
+    bitterly and abundantly.</p>
+
+    <p>"George," said Henry, when he saw that the frantic grief had
+    in some measure abated&mdash;"be calm, George, and endeavour to
+    listen to me."</p>
+
+    <p>"I hear, Henry."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, do not suppose that you are the only one in
+    this house to whom so dreadful a superstition has
+    occurred."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not the only one?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; it has occurred to Mr. Marchdale also."</p>
+
+    <p>"Gracious Heaven!"</p>
+
+    <p>"He mentioned it to me; but we have both agreed to repudiate
+    it with horror."</p>
+
+    <p>"To&mdash;repudiate&mdash;it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, George."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet&mdash;and yet&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you intend to do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To keep this supposition to ourselves, in the first place;
+    to guard it most zealously from the ears of Flora."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you think she has ever heard of vampyres?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Pray Heaven she may not!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Amen to that prayer, George," said Henry. "Mr. Marchdale
+    and I intend to keep watch over Flora to-night."</p>
+
+    <p>"May not I join you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;utterly and
+    frightfully horrified. Like my poor, dear sister, I do not
+    believe I shall ever sleep again."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"For once in my life," said George, sadly, "I will; to my
+    dear mother, endeavour to play the hypocrite."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do so," said Henry. "The motive will sanction any such
+    deceit as that, George, be assured."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;for the servants named the
+    visitation such at once&mdash;was spreading all over the
+    county.</p>
+
+    <p>As he rode along, Henry met a gentleman on horseback who
+    belonged to the county, and who, reining in his steed, said to
+    him,</p>
+
+    <p>"Good morning, Mr. Bannerworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good morning," responded Henry, and he would have ridden
+    on, but the gentleman added,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Excuse me for interrupting you, sir; but what is the
+    strange story that is in everybody's mouth about a
+    vampyre?"</p>
+
+    <p>Henry nearly fell off his horse, he was so much astonished,
+    and, wheeling the animal around, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"In everybody's mouth!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; I have heard it from at least a dozen persons."</p>
+
+    <p>"You surprise me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"My sister is unwell."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, and that's all. It really is too bad, now."</p>
+
+    <p>"We had a visitor last night."</p>
+
+    <p>"A thief, I suppose?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes&mdash;I believe a thief. I do believe it was a
+    thief, and she was terrified."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good morning, Mr. Bannerworth."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"That's all?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;and enough too."</p>
+
+    <p>"More than enough, I should say, my young friend. You
+    astonish me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Can you form any supposition, sir, on the subject?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not just now. What is your own idea?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I never in all my life heard a more circumstantial
+    narrative in favour of so hideous a superstition."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, but you cannot believe&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Believe what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That the dead can come to life again, and by such a process
+    keep up vitality."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you take me for a fool?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then why do you ask me such questions?"</p>
+
+    <p>"But the glaring facts of the case."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;that at the full of the moon you all were a
+    little cracked."</p>
+
+    <p>"And so would I."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora," he said, "dear Flora, you are better now?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Harry, is that you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, dear."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, tell me what has happened?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you not a recollection, Flora?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes, Henry; but what was it? They none of them will
+    tell me what it was, Henry."</p>
+
+    <p>"Be calm, dear. No doubt some attempt to rob the house."</p>
+
+    <p>"Think you so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I shall die of terror, Henry. Even now those eyes are
+    glaring on me so hidiously. Oh, it is fearful&mdash;it is very
+    fearful, Henry. Do you not pity me, and no one will promise to
+    remain with me at night."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed, Flora, you are mistaken, for I intend to sit by
+    your bedside armed, and so preserve you from all harm."</p>
+
+    <p>She clutched his hand eagerly, as she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You will, Henry. You will, and not think it too much
+    trouble, dear Henry."</p>
+
+    <p>"It can be no trouble, Flora."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I shall rest in peace, for I know that the dreadful
+    vampyre cannot come to me when you are by-"</p>
+
+    <p>"The what, Flora!"</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre, Henry. It was a vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God, who told you so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No one. I have read of them in the book of travels in
+    Norway, which Mr. Marchdale lent us all."</p>
+
+    <p>"Alas, alas!" groaned Henry. "Discard, I pray you, such a
+    thought from your mind."</p>
+
+    <p>"Can we discard thoughts. What power have we but from that
+    mind, which is ourselves?"</p>
+
+    <p>"True, true."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The accidental shutting of some door, dear."</p>
+
+    <p>"Was it that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It was."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You only vex yourself by such thoughts, Flora. Mr.
+    Chillingworth is coming to see you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Can he minister to a mind diseased?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>She sighed deeply, as she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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&mdash;I felt a hot, pestiferous breath upon
+    my face&mdash;help&mdash;help!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! my Flora, hush! Look at me."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am calm again. It fixed its teeth in my throat. Did I
+    faint away?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You did, dear; but let me pray you to refer all this to
+    imagination; or at least the greater part of it."</p>
+
+    <p>"But you saw it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"All saw it."</p>
+
+    <p>"We all saw some man&mdash;a housebreaker&mdash;It must have
+    been some housebreaker. What more easy, you know, dear Flora,
+    than to assume some such disguise?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Was anything stolen?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not that I know of; but there was an alarm, you know."</p>
+
+    <p>Flora shook her head, as she said, in a low
+    voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I hear it breathing now."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, that they were but fancies!"</p>
+
+    <p>"They are, believe me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You utter these words, Henry," she said, "but they do not
+    come from your heart. Ah, no, no, no! Who comes?"</p>
+
+    <p>The door was opened by Mrs. Bannerworth, who
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"It is only me, my dear. Henry, here is Dr. Chillingworth in
+    the dining-room."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry turned to Flora, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You will see him, dear Flora? You know Mr. Chillingworth
+    well."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, Henry, yes, I will see him, or whoever you
+    please."</p>
+
+    <p>"Shew Mr. Chillingworth up," said Henry to the servant.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;at least so
+    his own face indicated.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, Miss Bannerworth," he said, "what is all this I hear
+    about an ugly dream you have had?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A dream?" said Flora, as she fixed her beautiful eyes on
+    his face.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, as I understand."</p>
+
+    <p>She shuddered, and was silent.</p>
+
+    <p>"Was it not a dream, then?" added Mr. Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>She wrung her hands, and in a voice of extreme anguish and
+    pathos, said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Would it were a dream&mdash;would it were a dream! Oh, if
+    any one could but convince me it was a dream!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, will you tell me what it was?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, sir, it was a vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Chillingworth glanced at Henry, as he said, in reply to
+    Flora's words,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I suppose that is, after all, another name, Flora, for the
+    nightmare?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no&mdash;no!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you really, then, persist in believing anything so
+    absurd, Miss Bannerworth?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;all saw it. We could not all be at the same time
+    the victims of the same delusion."</p>
+
+    <p>"How faintly you speak."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am very faint and ill."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed. What wound is that on your neck?"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"It is the mark left by the teeth of the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>The smile was a forced one upon the face of Mr.
+    Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/017.png"
+             alt="017.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"They are very trifling wounds, indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"But how inflicted?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"By some insect, I should say, which probably&mdash;it being
+    the season for many insects&mdash;has flown in at the
+    window."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How do you now feel in general health?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Far from well; and a strange drowsiness at times creeps
+    over me. Even now I feel it."</p>
+
+    <p>She sunk back on the pillows as she spoke and closed her
+    eyes with a deep sigh.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>As soon as they were alone in an old-fashioned room which
+    was called the oak closet, Henry turned to Mr. Chillingworth,
+    and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"What, now, is your candid opinion, sir? You have seen my
+    sister, and those strange indubitable evidences of something
+    wrong."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have; and to tell you candidly the truth, Mr. Henry, I am
+    sorely perplexed."</p>
+
+    <p>"I thought you would be."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Those wounds, what do you think of them?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I know not what to think. I am completely puzzled as
+    regards them."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, but do they not really bear the appearance of being
+    bites?"</p>
+
+    <p>"They really do."</p>
+
+    <p>"And so far, then, they are actually in favour of the
+    dreadful supposition which poor Flora entertains."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is a degrading superstition."</p>
+
+    <p>"To my mind your sister seems to be labouring under the
+    effect of some narcotic."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What would you have done?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I would not have lost sight of it for the world's
+    wealth."</p>
+
+    <p>"You would have felt your blood freeze with horror. The face
+    was terrible."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet let it lead me where it liked I would have followed
+    it."</p>
+
+    <p>"I wish you had been here."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nor I&mdash;nor I."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have, of course, heard something," said Henry to the
+    doctor, as he was pulling on his gloves, "about vampyres."</p>
+
+    <p>"I certainly have, and I understand that in some countries,
+    particularly Norway and Sweden, the superstition is a very
+    common one."</p>
+
+    <p>"And in the Levant."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes, I have heard as much."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is what I have understood."</p>
+
+    <p>"To-night, do you know, Mr. Bannerworth, is the full of the
+    moon."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry started.</p>
+
+    <p>"If now you had succeeded in killing&mdash;. 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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The full of the moon," repeated Henry, as he glanced
+    towards the window, "and the night is near at hand."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;let
+    me see."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry let the book drop from his hands with a groan and a
+    shudder.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_V'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE NIGHT WATCH.&mdash;THE PROPOSAL.&mdash;THE
+    MOONLIGHT.&mdash;THE FEARFUL ADVENTURE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/019.png"
+             alt="019.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Henry, are you asleep?"</p>
+
+    <p>Henry had not been aware of his presence, and he started up
+    as if he had been shot.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, George, is it you?" he said.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, Henry, are you unwell?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no; I was in a deep reverie."</p>
+
+    <p>"Alas! I need not ask upon what subject," said George,
+    sadly. "I sought you to bring you this letter."</p>
+
+    <p>"A letter to me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, you see it is addressed to you, and the seal looks as
+    if it came from someone of consequence."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, Henry. Read it, and see from whence it comes."</p>
+
+    <p>There was just sufficient light by going to the window to
+    enable Henry to read the letter, which he did aloud.</p>
+
+    <p>It ran thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class='blkquot'>
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p class="ctr">"Ratford Abbey."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Sir Francis Varney!" said Henry, "who is he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, yes, yes. Have you seen him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have not."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not wish to make any new acquaintance, George. We are
+    very poor&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That will be difficult to do while we remain here, when we
+    come to consider the very close proximity of the two
+    properties, Henry."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I would advise you not, George; your health, you know, is
+    very far from good."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"True, true, that is a great advantage."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What would you do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"With the name of God upon my lips," said Mr. Marchdale,
+    solemnly, "I would grapple with it."</p>
+
+    <p>"You laid hands upon it last night."</p>
+
+    <p>"I did, and have forgotten to show you what I tore from it.
+    Look here,&mdash;what should you say this was?"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"This reminds me of the fashion of garments very many years
+    ago, Mr. Marchdale."</p>
+
+    <p>"It came away in my grasp as if rotten and incapable of
+    standing any rough usage."</p>
+
+    <p>"What a strange unearthly smell it has!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It does&mdash;it does. Say nothing of this relic of last
+    night's work to any one."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"How bright the moon is now," said Henry, in a low tone.</p>
+
+    <p>"I never saw it brighter," replied Marchdale. "I feel as if
+    I were assured that we shall not to-night be interrupted."</p>
+
+    <p>"It was later than this," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"It was&mdash;it was."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do not then yet congratulate us upon no visit."</p>
+
+    <p>"How still the house is!" remarked George; "it seems to me
+    as if I had never found it so intensely quiet before."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is very still."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! she moves."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>A quarter of an hour longer might have thus passed when Mr.
+    Marchdale said in a whisper,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I ought not to have drawn your attention to it," said
+    Mr. Marchdale, "and regret I have done so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That may easily be done."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will remain here," said George, "in case Flora awakens,
+    while you two go if you like. It is but across the
+    corridor."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry immediately rose, saying&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am willing," said Mr. Marchdale, with a tone of
+    sadness.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God!" said Henry, "it is the same."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Marchdale dropped the piece of cloth and trembled.</p>
+
+    <p>"This fact shakes even your scepticism," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"I know not what to make of it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You&mdash;you are sure of that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Quite sure."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>A sickening sensation came over Henry, and he was compelled
+    to lean against the wall for support, as in scarcely articulate
+    accents he said&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre&mdash;the vampyre! God of heaven, it has come
+    once again!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"There is some one concealed there."</p>
+
+    <p>"Where&mdash;where?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Among the laurels. I will fire a random shot, and we may do
+    some execution."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold!" said a voice from below; "don't do any such thing, I
+    beg of you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, that is Mr. Chillingworth's voice," cried Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, and it's Mr. Chillingworth's person, too," said the
+    doctor, as he emerged from among some laurel bushes.</p>
+
+    <p>"How is this?" said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But why did you not let me know?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Because I did not know myself, my young friend, till an
+    hour and a half ago."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you seen anything?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing. But I fancied I heard something in the park
+    outside the wall."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"What say you, Henry," said Mr. Marchdale, "to descending
+    and taking a hasty examination of the garden and grounds?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am willing; but first allow me to speak to George, who
+    otherwise might be surprised at our long absence."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry walked rapidly to the bed chamber of Flora, and he
+    said to George,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you any objection to being left alone here for about
+    half an hour, George, while we make an examination of the
+    garden?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Let me have some weapon and I care not. Remain here while I
+    fetch a sword from my own room."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry did so, and when George returned with a sword, which
+    he always kept in his bed-room, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Now go, Henry. I prefer a weapon of this description to
+    pistols much. Do not be longer gone than necessary."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will not, George, be assured."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"We are much indebted to you," said Henry, "for making the
+    attempt."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am prompted to it by a feeling of the strongest
+    curiosity."</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you armed, sir?" said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Suppose, now, we take a survey of the park outside the
+    garden wall," said Mr. Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>This was agreed to; but before they had proceeded far, Mr.
+    Marchdale said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not a bad plan," said the doctor. "Shall we do it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"To contemplate the beauty of such a night as this," said
+    Mr. Chillingworth, "is amply sufficient compensation for coming
+    the distance I have."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are silent, Mr. Chillingworth," remarked Marchdale,
+    after a slight pause.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush!" said Mr. Chillingworth&mdash;"hush&mdash;hush!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God, what do you hear?" cried Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>The doctor laid his hand upon Henry's arm as he
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"There is a young lime tree yonder to the right."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Carry your eye from it in a horizontal line, as near as you
+    can, towards the wood."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What is that?" he said.</p>
+
+    <p>"I see something," said Marchdale. "By Heaven! it is a human
+    form lying stretched there."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is&mdash;as if in death."</p>
+
+    <p>"What can it be?" said Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;yes. Look, the moonbeams touch him. Now the
+    shadows of the trees gradually recede. God of Heaven! the
+    figure moves."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Let us descend and go up to this figure. It is a duty we
+    owe to ourselves as much as to society."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He is rising!" exclaimed Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Marchdale levelled the pistol&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"You have hit it," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"You have indeed," exclaimed the doctor. "I think we can go
+    now."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush!" said Marchdale&mdash;"Hush! Does it not seem to you
+    that, hit it as often as you will, the moonbeams will recover
+    it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;yes," said Henry, "they will&mdash;they
+    will."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, be not rash," cried Marchdale. "See, it rises again,
+    and its form looks gigantic."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry at once jumped down from the wall, and then Marchdale
+    followed him, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Come on; I will not shrink."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is conscious of being pursued," cried the doctor. "See
+    how it glances back, and then increases its speed."</p>
+
+    <p>"Fire upon it, Henry," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Pursuit is useless there," said Henry. "It is enveloped in
+    the deepest gloom."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I," said Marchdale. "What on earth is to be done?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"They were antique clothes," said Mr. Chillingworth, "such
+    as might have been fashionable a hundred years ago, but not
+    now."</p>
+
+    <p>"Such was my impression," added Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>There was so much intense excitement, and evidence of mental
+    suffering, that Mr. Chillingworth took him by the arm,
+    saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Come home&mdash;come home; no more of this at present; you
+    will but make yourself seriously unwell."</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no&mdash;no."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Take advice, Henry," said Marchdale, "take advice, and come
+    home at once."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will yield to you; I feel that I cannot control my own
+    feelings&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There are more things," said Marchdale, solemnly, "in
+    Heaven, and on earth, than are dreamed of in our
+    philosophy."</p>
+
+    <p>"There are indeed, it appears," said Mr. Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"And are you a convert?" said Henry, turning to him.</p>
+
+    <p>"A convert to what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To a belief in&mdash;in&mdash;these vampyres?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But after what we have seen to-night?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What have we seen?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You are yourself a witness."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; but, taking such circumstances into combination with
+    others, have you not a terrible fear of the truth of the
+    dreadful appearance?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! that I could think like you; but the circumstance
+    strikes too nearly to my heart."</p>
+
+    <p>"Be of better cheer, Henry&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The dress was the same," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"I noted it was."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you not, then, think it possible that something might be
+    done to set that part of the question at rest?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What&mdash;what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is your ancestor buried?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! I understand you now."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I," said Mr. Chillingworth; "you would propose a visit
+    to his mansion?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry appeared to rouse for some moments and then he
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"He, in common with many other members of the family, no
+    doubt occupies place in the vault under the old church in the
+    village."</p>
+
+    <p>"Would it be possible," asked Marchdale, "to get into that
+    vault without exciting general attention?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then it could be done?" asked Mr. Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"Most undoubtedly."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you under take such an adventure?" said Mr.
+    Chillingworth. "It may ease your mind."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Most certainly."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/025.png"
+             alt="025.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_VI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>A GLANCE AT THE BANNERWORTH FAMILY.&mdash;THE PROBABLE
+    CONSEQUENCES OF THE MYSTERIOUS APPARITION'S
+    APPEARANCE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/026.png"
+             alt="026.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;so sort of character.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>For some days previous to his decease, his conduct had been
+    extremely mysterious. He had announced an intention of leaving
+    England for ever&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>He had, but a few hours before he was found lying dead, made
+    the following singular speech to Henry,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The money is &mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>And then there was a long scrawl of the pencil, which seemed
+    to have been occasioned by his sudden decease.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;for such was Henry,
+    whom we have introduced to our readers under such distressing
+    circumstances.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Indeed, the position which Henry held was now a most
+    precarious one&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>In one of those excursions, when among the mountains of
+    Italy, an adventure occurred which placed the life of Flora in
+    imminent hazard.</p>
+
+    <p>They were riding along a narrow mountain path, and, her
+    horse slipping, she fell over the ledge of a precipice.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He frankly told them that his name was Holland; that he was
+    travelling for amusement and instruction, and was by profession
+    an artist.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>With one exception this was the state of affairs at the
+    hall, and that exception relates to Mr. Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Such then may be considered by our readers as a brief
+    outline of the state of affairs among the Bannerworths&mdash;a
+    state which was pregnant with changes, and which changes were
+    now likely to be rapid and conclusive.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_VII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE VISIT TO THE VAULT OF THE BANNERWORTHS, AND ITS
+    UNPLEASANT RESULT.&mdash;THE MYSTERY.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/029.png"
+             alt="029.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, Flora," said Henry, "you see you have been quite
+    undisturbed to-night."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have slept long, dear Henry."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have, and pleasantly too, I hope."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have not had any dreams, and I feel much refreshed, now,
+    and quite well again."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank Heaven!" said George.</p>
+
+    <p>"If you will tell dear mother that I am awake, I will get up
+    with her assistance."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let us believe, Henry, that we shall."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet, George, I shall not be satisfied in my mind, until
+    I have paid a visit."</p>
+
+    <p>"A visit? Where?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To the family vault."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed, Henry! I thought you had abandoned that idea."</p>
+
+    <p>"I had. I have several times abandoned it; but it comes
+    across my mind again and again."</p>
+
+    <p>"I much regret it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Look you, George; as yet, everything that has happened has
+    tended to confirm a belief in this most horrible of all
+    superstitions concerning vampyres."</p>
+
+    <p>"It has."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I comprehend you, Henry."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"True, most true."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But consider how many years have elapsed."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, a great number."</p>
+
+    <p>"What then, do you suppose, could remain of any corpse
+    placed in a vault so long ago?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There is reason in that, Henry."</p>
+
+    <p>"Besides, the coffins are all of lead, and some of stone, so
+    that they cannot have all gone."</p>
+
+    <p>"True, most true."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Brother, you seem bent on this adventure," said George; "if
+    you go, I will accompany you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>It was Mr. Marchdale, and the brothers warmly welcomed him
+    as he entered the apartment.</p>
+
+    <p>"You have been early afoot," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;the I don't know what to call it, for I have a great
+    dislike to naming it a vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"There is not much in a name," said George.</p>
+
+    <p>"In this instance there is," said Marchdale. "It is a name
+    suggestive of horror."</p>
+
+    <p>"Made you any discovery?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"None whatever."</p>
+
+    <p>"You saw no trace of any one?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not the least."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, Mr. Marchdale, George and I were talking over this
+    projected visit to the family vault."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"And we agreed to suspend our judgments until we saw you,
+    and learned your opinion."</p>
+
+    <p>"Which I will tell you frankly," said Mr. Marchdale,
+    "because I know you desire it freely."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do so."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is, that you make the visit."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"True, most true."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is precisely the argument I was using to George," said
+    Henry, "a few moments since."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then let us go," said George, "by all means."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is so decided then," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Let it be done with caution," replied Mr. Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"If any one can manage it, of course we can."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then let it be at night."</p>
+
+    <p>"But we shall surely require the concurrence of some of the
+    church authorities."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But detection in a clandestine visit might produce
+    unpleasant consequences."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"We do, indeed," said Henry. "I did not think of that."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It would be a pity were we not all three present at the
+    examination of the coffin," remarked Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; immediately beneath is a short flight of stone steps,
+    which conduct at once into the vault."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is it large?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; about the size of a moderate chamber, and with no
+    intricacies about it."</p>
+
+    <p>"There can be no difficulties, then."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Those we can easily provide, along with lights," remarked
+    Mr. Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He would," said Henry, "be able to come to an accurate
+    decision with respect to the remains&mdash;if any&mdash;in the
+    coffin, which we could not."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then have him, by all means," said George. "He did not seem
+    averse last night to go on such an adventure."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Flora changed colour, and slightly trembled, and then, as if
+    ashamed of her fears, she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Go, go; I will not detain you. Surely no harm can come to
+    me in presence of my mother."</p>
+
+    <p>"We shall not be gone longer than the time I mention to
+    you," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry caught at the idea, as he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"If fire-arms were left you, do you think you would have
+    courage to use them?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do, Henry."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will, Henry, I will; and you will be back in two
+    hours?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Most assuredly I will."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"And Flora does not seem much alarmed," said Marchdale, "at
+    being left alone?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It would have driven some really mad."</p>
+
+    <p>"It would, indeed; and her own reason tottered on its
+    throne, but, thank Heaven, she has recovered."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I fervently hope that, through her life," added
+    Marchdale, "she may never have such another trial."</p>
+
+    <p>"We will not for a moment believe that such a thing can
+    occur twice."</p>
+
+    <p>"She is one among a thousand. Most young girls would never
+    at all have recovered the fearful shock to the nerves."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, she actually&mdash;I forgot to tell you
+    before&mdash;but she actually asked me for arms to resist any
+    second visitation."</p>
+
+    <p>"You much surprise me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I was surprised, as well as pleased, myself."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, yes; well."</p>
+
+    <p>"What a pity. I have them both with me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, she is provided."</p>
+
+    <p>"Provided?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God! was it not dangerous?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not at all, I think."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I&mdash;.
+    Bless me, I have forgot to get the materials for lights, which
+    I pledged myself to do."</p>
+
+    <p>"How unfortunate."</p>
+
+    <p>"Walk on slowly, while I run back and get them."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, we are too far&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa!" cried a man at this moment, some distance in front
+    of them.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is Mr. Chillingworth," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa," cried the worthy doctor again. "Is that you, my
+    friend, Henry Bannerworth?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is," cried Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Chillingworth now came up to them and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You guessed we should come this way?'</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, and so it turns out, really. It is unquestionably your
+    most direct route to the church."</p>
+
+    <p>"I think I will go back," said Mr Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Back!" exclaimed the doctor; "what for?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I forgot the means of getting lights. We have candles, but
+    no means of lighting them."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is fortunate," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/033.png"
+             alt="033.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"We have a favourable night," remarked Henry, "for we are
+    not so likely to be disturbed."</p>
+
+    <p>"And now, the question is, how are we to get in?" said Mr.
+    Chillingworth, as he paused, and glanced up at the ancient
+    building.</p>
+
+    <p>"The doors," said George, "would effectually resist us."</p>
+
+    <p>"How can it be done, then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A good way," said Marchdale. "We will lose no time."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you do it, Henry?" said George.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes. I have often noticed the fastenings. Just give me a
+    slight hoist up, and all will be right."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I wonder," said Marchdale, "that a place so inefficiently
+    protected has never been robbed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And that, Heaven knows, is little enough, then."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come on," said Henry. "Be careful; there is nothing beneath
+    the window, and the depth is about two feet."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It does seem wrong thus to tamper with the secrets of the
+    tomb," remarked Mr. Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"The secrets of a fiddlestick!" said the doctor. "What
+    secrets has the tomb I wonder?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, but, my dear sir&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"There is one which very probably we shall find unpleasantly
+    revealed."</p>
+
+    <p>"Which is that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The not over pleasant odour of decomposed animal
+    remains&mdash;beyond that I know of nothing of a secret nature
+    that the tomb can show us."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, your profession hardens you to such matters."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That will be the only plan."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry led them to the pew which belonged to his family, and
+    in the floor of which was the trap door.</p>
+
+    <p>"When was it last opened?" inquired Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"When my father died," said Henry; "some ten months ago now,
+    I should think."</p>
+
+    <p>"The screws, then, have had ample time to fix themselves
+    with fresh rust."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I think that without a light now," he said, "I can turn the
+    screws well."</p>
+
+    <p>"Can you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; there are but four."</p>
+
+    <p>"Try it, then."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Here," said the doctor.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Let us descend," said Henry. "There is no further obstacle,
+    my friends. Let us descend."</p>
+
+    <p>"If any one," remarked George, in a whisper, as they slowly
+    descended the stairs which conducted into the vault&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now for one of your lights. Mr. Chillingworth. You say you
+    have the candles, I think, Marchdale, although you forgot the
+    matches."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have. They are here."</p>
+
+    <p>Marchdale took from his pocket a parcel which contained
+    several wax candles, and when it was opened, a smaller packet
+    fell to the ground.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, these are instantaneous matches," said Mr.
+    Chillingworth, as he lifted the small packet up.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_VIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE COFFIN.&mdash;THE ABSENCE OF THE DEAD.&mdash;THE
+    MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE, AND THE CONSTERNATION OF
+    GEORGE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/036.png"
+             alt="036.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"This is a time for action, George," he said, "and not for
+    romantic thought. Let us proceed."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes," said George, and he advanced a step towards the
+    centre of the vault.</p>
+
+    <p>"Can you find out among all these coffins, for there seem to
+    be nearly twenty," said Mr. Chillingworth, "which is the one we
+    seek?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let us examine," said George.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Here is a coffin plate," said Marchdale, taking one from
+    the floor.</p>
+
+    <p>He handed it to Mr. Chillingworth, who, upon an inspection
+    of it, close to the light, exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"It must have belonged to the coffin you seek."</p>
+
+    <p>"What says it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ye mortale remains of Marmaduke Bannerworth, Yeoman. God
+    reste his soule. A.D. 1540."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is the plate belonging to his coffin," said Henry, "and
+    now our search is fruitless."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, admitting that to be the case," said Henry, "how does
+    that assist us in the identification of a coffin?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You are quite right. Here is a firm strong leaden coffin
+    within, which, although quite black, does not otherwise appear
+    to have suffered."</p>
+
+    <p>"What is the inscription on that?" said George.</p>
+
+    <p>With difficulty the name on the lid was deciphered, but it
+    was found not to be the coffin of him whom they sought.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Suddenly Mr. Marchdale cried, in a tone of
+    excitement,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I have found it. It is here."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"See. It is here."</p>
+
+    <p>By the combined light of the candles they saw the
+    words,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Marmaduke Bannerworth, Yeoman, 1640."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, there can be no mistake here," said Henry. "This is
+    the coffin, and it shall be opened."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Do so&mdash;do so," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/037.png"
+             alt="037.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>There lay something certainly there, and an audible "Thank
+    God!" escaped his lips.</p>
+
+    <p>"The body is there!" exclaimed George.</p>
+
+    <p>"All right," said Marchdale, "here it is. There is
+    something, and what else can it be?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold the lights," said Mr. Chillingworth; "hold the lights,
+    some of you; let us be quite certain."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>There was a death-like pause for some few moments, and then
+    Mr. Chillingworth said, in a low voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"There is not the least vestige of a dead body here."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry gave a deep groan, as he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Chillingworth, can you take upon yourself to say that
+    no corpse has undergone the process of decomposition in this
+    coffin?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am answered," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It would seem so," said Marchdale, sadly.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Think again, Mr. Chillingworth; I pray you think again,"
+    cried Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are positive, then," said Henry, "that the dead body of
+    Marmaduke Bannerworth is not rested here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;no bones, no dust
+    even."</p>
+
+    <p>They did all look for themselves, and the most casual glance
+    was sufficient to satisfy the most sceptical.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It shall never pass my lips," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good heavens!" cried George, "can you call them fancies,
+    Mr. Chillingworth?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do, indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you yet a doubt?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;d impostor."</p>
+
+    <p>"This is carrying incredulity to the verge of
+    obstinacy."</p>
+
+    <p>"Far beyond it, if you please."</p>
+
+    <p>"You will not be convinced?" said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"I most decidedly, on this point, will not."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then you are one who would doubt a miracle, if you saw it
+    with your own eyes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I would rather avoid such observations in such a place as
+    this," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, do not be the moral coward," cried Mr. Chillingworth,
+    "to make your opinions, or the expression of them, dependent
+    upon any certain locality."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know not what to think," said Henry; "I am bewildered
+    quite. Let us now come away."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I deeply regret," said Marchdale, "that I so strenuously
+    advised this expedition. I did hope that from it would have
+    resulted much good."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, nonsense!" said Chillingworth. "What for?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Alas! I know not."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>But now the whole question assumed a far more bewildering
+    shape. The body was not in its coffin&mdash;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?</p>
+
+    <p>All these were questions which irresistibly pressed
+    themselves upon the consideration of Henry and his brother.
+    They were awful questions.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;"I don't believe it."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Chillingworth's was the only plan. He would not argue
+    the question. He said at once,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I will not believe this thing&mdash;upon this point I will
+    yield to no evidence whatever."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Shall we replace the pane of glass?" said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, it matters not&mdash;it matters not," said Henry,
+    listlessly; "nothing matters now. I care not what becomes of
+    me&mdash;I am getting weary of a life which now must be one of
+    misery and dread."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot help it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, but be a man. If there are serious evils affecting
+    you, fight out against them the best way you can."</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come, now, listen to me. We need not, I think, trouble
+    ourselves about the pane of glass, so come along."</p>
+
+    <p>He took the arm of Henry and walked on with him a little in
+    advance of the others.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But this family affliction of mine transcends anything that
+    anybody else ever endured."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know that; but it is a view of the subject which,
+    if I were you, would only make me more obstinate."</p>
+
+    <p>"What can I do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is not that like defying Heaven?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know these are your opinions. I have heard you mention
+    them before."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;fight him. Self-preservation is a great
+    law of nature, implanted in all our hearts; do you summon it to
+    your aid."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will endeavour to think as you would have me. I thought
+    more than once of summoning religion to my aid."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, that is religion."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_IX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE OCCURRENCES OF THE NIGHT AT THE HALL.&mdash;THE SECOND
+    APPEARANCE OF THE VAMPYRE, AND THE PISTOL-SHOT.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/040.png"
+             alt="040.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I wish they had not gone."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"But it is but for two hours," thought Flora, "and two hours
+    will soon pass away."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear," said her mother, "you look more like yourself,
+    now."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do, I, mother?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, you are well again."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, if I could forget&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will hope to do so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Flora laid her hand upon her mother's arm, and in a low,
+    anxious tone of voice, said,&mdash;"Listen, mother."</p>
+
+    <p>Mrs. Bannerworth turned pale, as she said,&mdash;"Listen to
+    what, dear?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;it may be only fancy."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/041.png"
+             alt="041.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>They now conversed in anxious whispers, and almost all they
+    said consisted in anxious wishes for the return of the brothers
+    and Mr. Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush&mdash;hush&mdash;hush, mother!"</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you hear?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I thought&mdash;I heard a faint sound."</p>
+
+    <p>"I heard nothing, dear."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no, my darling, do not think; your imagination is
+    active and in a state of excitement."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is, and yet&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Believe me, it deceives you."</p>
+
+    <p>"I hope to Heaven it does!"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"No, mother, no&mdash;not yet, not yet. Perhaps I am
+    deceived."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>A faint cry came from Flora's lips, as she exclaimed, in a
+    voice of great agony,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, God!&mdash;oh, God! It has come again!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>When the scratching noise ceased, Flora spoke in a low,
+    anxious whisper, as she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Mother, you heard it then?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>And now again came the strange knocking or scratching
+    against the glass of the window.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;there was the faded
+    ancient apparel&mdash;the lustrous metallic-looking
+    eyes&mdash;its half-opened month, exhibiting the tusk-like
+    teeth! It was&mdash;yes, it was&mdash;<i>the vampyre!</i></p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_X'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE RETURN FROM THE VAULT.&mdash;THE ALARM, AND THE SEARCH
+    AROUND THE HALL.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/043.png"
+             alt="043.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good heavens!" cried George, "can that be Flora firing at
+    any intruder?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It must be," cried Henry; "she has in her possession the
+    only weapons in the house."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Marchdale turned very pale, and trembled slightly, but
+    he did not speak.</p>
+
+    <p>"On, on," cried Henry; "for God's sake, let us hasten
+    on."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God, are you all mad?"</p>
+
+    <p>Henry relaxed his hold, and looked in his face.</p>
+
+    <p>"Gracious heavens, it is Mr. Holland!" he said.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; did you not know me?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What is this&mdash;oh! what has happened?" cried
+    George.</p>
+
+    <p>"I know not&mdash;I know not," said Henry. "Some one summon
+    the servants; I am nearly mad."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you aware, Henry," said Marchdale, "that a stranger is
+    present in the room?"</p>
+
+    <p>He pointed to Mr. Holland as he spoke, who, before Henry
+    could reply, said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir, I may be a stranger to you, as you are to me, and yet
+    no stranger to those whose home this is."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no," said Henry, "you are no stranger to us, Mr.
+    Holland, but are thrice welcome&mdash;none can be more welcome.
+    Mr. Marchdale, this is Mr Holland, of whom you have heard me
+    speak."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am proud to know you, sir," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir, I thank you," replied Holland, coldly.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes; it is Charles&mdash;it is Charles."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, my dear friends," cried Charles Holland, "do not
+    deceive me; has Flora been ill?"</p>
+
+    <p>"We have all been ill," said George.</p>
+
+    <p>"All ill?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, and nearly mad," exclaimed Harry.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You must leave me&mdash;you must leave me, Charles, for
+    ever! Oh! never, never look upon my face again!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I&mdash;I am bewildered," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"Leave me, now," continued Flora; "think me unworthy; think
+    what you will, Charles, but I cannot, I dare not, now be
+    yours."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is this a dream?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, would it were. Charles, if we had never met, you would
+    be happier&mdash;I could not be more wretched."</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora, Flora, do you say these words of so great cruelty to
+    try my love?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, as Heaven is my judge, I do not."</p>
+
+    <p>"Gracious Heaven, then, what do they mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>Flora shuddered, and Henry, coming up to her, took her hand
+    in his tenderly, as he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Has it been again?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It has."</p>
+
+    <p>"You shot it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I fired full upon it, Henry, but it fled."</p>
+
+    <p>"It did&mdash;fly?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It did, Henry, but it will come again&mdash;it will be sure
+    to come again."</p>
+
+    <p>"You&mdash;you hit it with the bullet?" interposed Mr.
+    Marchdale. "Perhaps you killed it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I think I must have hit it, unless I am mad."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Holland, a full explanation is due to you, and you
+    shall have it."</p>
+
+    <p>"You seem the only rational person here," said Charles.
+    "Pray what is it that everybody calls '<i>it</i>?'"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush&mdash;hush!" said Henry; "you shall hear soon, but not
+    at present."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said Charles&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/045.png"
+             alt="045.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Oh! no more&mdash;no more!" sobbed Flora.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Be prudent," said Henry. "Say no more."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Flora sobbed bitterly.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh!" she said, "this is the unkindest blow of
+    all&mdash;this is worse than all."</p>
+
+    <p>"Unkind!" echoed Holland.</p>
+
+    <p>"Heed her not," said Henry; "she means not you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, no&mdash;no!" she cried. "Farewell, Charles&mdash;dear
+    Charles."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, say that word again!" he exclaimed, with animation. "It
+    is the first time such music has met my ears."</p>
+
+    <p>"It must be the last."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no&mdash;oh, no."</p>
+
+    <p>"For your own sake I shall be able now, Charles, to show you
+    that I really loved you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not by casting me from you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, even so. That will be the way to show you that I love
+    you."</p>
+
+    <p>She held up her hands wildly, as she added, in an excited
+    voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The curse of destiny is upon me! I am singled out as one
+    lost and accursed. Oh, horror&mdash;horror! would that I were
+    dead!"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Is&mdash;is she mad, or am I?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come with me," whispered Henry to Holland. "I pray you come
+    with me at once, and you shall know all."</p>
+
+    <p>"I&mdash;will."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Well might he doubt if he were sleeping or waking&mdash;well
+    might he ask if he or they were mad.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE COMMUNICATIONS TO THE LOVER.&mdash;THE HEART'S
+    DESPAIR.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/046.png"
+             alt="046.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>True, she implored him to think of her no more&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Tell me all, Henry&mdash;tell me all," he said. "Upon the
+    words that come from your lips I know I can rely."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay. One which in hearing you may well doubt; and one which,
+    I hope, you will never find an opportunity of verifying."</p>
+
+    <p>"You speak in riddles."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet speak truly, Charles. You heard with what a frantic
+    vehemence Flora desired you to think no more of her?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I did&mdash;I did."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;all mutations of fortune, she
+    shall be mine."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do not suppose that any change of fortune has produced the
+    scene you were witness to."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then, what else?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will tell you, Holland. In all your travels, and in all
+    your reading, did you ever come across anything about
+    vampyres?"</p>
+
+    <p>"About what?" cried Charles, drawing his chair forward a
+    little. "About what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>Charles Holland looked curiously in Henry's face, and the
+    latter immediately added,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I can guess what is passing in your mind at present, and I
+    do not wonder at it. You think I must be mad."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, really, Henry, your extraordinary
+    question&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God, Henry, can you allow your judgment for a moment
+    to stoop to such a supposition?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You bewilder me, utterly," said Charles Holland.</p>
+
+    <p>"As we are all bewildered."</p>
+
+    <p>"But&mdash;but, gracious Heaven! it cannot be."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is."</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no. There is&mdash;there must be yet some dreadful
+    mistake."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Any other species or kind of supernatural appearance might
+    admit of argument; but this, to my perception, is too wildly
+    improbable&mdash;too much at variance with all we see and know
+    of the operations of nature."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;'We have seen it.'"</p>
+
+    <p>"I would doubt my eyesight."</p>
+
+    <p>"One might; but many cannot be labouring under the same
+    delusion."</p>
+
+    <p>"My friend, I pray you, do not make me shudder at the
+    supposition that such a dreadful thing as this is at all
+    possible."</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>I</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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no! By Heaven, no!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, Charles. Reflect upon the consequences now of a union
+    with such a family."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You would be justified."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To what do you allude?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Now this must be insanity," cried Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"It bears the aspect of it, indeed," said Henry; "oh, that
+    you could by some means satisfy yourself that I am mad."</p>
+
+    <p>"There may be insanity in this family," thought Charles,
+    with such an exquisite pang of misery, that he groaned
+    aloud.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry could not speak for emotion for several minutes, and
+    when at length, in a faltering voice, he could utter some
+    words, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But the evidences."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But what human means, Charles, could produce what I have
+    now narrated to you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You know you are as welcome here as if the house were your
+    own, and all that it contains."</p>
+
+    <p>"I believe so, most truly. You have no objection, I presume,
+    to my conversing with Flora upon this strange subject?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not. Of course you will be careful to say nothing
+    which can add to her fears."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then with the whole of them you permit me to hold free
+    communication upon the subject?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Most certainly."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am rejoiced, if anything can rejoice me now," said Henry,
+    "to see you view the subject with so much philosophy."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What was that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I did. Where is the mind to pause, when once we open it to
+    the reception of such things?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, if that be the case, we will watch this vampyre
+    and catch it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Catch it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you feel so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I did."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/049.png"
+             alt="049.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"I can have no thought the one way or the other."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It must be done."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It would be a dreadful capture to make to seize a vampyre,"
+    said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles, Charles, are you jesting with me, or do you really
+    give any credence to the story?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are right."</p>
+
+    <p>"If it should turn out then that there is an error in the
+    fact, well and good&mdash;we are all the better off; but if
+    otherwise, we are prepared, and armed at all points."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Prefer it!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You will let me, then, while I remain here, call it my
+    room?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Assuredly."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>CHARLES HOLLAND'S SAD FEELINGS.&mdash;THE
+    PORTRAIT.&mdash;THE OCCURRENCE OF THE NIGHT AT THE
+    HALL.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/050.png"
+             alt="050.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Charles Holland wished to be alone, if ever any human being
+    had wished fervently to be so. His thoughts were most fearfully
+    oppressive.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>All these things were possible&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles Holland, will you have a vampyre for your
+    bride?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I never can mistake
+    it."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;one only&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come in," said Charles, for he knew he had not fastened his
+    door; "come in."</p>
+
+    <p>There was no reply, but after a moment's pause, the same
+    sort of low tap came again.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Slowly, then, he returned to his room again, and closed the
+    door behind him.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Who's there? who's there?"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"What is it? who speaks?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Henry," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;yes&mdash;yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"I fear I have disturbed you."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have been disturbed yourself, or you would not have
+    done so. I shall be with you in a moment."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He left the door open now, so that Henry Bannerworth, when
+    he had got on some articles of dress, walked in at once,
+    saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"What has happened, Charles?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A mere trifle, Henry, concerning which I am ashamed you
+    should have been at all disturbed."</p>
+
+    <p>"Never mind that, I was wakeful."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/053.png"
+             alt="053.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Such is the case."</p>
+
+    <p>"You surprise me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do not regret it for a moment," said Henry; "you were quite
+    justified in making an alarm on such an occasion."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly we may."</p>
+
+    <p>"How earnestly that strange portrait seems to look upon us,
+    Charles."</p>
+
+    <p>"It does, and I have been examining it carefully. It seems
+    to have been removed lately."</p>
+
+    <p>"Removed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You must be mistaken."</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot, of course, take upon myself, Henry, to say
+    precisely such is the case," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"But there is no one here to do so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"There is no mystery here," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"None whatever," said Charles, as he tapped the wall with
+    his knuckles, and found it all hard and sound. "We are
+    foiled."</p>
+
+    <p>"We are indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"True. Shall we replace it?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are not yet satisfied," said Henry, as he observed the
+    doubtful look of Charles Holland's face.</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear friend," said Charles, "I will not deceive you. I
+    am much disappointed that we have made no discovery behind that
+    picture."</p>
+
+    <p>"Heaven knows we have mysteries enough in our family," said
+    Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What is that?" said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"God only knows," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Henry, if I don't hit it, I will consent to forfeit my
+    head."</p>
+
+    <p>He pulled the trigger&mdash;a loud report followed&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Ask me not now;" and then calling to Charles, he
+    said,&mdash;"Remain where you are, Charles, while I run down to
+    the garden immediately beneath the balcony."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;yes," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you now descend? I can see nothing here; but we will
+    both make a search."</p>
+
+    <p>George and Mr. Marchdale were both now in the balcony, and
+    they would have descended likewise, but Henry said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Do not all leave the house. God only knows, now, situated
+    as we are, what might happen."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>As they looked up for a moment after a cursory examination
+    of the ground, Charles exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"You must have hit him," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"One would think so," said Charles; "for that was the exact
+    place where the figure was."</p>
+
+    <p>"And there is nothing here," added Marchdale. "What can we
+    think of these events&mdash;what resource has the mind against
+    the most dreadful suppositions concerning them?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Human means against such an appearance as we saw to-night,"
+    said Charles, "are evidently useless."</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What is that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"By leaving this place for ever."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Heed nothing but an escape from such horrors as seem to be
+    accumulating now around you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;oh, it is too dreadful to
+    contemplate! Too horrible&mdash;too horrible!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"As I will be still."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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&mdash;to make your nights hideous&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Peace! oh, peace!" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will hear no more of this," cried Charles
+    Holland.&mdash;"I will hear no more."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have done," said Mr. Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"And 'twere well you had not begun."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, say not so. I have but done what I considered was a
+    solemn duty."</p>
+
+    <p>"Under that assumption of doing duty&mdash;a solemn
+    duty&mdash;heedless of the feelings and the opinions of
+    others," said Charles, sarcastically, "more mischief is
+    produced&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"To-morrow, I leave this house," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Leave us?" exclaimed Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, for ever."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, now, Mr. Marchdale, is this generous?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>Henry turned to Charles Holland, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles, I know your generous nature. Say you meant no
+    offence to my mother's old friend."</p>
+
+    <p>"If to say I meant no offence," said Charles, "is to say I
+    meant no insult, I say it freely."</p>
+
+    <p>"Enough," cried Marchdale; "I am satisfied."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Bravely spoken."</p>
+
+    <p>"And when I desert Flora Bannerworth, may Heaven, from that
+    moment, desert me!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles!" cried Henry, with emotion, "dear Charles, my more
+    than friend&mdash;brother of my heart&mdash;noble Charles!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE OFFER FOR THE HALL.&mdash;THE VISIT TO SIR FRANCIS
+    VARNEY.&mdash;THE STRANGE RESEMBLANCE.&mdash;A DREADFUL
+    SUGGESTION.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/056.png"
+             alt="056.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/057.png"
+             alt="057.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>But the closest scrutiny did not reveal to them a single
+    spot of blood, beyond the space immediately beneath the
+    window;&mdash;there the apparition seemed to have received its
+    wound, and then, by some mysterious means, to have
+    disappeared.</p>
+
+    <p>At length, wearied with the continued excitement, combined
+    with want of sleep, to which they had been subjected, they
+    returned to the hall.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>At length, the morning again dawned upon that unhappy
+    family, and to none were its beams more welcome.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;"must I be chased from this spot, the home of
+    my self and of my kindred, by a phantom&mdash;must I indeed
+    seek refuge elsewhere, because my own home has become
+    hideous?"</p>
+
+    <p>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!</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>In the course of a few minutes, one of the servants came to
+    him with a letter in her hand.</p>
+
+    <p>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,</p>
+
+    <p>"Another condoling epistle from the troublesome neighbour
+    whom I have not yet seen."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you mean?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>The question was a superfluous one&mdash;: 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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What does I mean!" said the woman,&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What wages are owing to you?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, as to wages, I only comed here by the day."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go, then, and settle with my mother. The sooner you leave
+    this house, the better."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, indeed. I'm sure I don't want to stay."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>To his great surprise, he found that the letter contained
+    the following words:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class='blkquot'>
+        <p>Dear Sir,&mdash;"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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,</p>
+
+        <p class="ctr">"Believe me to be, dear sir,</p>
+
+        <p class="ctr">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Your very obedient
+        servant,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">"FRANCIS VARNEY.</p>
+
+        <p>"To Henry Bannerworth, Esq."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I will seek Marchdale's advice," he said, "upon this
+    matter. I will hear what he says concerning it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Henry," said Marchdale, when he came sufficiently near to
+    him for conversation, "why do you remain here alone?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have received a communication from our neighbour, Sir
+    Francis Varney," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is here. Peruse it for yourself, and then tell me,
+    Marchdale, candidly what you think of it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!" said Marchdale, as he ran his eyes eagerly over
+    the note.</p>
+
+    <p>When he had finished it he glanced at Henry, who then
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what is your opinion?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I know not what to say, Henry. You know that my own advice
+    to you has been to get rid of this place."</p>
+
+    <p>"It has."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It may be so."</p>
+
+    <p>"There appears to me every likelihood of it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"If so, of course the parting with the Hall would be a great
+    pity, and no gain."</p>
+
+    <p>"None in the least."</p>
+
+    <p>"Henry, a thought has struck me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let's hear it, Marchdale."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is this:&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It might be done."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Most happy!" ejaculated Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Perhaps I should not have used that word."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am sure you should not," said Henry, "when you speak of
+    me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh," said Henry, "I will hope; but do not mock me with it
+    now, Marchdale, I pray you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Heaven forbid that I should mock you!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well&mdash;well; I do not believe you are the man to do so
+    to any one. But about this affair of the house."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will speak to my mother, to George, and to my sister of
+    the matter. They shall decide."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"True&mdash;true."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you will leave, Henry?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will call upon Sir Francis Varney myself, and speak to
+    him upon the subject."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Dear Flora, you will now surely no longer talk of driving
+    from you the honest heart that loves you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush, Charles, hush!" she said; "meet me an hour hence in
+    the garden, and we will talk of this."</p>
+
+    <p>"That hour will seem an age," he said.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you seen Sir Francis Varney?" asked Henry of Mr.
+    Marchdale, as he rung the gate-bell.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have not. Have you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; I never saw him. It is rather awkward our both being
+    absolute strangers to his person."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"If your master," he said, "is within, we shall be glad to
+    see him."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry and Marchdale followed the man into a handsome enough
+    reception-room, where they were desired to wait while their
+    names were announced.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you know if this gentleman be a baronet," said Henry,
+    "or a knight merely?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I really do not; I never saw him in my life, or heard of
+    him before he came into this neighbourhood."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No doubt."</p>
+
+    <p>This brief colloquy was put an end to by the servant, who
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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. <i>The original of the portrait on the panel
+    stood before him!</i> 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&mdash;all were alike.</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you unwell, sir?" said Sir Francis Varney, in soft,
+    mellow accents, as he handed a chair to the bewildered
+    Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"God of Heaven!" said Henry; "how like!"</p>
+
+    <p>"You seem surprised, sir. Have you ever seen me before?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Marchdale," Henry gasped; "Marchdale, my friend, Marchdale.
+    I&mdash;I am surely mad."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! be calm," whispered Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Calm&mdash;calm&mdash;can you not see? Marchdale, is this a
+    dream? Look&mdash;look&mdash;oh! look."</p>
+
+    <p>"For God's sake, Henry, compose yourself."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is your friend often thus?" said Sir Francis Varney, with
+    the same mellifluous tone which seemed habitual to him.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"A resemblance!" said Henry; "a resemblance! God of Heaven!
+    it is the face itself."</p>
+
+    <p>"You much surprise me," said Sir Francis.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/061.png"
+             alt="061.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you better, sir?" said Sir Francis Varney, in his
+    bland, musical voice. "Shall I order any refreshment for
+    you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no," gasped Henry; "for the love of truth tell me!
+    Is&mdash;is your name really Varney!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you no other name to which, perhaps, a better title
+    you could urge?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How wonderfully like!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I grieve to see you so much distressed. Mr. Bannerworth. I
+    presume ill health has thus shattered your nerves?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What mean you, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You know, from common report, that we have had a fearful
+    visitor at our house."</p>
+
+    <p>"A vampyre, I have heard," said Sir Francis Varney, with a
+    bland, and almost beautiful smile, which displayed his white
+    glistening teeth to perfection.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; a vampyre, and&mdash;and&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"I pray you go on, sir; you surely are far above the vulgar
+    superstition of believing in such matters?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, Henry," whispered Mr. Marchdale, "it is scarcely civil
+    to tell Sir Francis to his face, that he resembles a
+    vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"I must, I must."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then you so much resemble the vampyre," added Henry,
+    "that&mdash;that I know not what to think."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is it possible?" said Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is a damning fact."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, it's unfortunate for me, I presume? Ah!"</p>
+
+    <p>Varney gave a twinge of pain, as if some sudden bodily
+    ailment had attacked him severely.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are unwell, sir?" said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no&mdash;no," he said; "I&mdash;hurt my arm, and
+    happened accidentally to touch the arm of this chair with
+    it."</p>
+
+    <p>"A hurt?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, Mr. Bannerworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"A&mdash;a wound?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, a wound, but not much more than skin deep. In fact,
+    little beyond an abrasion of the skin."</p>
+
+    <p>"May I inquire how you came by it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, yes. A slight fall."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And equally true, perhaps," said Henry, "that in the midst
+    of death there may be found a horrible life."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I should not wonder. There are really so many strange
+    things in this world, that I have left off wondering at
+    anything now."</p>
+
+    <p>"There are strange things," said Henry. "You wish to
+    purchase of me the Hall, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"If you wish to sell."</p>
+
+    <p>"You&mdash;you are perhaps attached to the place? Perhaps
+    you recollected it, sir, long ago?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"True&mdash;true."</p>
+
+    <p>"The house, no doubt, has suffered much," said Henry,
+    "within the last hundred years."</p>
+
+    <p>"No doubt it has. A hundred years is a tolerable long space
+    of time, you know."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XIV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>HENRY'S AGREEMENT WITH SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.&mdash;THE SUDDEN
+    ARRIVAL AT THE HALL.&mdash;FLORA'S ALARM.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/063.png"
+             alt="063.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Marchdale."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Marchdale. Ay, Marchdale. Pray, sir, help
+    yourself."</p>
+
+    <p>"You take nothing yourself?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"I am under a strict regimen," replied Varney. "The simplest
+    diet alone does for me, and I have accustomed myself to long
+    abstinence."</p>
+
+    <p>"He will not eat or drink," muttered Henry,
+    abstractedly.</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you sell me the Hall?" said Sir Francis Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry rose as he spoke, and turning to Marchdale, he said,
+    in addition,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you come away?"</p>
+
+    <p>"If you please," said Marchdale, rising.</p>
+
+    <p>"But you have not, my dear sir," said Varney, "given me yet
+    any answer about the Hall?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Name it."</p>
+
+    <p>"That you never show yourself in my family."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You make yourself agreeable to her? The sight of you would
+    blast her for ever, and drive her to madness."</p>
+
+    <p>"Am I so hideous?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, but&mdash;you are&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"What am I?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush, Henry, hush," cried Marchdale. "Remember you are in
+    this gentleman's house."</p>
+
+    <p>"True, true. Why does he tempt me to say these dreadful
+    things? I do not want to say them."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come away, then&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A visit!" said Henry, with a shudder. "A visit to the tomb
+    were far more desirable. Farewell, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Marchdale, it would be charity of some one to kill me."</p>
+
+    <p>"To kill you!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, for I am certain otherwise that I must go mad."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, nay; rouse yourself."</p>
+
+    <p>"This man, Varney, is a vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! hush!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Henry&mdash;Henry."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;horror. He must be
+    killed&mdash;destroyed&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! hush! These words are dangerous."</p>
+
+    <p>"I care not."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I must destroy him."</p>
+
+    <p>"And wherefore?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Can you ask? Is he not a vampyre?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well&mdash;well, what is that to me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you forgotten Flora?"</p>
+
+    <p>A cry of despair came from poor Henry's lips, and in a
+    moment he seemed completely, mentally and physically,
+    prostrated.</p>
+
+    <p>"God of Heaven!" he moaned, "I had forgotten her!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I thought you had."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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&mdash;welcome&mdash;most
+    welcome.'"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I may endeavour so to do."</p>
+
+    <p>"Consider that Flora may be wholly dependent upon such
+    kindness as you may be able to bestow upon her."</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles clings to her."</p>
+
+    <p>"Humph!"</p>
+
+    <p>"You do not doubt him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No doubt&mdash;no doubt; but yet&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Marchdale, I differ from you most completely," said Henry.
+    "I know that Charles Holland is the very soul of honour."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, no offence," said Henry. "I am distracted, and
+    scarcely know what I say. Marchdale, I know you are my sincere
+    friend&mdash;but, as I tell you, I am nearly mad."</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear Henry, be calmer. Consider upon what is to be said
+    concerning this interview at home."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay; that is a consideration."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"If he should he die."</p>
+
+    <p>"He will, perhaps, consider that such a step would be
+    dangerous to him."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/065.png"
+             alt="065.png">
+    </div>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE OLD ADMIRAL AND HIS SERVANT.&mdash;THE COMMUNICATION
+    FROM THE LANDLORD OF THE NELSON'S ARMS.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Such a positive godsend for the lovers of the marvellous had
+    not appeared in the country side within the memory of that
+    sapient individual&mdash;the oldest inhabitant.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>As the chaise drove up to the door of the inn, this man made
+    an observation to the other to the following effect,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"A-hoy!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, you lubber, what now?" cried the other.</p>
+
+    <p>"They call this the Nelson's Arms; and you know, shiver me,
+    that for the best half of his life he had but one."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n you!" was the only rejoinder he got for this
+    observation; but, with that, he seemed very well satisfied.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;n you, nor bad language, you lazy swab."</p>
+
+    <p>"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 <i>walley de sham</i> without
+    larning a little about land reckonings. Nobody would take me
+    for a sailor now, I'm thinking, admiral."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold your noise!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Aye, aye, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Be quiet, will you!" shouted the admiral, for such indeed
+    he was. "Be quiet."</p>
+
+    <p>"Best accommodation, sir&mdash;good wine&mdash;well-aired
+    beds&mdash;good attendance&mdash;fine air&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, Jack, where's the sailing instructions?" said his
+    master.</p>
+
+    <p>"Here, sir, in the locker," said Jack, as he took from his
+    pocket a letter, which he handed to the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Won't you step in, sir?" said the landlord, who had begun
+    now to recover a little from the dig in the ribs.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; oh, dear me, sir, of course&mdash;God bless me, what
+    can the old gentleman mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral opened the letter, and read:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class='blkquot'>
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p class="ctr">"Yours, very obediently and humbly,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">"JOSIAH CRINKLES."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Who the deuce is he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"This is Uxotter, sir," said the landlord; "and here you
+    are, sir, at the Nelson's Arms. Good beds&mdash;good
+    wine&mdash;good&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Silence!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, sir&mdash;oh, of course"</p>
+
+    <p>"Who the devil is Josiah Crinkles?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;makes me smile."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll make you smile on the other side of that
+    d&mdash;&mdash;d great hatchway of a mouth of yours in a
+    minute. Who is Crinkles?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Mr. Crinkles, sir, everybody knows, most respectable
+    attorney, sir, indeed, highly respectable man, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"A lawyer?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, sir, a lawyer."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I'm d&mdash;&mdash;d!"</p>
+
+    <p>Jack gave a long whistle, and both master and man looked at
+    each other aghast.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, hang me!" cried the admiral, "if ever I was so taken
+    in in all my life."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"To come a hundred and seventy miles see a d&mdash;&mdash;d
+    swab of a rascally lawyer."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll smash him&mdash;Jack!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yer honour?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Get into the chaise again."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You infernal scoundrel; how dare you preach to me in such a
+    way, you lubberly rascal?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Cos you desarves it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mutiny&mdash;mutiny&mdash;by Jove! Jack, I'll have you put
+    in irons&mdash;you're a scoundrel, and no seaman."</p>
+
+    <p>"No seaman!&mdash;no seaman!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not a bit of one."</p>
+
+    <p>"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 <i>walley de sham</i> 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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack, you rascal, give us your fin. Come here, you
+    d&mdash;&mdash;d villain. You'll leave me, will you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not if I know it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come in, then"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.&mdash;Don't do it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Confound you, who is doing it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The devil."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who is?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't, then."</p>
+
+    <p>Thus wrangling, they entered the inn, to the great amusement
+    of several bystanders, who had collected to hear the
+    altercation between them.</p>
+
+    <p>"Would you like a private room, sir?" said the landlord.</p>
+
+    <p>"What's that to you?" said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold your noise, will you?" cried his master. "Yes, I
+    should like a private room, and some grog."</p>
+
+    <p>"Strong as the devil!" put in Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, sir-yes, sir. Good wines&mdash;good
+    beds&mdash;good&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"You said all that before, you know," remarked Jack, as he
+    bestowed upon the landlord another terrific dig in the
+    ribs.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa!" cried the admiral, "you can send for that infernal
+    lawyer, Mister Landlord."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Crinkles, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who may I have the honour to say, sir, wants to see
+    him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Admiral Bell."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly, admiral, certainly. You'll find him a very
+    conversible, nice, gentlemanly little man, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"And tell him as Jack Pringle is here, too," cried the
+    seaman.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, yes, yes&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"The idea now, Jack," said the admiral, "of coming all this
+    way to see a lawyer."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"If he'd said he was a lawyer, we would have known what to
+    do. But it's a take in, Jack."</p>
+
+    <p>"So I think. Howsomdever, we'll serve him out when we catch
+    him, you know."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good&mdash;so we will."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! I do, indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?&mdash;don't we always beat 'em?'"</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral laughed and rubbed his hands, as he cried
+    aloud,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I remember, Jack&mdash;I remember him. I was stupid to make
+    such a remark."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know you was&mdash;a d&mdash;&mdash;d old fool I thought
+    you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come, come. Hilloa, there!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, what do you call me no seaman for?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, Jack, you bear malice like a marine."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You were, Jack&mdash;you were; and you saved my life."</p>
+
+    <p>"I didn't."</p>
+
+    <p>"You did."</p>
+
+    <p>"I say I didn't&mdash;it was a marlin-spike."</p>
+
+    <p>"But I say you did, you rascally scoundrel.&mdash;I say you
+    did, and I won't be contradicted in my own ship."</p>
+
+    <p>"Call this your ship?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, d&mdash;n it&mdash;I&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"The shark, by G&mdash;d!" said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"So you are Crinkles, are you?" cried the admiral. "Sit
+    down, though you are a lawyer."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank you, sir. I am an attorney, certainly, and my name as
+    certainly is Crinkles."</p>
+
+    <p>"Look at that."</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral placed the letter in the little lawyer's hands,
+    who said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Am I to read it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, to be sure."</p>
+
+    <p>"Aloud?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Read it to the devil, if you like, in a pig's whisper, or a
+    West India hurricane."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, very good, sir. I&mdash;I am willing to be agreeable,
+    so I'll read it aloud, if it's all the same to you."</p>
+
+    <p>He then opened the letter, and read as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class='blkquot'>
+        <p>"To Admiral Bell.</p>
+
+        <p>"Admiral,&mdash;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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p class="ctr">"Yours, very obediently and humbly,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">"JOSIAH CRINKLES."</p>
+
+        <p>"P.S. I enclose you Dr. Johnson's definition of a
+        vampyre, which is as follows:</p>
+
+        <p>"VAMPYRE (a German blood-sucker)&mdash;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."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/069.png"
+             alt="069.png">
+    </div>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"We&mdash;we&mdash;well," said the attorney.</p>
+
+    <p>"I've sent for you, and here you are, and here I am, and
+    here's Jack Pringle. What have you got to say?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You&mdash;never&mdash;saw&mdash;it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Never."</p>
+
+    <p>"Didn't you write it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"On my solemn word of honour, sir, I did not."</p>
+
+    <p>Jack Pringle whistled, and the admiral looked puzzled. Like
+    the admiral in the song, too, he "grew paler," and then Mr.
+    Crinkles added,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Jack and the admiral looked at each other in amazement, and
+    then the latter exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"What! This from a lawyer?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"No! I'm d&mdash;&mdash;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&mdash;&mdash;e, if you was twenty lawyers."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I mean the house&mdash;can afford
+    together."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Can you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I regret to say I can, for I respect the parties."</p>
+
+    <p>"Sit down, then&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have not the least idea, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well&mdash;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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.&mdash;"Shiver my timbers, if I
+    knows what a <i>wamphigher</i> is, unless he's some distant
+    relation to Davy Jones!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold your ignorant tongue," said the admiral; "nobody wants
+    you to make a remark, you great lubber!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;e, if I don't like you!"</p>
+
+    <p>"You are very good, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Gammon," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n you, what do you mean by that?" roared the
+    admiral, in a furious tone.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;d well they
+    won't."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold your noise."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm going. I wasn't told to hold my noise, when our nobs
+    were being scuttled off Beyrout."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;the&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! I always forget the names of strange fish. I suppose,
+    after all, it's something of the mermaid order?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That I cannot say, sir; but certainly the story, in all its
+    painful particulars, has made a great sensation all over the
+    country."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"My eye," said Jack, "it waren't me, I wish it had a
+    been."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n my pig tail," said Jack, "what a squall there
+    must have been, to be sure."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you see this bottle?" roared the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"To be sure, I does; I think as it's time I seed
+    another."</p>
+
+    <p>"You scoundrel, I'll make you feel it against that
+    d&mdash;&mdash;d stupid head of yours, if you interrupt this
+    gentleman again."</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't be violent."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah," cried Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The devil!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And they let it go?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I never did hear anything the equal of that. Jack,
+    what do you think of it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I haven't begun to think, yet," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"But what about my nephew, Charles?" added the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Of him I know nothing."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, a man can't tell what he don't know. It puzzles me to
+    think who could possibly have written me this letter."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"We don't want any of your ignorant remarks," said the
+    admiral, "so you be quiet."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, Mister Lawyer, you are an honest fellow, and an honest
+    fellow is generally a sensible fellow."</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir, I thank you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I perceive, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Now what would you do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very true. Go on."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It wouldn't be pleasant."</p>
+
+    <p>"The young lady might have children."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, lots," cried Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold your noise, Jack."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"And she might herself actually, when after death she became
+    a vampyre, come and feed on her own children."</p>
+
+    <p>"Become a vampyre! What, is she going to be a vampyre
+    too?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The devil!"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is a fact, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Whew!" whistled Jack; "she might bite us all, and we should
+    be a whole ship's crew o' <i>wamphighers</i>. There would be a
+    confounded go!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who said it was?" cried Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who asked you, you brute?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank ye&mdash;thank ye, Mr.&mdash;a&mdash;a&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Crinkles."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Crinkles turned aside, and, by the twinkle of his eyes, one
+    might premise that the honest little lawyer was much
+    affected.</p>
+
+    <p>"God bless you, sir," he said; "farewell."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good day to you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good-bye, lawyer," cried Jack. "Mind how you go. D&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>The old admiral threw himself into a chair with a deep
+    sigh.</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack," said he.</p>
+
+    <p>"Aye, aye, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"What's to be done now?"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Do! What shall we do? Why, go at once and find out Charles,
+    our <i>nevy</i>, and ask him all about it, and see the young
+    lady, too, and lay hold o' the <i>wamphigher</i> 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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack, you are right. Come along."</p>
+
+    <p>"I knows I am. Do you know now which way to steer?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Which is a mighty great consolation," said Jack. "Come
+    along."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XVI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE MEETING OF THE LOVERS IN THE GARDEN.&mdash;AN AFFECTING
+    SCENE.&mdash;THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF SIR FRANCIS
+    VARNEY.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/072.png"
+             alt="072.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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&mdash;you are not what you were, and I
+    desert you? Never&mdash;never&mdash;never!"</p>
+
+    <p>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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/073.png"
+             alt="073.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Yes, it was she; but, ah, how pale, how wan&mdash;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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora, dear, dear Flora," he said, "you are better. Tell me
+    that you feel the gentle air revives you?"</p>
+
+    <p>She could not speak. Her heart was too full of woe.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;speak to me if it be but a word."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, hush, hush, Charles, hush."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no&mdash;no."</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora, Flora, wherefore do you say no?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Do not, Charles, now speak to me of affection or love. Do
+    not tell me you love me now."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I must not now hear this. Great God of Heaven give me
+    strength to carry out the purpose of my soul."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Flora wrung her hands despairingly as she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora, for what do I contend?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You, you speak of love."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I have, ere this, spoken to you of love unchecked."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes. Before this."</p>
+
+    <p>"And now, wherefore not now? Do not tell me you are
+    changed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let not that affright you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Affright me! It has killed me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, Flora,&mdash;you think too much of what I still hope
+    to be susceptible of far more rational explanation."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"You have spoken," said Charles, dejectedly. "I have heard
+    that which you wished to say to me."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no. Not all, Charles."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will be patient, then, although what more you may have to
+    add should tear my very heart-strings."</p>
+
+    <p>"I&mdash;I have to add, Charles," she said, in a tremulous
+    voice, "that justice, religion, mercy&mdash;every human
+    attribute which bears the name of virtue, calls loudly upon me
+    no longer to hold you to vows made under different
+    auspices."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on, Flora."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis well. Go on, Flora."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"You cannot, Flora, pursue the picture you yourself would
+    draw. These words come not from your heart."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;yes&mdash;yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you ever love me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles, Charles, why will you add another pang to those
+    you know must already rend my heart?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?'"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;she looked imploringly up to him. Her head sunk
+    upon his breast as she cried,</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles, Charles, I did love you. I do love you now."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then let sorrow and misfortune shake their grisly locks in
+    vain," he cried. "Heart to heart&mdash;hand to hand with me,
+    defy them."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>A half scream of terror burst from the lips of Flora, as she
+    cried,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"What was that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Only thunder," said Charles, calmly.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Twas an awful sound."</p>
+
+    <p>"A natural one."</p>
+
+    <p>"But at such a moment, when you were defying Fate to injure
+    us. Oh! Charles, is it ominous?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora, can you really give way to such idle fancies?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The sun is obscured."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>Another peal, of almost equal intensity to the other, shook
+    the firmament. Flora trembled.</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles," she said, "this is the voice of Heaven. We must
+    part&mdash;we must part for ever. I cannot be yours."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Behold!" cried Charles, "where is your omen now?"</p>
+
+    <p>"God of Heaven!'" cried Flora; and she stretched out her
+    arms.</p>
+
+    <p>"The clouds that hover over your spirit now," said Charles,
+    "shall pass away. Accept this beam of sunlight as a promise
+    from God."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will&mdash;I will. It is going."</p>
+
+    <p>"It has done its office."</p>
+
+    <p>The clouds closed over the small orifice, and all was gloom
+    again as before.</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora," said Charles, "you will not ask me now to leave
+    you?"</p>
+
+    <p>She allowed him to clasp her to his heart. It was beating
+    for her, and for her only.</p>
+
+    <p>"You will let me, Flora, love you still?"</p>
+
+    <p>Her voice, as she answered him, was like the murmur of some
+    distant melody the ears can scarcely translate to the
+    heart.</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles we will live, love, and die together."</p>
+
+    <p>And now there was a wrapt stillness in that summer-house for
+    many minutes&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>A shriek burst from Flora's lips&mdash;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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre! the vampyre!"</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XVII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE EXPLANATION.&mdash;THE ARRIVAL OF THE ADMIRAL AT THE
+    HOUSE.&mdash;A SCENE OF CONFUSION, AND SOME OF ITS
+    RESULTS.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/076.png"
+             alt="076.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre! the vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I much fear," added the stranger, in the same bland tones,
+    "that I have been the cause of some alarm to the young
+    lady!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Release me," whispered Charles to Flora. "Release me; I
+    will follow him at once."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no&mdash;do not leave me&mdash;do not leave me. The
+    vampyre&mdash;the dreadful vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"But, Flora&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush&mdash;hush&mdash;hush! It speaks again."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>Flora shuddered.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"In the name of God, who are you?" said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"My name is Varney."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, yes. You are the Sir Francis Varney, residing close by,
+    who bears so fearful a resemblance to&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Pray go on, sir. I am all attention."</p>
+
+    <p>"To a portrait here."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed! Now I reflect a moment, Mr. Henry Bannerworth did
+    incidentally mention something of the sort. It's a most
+    singular coincidence."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"We heard, or fancied we heard, a cry of alarm."</p>
+
+    <p>"You did hear it," said Charles Holland. "Do you know this
+    gentleman?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is Sir Francis Varney."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>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"&mdash;to be almost, if not insurmountable.</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot do it," he thought, "but I will watch him."</p>
+
+    <p>"Take me away," whispered Flora. "'Tis he&mdash;'tis he. Oh,
+    take me away, Charles."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush, Flora, hush. You are in some error; the accidental
+    resemblance should not make us be rude to this gentleman."</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre!&mdash;it is the vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you sure, Flora?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Do I know your features&mdash;my own&mdash;my brother's? Do
+    not ask me to doubt&mdash;I cannot. I am quite sure. Take me
+    from his hideous presence, Charles."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no&mdash;no!&mdash;God! no," cried Flora.</p>
+
+    <p>"Madam, I will not press you."</p>
+
+    <p>He bowed, and Charles led Flora from the summer-house
+    towards the hall.</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora," he said, "I am bewildered&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He is my midnight visitor!" exclaimed Flora. "He is the
+    vampyre;&mdash;this Sir Francis Varney is the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God! What can be done?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I know not. I am nearly distracted."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, it is terrible to meet him here."</p>
+
+    <p>"And he is so wonderfully anxious, too, to possess the
+    Hall."</p>
+
+    <p>"He is&mdash;he is."</p>
+
+    <p>"It looks strange, the whole affair. But, Flora, be assured
+    of one thing, and that is, of your own safety."</p>
+
+    <p>"Can I be assured of that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You will watch him, Charles?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will, indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you will not let him approach the house here
+    alone?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will not."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, that the Almighty should allow such beings to haunt the
+    earth!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush, Flora, hush! we cannot judge of his allwise
+    purpose."</p>
+
+    <p>'"Tis hard that the innocent should be inflicted with its
+    presence."</p>
+
+    <p>Charles bowed his head in mournful assent.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/077.png"
+             alt="077.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Is it not very, very dreadful?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"We are returning," remarked Sir Francis Varney, with a half
+    bow and a smile, to Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"Allow me," said Henry, "to introduce you, Mr. Holland, to
+    our neighbour, Sir Francis Varney."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I will watch him closely," thought Charles. "I can do no
+    more than watch him closely."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Is he a vampyre?" he asked himself. "Are there vampyres,
+    and is this man of fashion&mdash;this courtly, talented,
+    educated gentleman one?" It was a perfectly hideous
+    question.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"The place has been much esteemed," said Henry, "for its
+    picturesque beauties of scenery."</p>
+
+    <p>"And well it may be. I trust, Mr. Holland, the young lady is
+    much better?"</p>
+
+    <p>"She is, sir," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"I was not honoured by an introduction."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And that was your sister?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It was, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Report has not belied her&mdash;she is beautiful. But she
+    looks rather pale, I thought. Has she bad health?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The best of health."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed! Perhaps the little disagreeable circumstance, which
+    is made so much food for gossip in the neighbourhood, has
+    affected her spirits?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It has."</p>
+
+    <p>"You allude to the supposed visit here of a vampyre?" said
+    Charles, as he fixed his eyes upon Varney's face.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"He will not be cowed," thought Charles. "Use has made him
+    familiar to such cross-questioning."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"We scarcely expected the pleasure of your company here, Sir
+    Francis Varney."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did I?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed you did, or how could I know it? I wanted to see if
+    the resemblance was so perfect."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you hear, sir," added Henry, "that my sister was
+    alarmed at your likeness to that portrait?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, really."</p>
+
+    <p>"I pray you walk in, and we will talk more at large upon
+    that matter."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, yes, of course&mdash;certainly. My time is very much
+    occupied, and my sister and mother see no company."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, now, how wrong."</p>
+
+    <p>"Wrong, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>Charles shrank back, and the word "Demon" unconsciously
+    escaped his lips.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you follow me, at once, to the chamber where the
+    portrait hangs," said Henry, "or will you partake of some
+    refreshment first?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nor at any other," thought Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"There, Sir Francis Varney, is your likeness."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"It is wonderfully like."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is, indeed," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot stand this," said Charles to Henry; "I must
+    question him farther."</p>
+
+    <p>"As you please, but do not insult him."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will not."</p>
+
+    <p>"He is beneath my roof now, and, after all, it is but a
+    hideous suspicion we have of him."</p>
+
+    <p>"Rely upon me."</p>
+
+    <p>Charles stepped forward, and once again confronting Varney,
+    with an earnest gaze, he said&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Does she indeed?"</p>
+
+    <p>"She does, indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"And perhaps, then, that accounts for her thinking that I am
+    the vampyre, because I bear a strong resemblance to the
+    portrait."</p>
+
+    <p>"I should not be surprised," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"How very odd."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You would do it well."</p>
+
+    <p>"I dare say, now, I should make quite a sensation."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Bravo&mdash;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&mdash;bravo."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Varney now addressed Henry, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I presume the subject of our conference, when you did me
+    the honour of a call, is no secret to any one here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"None whatever," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then, perhaps, I am too early in asking you if you have
+    made up your mind?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have scarcely, certainly, had time to think."</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear sir, do not let me hurry you; I much regret,
+    indeed, the intrusion."</p>
+
+    <p>"You seem anxious to possess the Hall," remarked Mr.
+    Marchdale, to Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"I am."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is it new to you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not quite. I have some boyish recollections connected with
+    this neighbourhood, among which Bannerworth Hall stands
+    sufficiently prominent."</p>
+
+    <p>"May I ask how long ago that was?" said Charles Howard,
+    rather abruptly.</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not recollect, my enthusiastic young friend," said
+    Varney. "How old are you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Just about twenty-one."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are, then, for your age, quite a model of
+    discretion."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well, a cup of wine&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Is at your service."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Then wine was ordered, and Charles took an opportunity of
+    whispering to Henry,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Notice well if he drinks."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you see that beneath his coat there is a raised place,
+    as if his arm was bound up?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do."</p>
+
+    <p>"There, then, was where the bullet from the pistol fired by
+    Flora, when we were at the church, hit him."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! for God's sake, hush! you are getting into a dreadful
+    state of excitement, Charles; hush! hush!"</p>
+
+    <p>"And can you blame&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no; but what can we do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"For Heaven's sake, be so. I have noted that his eyes flash
+    upon yours with no friendly feeling."</p>
+
+    <p>"His friendship were a curse."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! he drinks!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Watch him."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>He raised the wine to his lips, and seemed to drink, after
+    which he replaced the glass upon the table.</p>
+
+    <p>Charles glanced at it, it was still full.</p>
+
+    <p>"You have not drank, Sir Francis Varney," he said.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Your glass is full."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you drink it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you really? I suppose you eat raw pork at supper, and
+    so had the nightmare?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A jest is welcome in its place, but pray hear me out, sir,
+    if it suit your lofty courtesy to do so."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, certainly."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I say we believe, as far as human judgment has a right
+    to go, that a vampyre has been here."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on, it's interesting. I always was a lover of the wild
+    and the wonderful."</p>
+
+    <p>"We have, too," continued Charles, "some reason to believe
+    that you are the man."</p>
+
+    <p>Varney tapped his forehead as he glanced at Henry, and
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"This will not do, Sir Francis Varney <i>alias</i>
+    Bannerworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh&mdash;oh! Be calm&mdash;be calm."</p>
+
+    <p>"I defy you to your teeth, sir! No, God, no! Your
+    teeth!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Poor lad! Poor lad!"</p>
+
+    <p>"You are a cowardly demon, and here I swear to devote myself
+    to your destruction."</p>
+
+    <p>Sir Francis Varney drew himself up to his full height, and
+    that was immense, as he said to Henry,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"He's not mad."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold, sir! The quarrel shall be mine. In the name of my
+    persecuted sister&mdash;in the name of Heaven. Sir Francis
+    Varney, I defy you."</p>
+
+    <p>Sir Francis, in spite of his impenetrable calmness, appeared
+    somewhat moved, as he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I have already endured insult sufficient&mdash;I will
+    endure no more. If there are weapons at hand&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;to the death&mdash;to the
+    death."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/081.png"
+             alt="081.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Varney smiled with a devilish sneer, as he listened to these
+    words, and then he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"As you will&mdash;as you will. There will be plenty of
+    time, and perhaps better opportunity, gentlemen. I bid you good
+    day."</p>
+
+    <p>And with provoking coolness, he then moved towards the door,
+    and quitted the room.</p>
+
+    <p>"Remain here," said Marchdale; "I will follow him, and see
+    that he quits the premises."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XVIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE ADMIRAL'S ADVICE.&mdash;THE CHALLENGE TO THE
+    VAMPYRE.&mdash;THE NEW SERVANT AT THE HALL.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/082.png"
+             alt="082.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who is so impatient that he cannot wait a seasonable time
+    for the door to be opened?"</p>
+
+    <p>"And who the d&mdash;&mdash;l are you?" cried one who was
+    immediately outside.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who do you want?" cried George.</p>
+
+    <p>"Shiver my timbers!" cried Admiral Bell, for it was no other
+    than that personage. "What's that to you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay," added Jack, "answer that if you can, you
+    shore-going-looking swab."</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"We want the admiral's <i>nevey</i>" said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"But how do I know who is the admiral's <i>nevey</i> as you
+    call him."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, Charles Holland, to be sure. Have you got him aboard
+    or not?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He is here?" cried the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Most certainly."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The what?</p>
+
+    <p>"The <i>wamphigher</i>," said Jack, by way of being, as he
+    considered, a little more explanatory than the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Marchdale," cried George, "you have had an encounter with
+    Sir Francis Varney."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I saw you fall."</p>
+
+    <p>"I believe, but that he was observed, he would have murdered
+    me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"What, do you mean to say that lankey, horse-marine looking
+    fellow is as bad as that!" said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>Marchdale now turned his attention to the two new comers,
+    upon whom he looked with some surprise, and then, turning to
+    George, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Is this gentleman a visitor?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To Mr. Holland, I believe he is," said George; "but I have
+    not the pleasure of knowing his name."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"And are you, then, a relative," said Marchdale, "of Mr.
+    Holland's, sir, may I ask?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm his uncle, and be d&mdash;&mdash;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&mdash;n me, who
+    cares."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come in, sir," said George, "I will conduct you to Mr.
+    Holland. I presume this is your servant?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack. "Have it all your own way, though
+    we is paid off."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold your tongue, you audacious scoundrel, will you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I forgot, you don't like anything said about paying
+    off, cos it puts you in mind of&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, d&mdash;n you, I'll have you strung up to the
+    yard-arm, you dog, if you don't belay there."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm done. All's right."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"By all that's surprising, there is my uncle!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Your uncle!" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Uncle, dear uncle, how came you to find me out?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Charley, my boy," cried the old man, "bless you; I mean,
+    confound your d&mdash;&mdash;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&mdash;&mdash;d fine
+    fellow&mdash;my dear boy. Oh, you infernal scoundrel."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Uncle, I dare say you are surprised."</p>
+
+    <p>"Surprised! D&mdash;n me, I am surprised."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I shall be able to explain all to your satisfaction,
+    I am sure. Allow me now to introduce you to my friends."</p>
+
+    <p>Turning then to Henry, Charles said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"And here you see Admiral Bell, my most worthy, but rather
+    eccentric uncle."</p>
+
+    <p>"Confound your impudence."</p>
+
+    <p>"What brought him here I cannot tell; but he is a brave
+    officer, and a gentleman."</p>
+
+    <p>"None of your nonsense," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's uncommonly true," remarked the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, very good, I tell you what it is, all of you, what I've
+    seen of you, d&mdash;&mdash;e, I like, so here goes. Come
+    along, Jack."</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral walked into the house, and as he went, Charles
+    Holland said to him,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"How came you to know I was here, uncle?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Some fellow wrote me a despatch."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Was&mdash;was a vampyre mentioned?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That's the very thing."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush, uncle&mdash;hush."</p>
+
+    <p>"What for?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Gammon," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"What, uncle?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, uncle."</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, <i>nevey</i>."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good. Make it as soon as you can, and as short as you
+    can, that's all I ask of you."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will, I will."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Charles now took an opportunity to speak to Henry privately,
+    and inform him exactly how he stood with his uncle,
+    adding&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will; and with it, Henry, I will tell him that my heart
+    is irrevocably Flora's."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is Flora now?" said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are right. What occupation best pleases her?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The pages of romance once had a charm for her gentle
+    spirit."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Give that to her: it contains an account of a wild
+    adventure, and shows that human nature may suffer much
+    more&mdash;and that wrongfully too&mdash;than came ever under
+    our present mysterious affliction."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will," said Henry; "and, coming from you, I am sure it
+    will have a more than ordinary value in her eyes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are partial, Charles."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not so. 'Tis true I look upon her with a lover's eyes, but
+    I look still with those of truthful observation."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The young men now separated&mdash;Henry, to seek his
+    beautiful sister; and Charles, to communicate to his uncle the
+    strange particulars connected with Varney, the Vampyre.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XIX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>FLORA IN HER CHAMBER.&mdash;HER FEARS.&mdash;THE
+    MANUSCRIPT.&mdash;AN ADVENTURE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/086.png"
+             alt="086.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who&mdash;who is there?" she then said, in accents full of
+    terror.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis I, dear Flora," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>She opened the door in an instant, and, with a feeling of
+    grateful relief, exclaimed&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Henry, is it only you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Who did you suppose it was, Flora?"</p>
+
+    <p>She shuddered.</p>
+
+    <p>"I&mdash;I&mdash;do not know; but I am so foolish now, and
+    so weak-spirited, that the slightest noise is enough to alarm
+    me."</p>
+
+    <p>"You must, dear Flora, fight up, as I had hoped you were
+    doing, against this nervousness."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will endeavour. Did not some strangers come a short time
+    since, brother?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Strangers to us, Flora, but not to Charles Holland. A
+    relative of his&mdash;an uncle whom he much respects, has found
+    him out here, and has now come to see him."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, forgive me, brother."</p>
+
+    <p>"Say no more of it, Flora. Heed it not. It may be
+    possible&mdash;in fact, it may well be supposed as more than
+    probable&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>A smile of joy came across Flora's pale but beautiful face,
+    as she cried,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"And you, dear brother&mdash;you think so much of Charles's
+    faith?"</p>
+
+    <p>"As Heaven is my judge, I do."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes&mdash;willingly."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, brother, on your sacred word, tell me do you not think
+    this Sir Francis Varney is the vampyre?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I know not what to think, and do not press me for a
+    judgment now. He shall be watched."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry left his sister, and she sat for some moments in
+    silence with the papers before her that Charles had sent
+    her.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," she then said, gently, "he loves me&mdash;Charles
+    loves me; I ought to be very, very happy. He loves me. In those
+    words are concentrated a whole world of joy&mdash;Charles loves
+    me&mdash;he will not forsake me. Oh, was there ever such dear
+    love&mdash;such fond devotion?&mdash;never, never. Dear
+    Charles. He loves me&mdash;he loves me!"</p>
+
+    <p>The very repetition of these words had a charm for
+    Flora&mdash;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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"He is mine!&mdash;he is mine! He loves me truly."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you here?" she demanded, in a stern voice.</p>
+
+    <p>The servants were amazed and terrified at her contracted
+    brow, and forgot to answer the question she put to them.</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you do here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"We came, my lady, to see&mdash;see&mdash;if&mdash;if you
+    were well."</p>
+
+    <p>"And why?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The message was carried to the countess, who started, but
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Admit the stranger."</p>
+
+    <p>Accordingly the stranger was admitted, and shown into the
+    apartment where the countess was sitting.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You are come?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am come."</p>
+
+    <p>"You cannot now, you see, perform your threat. My husband,
+    the count, caught a putrid disease, and he is no more."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"Aye, more, it will cause you to be hated. I can spread
+    reports."</p>
+
+    <p>"You can."</p>
+
+    <p>"And these may ruin you."</p>
+
+    <p>"They may."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What, do you desire to be either?" inquired the countess,
+    with a careless tone.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What would you do if you were my enemy?" inquired the
+    countess.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well?"</p>
+
+    <p>"And in the second place, that you were the cause of the
+    death of your husband."</p>
+
+    <p>"How dare you, sir&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what could you do if you were my friend?" inquired the
+    countess, in the same tone, and without emotion.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Get rid of him!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Exactly, in the same manner you got rid of the old
+    count."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I accept your terms."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is agreed, then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, quite."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, you must order me some rooms in a tower, where
+    I can pursue my studies in quiet."</p>
+
+    <p>"You will be seen&mdash;and noticed&mdash;all will be
+    discovered."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;they will be terrified."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well."</p>
+
+    <p>"And the gold?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; and my servant must be discharged, as I want none
+    here."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"And now, my dear Morven," she exclaimed, as soon as they
+    were unobserved&mdash;"and now, my dear Morven, that we are not
+    seen, tell me, what have you been doing with yourself?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, I have been in some trouble. I never had gold that
+    would stay by me. You know my hand was always open."</p>
+
+    <p>"The old complaint again."</p>
+
+    <p>"No; but having come to the end of my store, I began to grow
+    serious."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, Morven!' said the countess, reproachfully.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I think they were."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what did you do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, nothing."</p>
+
+    <p>"Was that what you were about to tell me?" inquired the
+    countess.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you could not find him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, I could not."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/089.png"
+             alt="089.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, I will tell you where he is at this present
+    moment."</p>
+
+    <p>"You?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you promise to be guided by me?" said the
+    countess.</p>
+
+    <p>"If you make it a condition upon which you grant the
+    information, I must."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, I take that as a promise."</p>
+
+    <p>"You may. Where&mdash;oh, where is he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Remember your promise. Your doctor is at this moment in
+    this castle."</p>
+
+    <p>"This castle?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, this castle."</p>
+
+    <p>"Surely there must be some mistake; it is too much fortune
+    at once."</p>
+
+    <p>"He came here for the same purpose he went to you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, to get more money by extortion, and a promise to
+    poison anybody I liked."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n! it is the offer he made to me, and he named
+    you."</p>
+
+    <p>"He named you to me, and said I should be soon tired of
+    you."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have caged him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have given him leave there."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; and what is more amazing is, that he is to aid me in
+    poisoning you when I have become tired of you."</p>
+
+    <p>"This is a riddle I cannot unravel; tell me the
+    solution."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, dear, listen,&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have."</p>
+
+    <p>"I see; I will give him an inch or two of my Andrea
+    Ferrara."</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you countenance him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"For a time. Listen&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Aye, aye."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Would he not be better out of the world at once; there
+    would be no escape, and no future contingencies?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He was paid for the job, and he had no future claim. But
+    what about the child?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, he may remain for some time longer here with us."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"They dare not enter the gates of this castle Morven."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well; but you know he might have travelled the same
+    road as his father, and all would be settled."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is enough&mdash;there are dungeons, I know, in this
+    castle, and he can be kept there safe enough."</p>
+
+    <p>"He can; but that is not what I propose. We can put him into
+    the mines and confine him as a lunatic."</p>
+
+    <p>"Excellent!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Paha! what were the mines intended for if not for use?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Exactly&mdash;I often said so, but he always put a negative
+    to it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not for some months."</p>
+
+    <p>"How, so long? I am impatient."</p>
+
+    <p>"You must restrain your impatience&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You shall act as you think proper&mdash;but the first thing
+    to be done will be, to get this cunning doctor quietly out of
+    the way."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"I must contrive to have him seized, and carried to the
+    mines."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And if he will not work?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That will do. But I think the worthy doctor will split
+    himself with rage and malice, he will be like a caged
+    tiger."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis well; men like you should well know the value of the
+    purest and most valuable metals the earth produces?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I know of but one&mdash;that is gold!"</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis what I mean."</p>
+
+    <p>"But 'tis hard to procure from the bowels of the
+    earth&mdash;from the heart of these mountains by which we are
+    surrounded."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, that is true. But know you not the owners of this
+    castle and territory possess these mines and work them?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I believe they do; but I thought they had discontinued
+    working them some years."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, no! that was given out to deceive the government, who
+    claimed so much out of its products."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! ah! aye, I see now."</p>
+
+    <p>"And ever since they have been working it privately, and
+    storing bars of gold up in the vaults of this&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Here, in this castle?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; beneath this very tower&mdash;it being the least
+    frequented&mdash;the strongest, and perfectly inaccessible from
+    all sides, save the castle&mdash;it was placed there for the
+    safest deposit."</p>
+
+    <p>"I see; and there is much gold deposited in the vaults?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I believe there is an immense quantity in the vaults."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what is your motive for telling me of this hoard of the
+    precious metal?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I should like to see this gold before I said anything about
+    it," replied the doctor, thoughtfully.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"When?"</p>
+
+    <p>"This very night, good doctor, when you shall see such a
+    golden harvest you never yet hoped for, or even believed
+    in."</p>
+
+    <p>"To-night be it, then," replied the doctor. "I will have a
+    lamp that will answer our purpose, and some other matters."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do, good doctor," and the count left the philosopher's
+    cell.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>"The plan takes," said the count to the countess, "give me
+    the keys, and the worthy man will be in safety before
+    daylight."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is he not suspicious?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not at all."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>That night, about an hour before midnight,&mdash;the Count
+    Morven stole towards the philosopher's room. He tapped at the
+    door.</p>
+
+    <p>"Enter," said the philosopher.</p>
+
+    <p>The count entered, and saw the philosopher seated, and by
+    him a lamp of peculiar construction, and incased in gauze wire,
+    and a cloak.</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you ready?" inquired the count.</p>
+
+    <p>"Quite," he replied.</p>
+
+    <p>"Is that your lamp?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is."</p>
+
+    <p>"Follow me, then, and hold the lamp tolerably high, as the
+    way is strange, and the steps steep."</p>
+
+    <p>"Lead on."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have made up your mind, I dare say, as to what share of
+    the undertaking you will accept of with me."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what if I will not?" said the philosopher, coolly.</p>
+
+    <p>"It falls to the ground, and I return the keys to their
+    place."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis well: proceed."</p>
+
+    <p>They had now got to the first vault, in which stood the
+    first door, and, with some difficulty, they opened the vault
+    door.</p>
+
+    <p>"It has not been opened for some time," said the
+    philosopher.</p>
+
+    <p>"I dare say not, they seldom used to go here, from what I
+    can learn, though it is kept a great secret."</p>
+
+    <p>"And we can keep it so, likewise."</p>
+
+    <p>"True."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The count had immediately secured the real heir, and thrust
+    him into the mines, there to pass a life of labour and hopeless
+    misery.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>There was a high feast held. The castle gates were thrown
+    open, and everybody who came were entertained without
+    question.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>In the mean time, the young Count de Hugo de Verole was
+    confined in the mines, and the doctor with him.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The young count took possession of his patrimony and his
+    treasure at last, such as was left by his mother and her
+    paramour.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE DREADFUL MISTAKE.&mdash;THE TERRIFIC INTERVIEW IN THE
+    CHAMBER.&mdash;THE ATTACK OF THE VAMPYRE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/093.png"
+             alt="093.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The footstep which Flora, upon the close of the tale she had
+    been reading, heard approaching her apartment, came rapidly
+    along the corridor.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Tap&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come in," she said, in a cheerful voice. "Come in."</p>
+
+    <p>The door opened with wonderful swiftness&mdash;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&mdash;she trembled, and an icy coldness came over her. It
+    was Sir Francis Varney, the vampyre!</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora Bannerworth, hear that which I have to say, and hear
+    it calmly. You need have nothing to fear. Make an
+    alarm&mdash;scream, or shout for help, and, by the hell beneath
+    us, you are lost!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>It was in vain she tried to speak; her lips moved, but she
+    uttered no sound.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a pause of some moments' duration, and then,
+    faintly, Flora managed to say,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Help! help! Oh, help me, Heaven!"</p>
+
+    <p>Varney made a gesture of impatience, as he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I&mdash;I hear," said Flora, as she still, dragging the
+    chair with her, increased the distance between them.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis well. You are now more composed."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;what a face of loveliness, and what a form of
+    enchantment."</p>
+
+    <p>She did not speak, but a thought came across her mind, which
+    at once crimsoned her cheek&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"You understand me," he said. "Well, let that pass. I am
+    something allied to humanity yet."</p>
+
+    <p>"Speak your errand," gasped Flora, "or come what may, I
+    scream for help to those who will not be slow to render
+    it."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know it."</p>
+
+    <p>"You know I will scream?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Say on&mdash;say on."</p>
+
+    <p>"You perceive I do not attempt to approach you; my errand is
+    one of peace."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There is a portrait," said Flora, "in this house."</p>
+
+    <p>"No more&mdash;no more. I know what you would say."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is yours."</p>
+
+    <p>"The house, and all within, I covet," he said, uneasily.
+    "Let that suffice. I have quarrelled with your brother&mdash;I
+    have quarrelled with one who just now fancies he loves
+    you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles Holland loves me truly."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Despite her trembling horror of that man&mdash;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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You are much mistaken. On the constancy and truth of
+    Charles Holland, I would stake my life."</p>
+
+    <p>"No doubt, no doubt."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you spoken now that which you had to say?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And well they may refuse."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, no, no."</p>
+
+    <p>"I say such will happen, and I can kill either. My skill as
+    well as my strength is superhuman."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mercy! mercy!" gasped Flora. "I will spare either or both
+    on a condition."</p>
+
+    <p>"What fearful condition?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is that all?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, God! that were indeed an assurance worth the striving
+    for," said Flora.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is one you may have. But&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I knew&mdash;my heart told me there was yet some
+    fearful condition to come."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are wrong again. I only ask of you that you keep this
+    meeting a secret."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no, no&mdash;I cannot."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, what so easy?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will not; I have no secrets from those I love."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a slight, but a very slight, tone of aggravation
+    in these words, and the manner in which they were uttered.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Young blood," said Varney, "mantles in your veins."</p>
+
+    <p>She shuddered with terror.</p>
+
+    <p>"Be mindful of the condition I have proposed to you. I covet
+    Bannerworth Hall."</p>
+
+    <p>"I&mdash;I hear."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Heaven knows that this place is becoming daily more hateful
+    to us all," said Flora.</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"You well might know so much. It is no sacrifice to urge it
+    now. I will urge my brother."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thanks&mdash;a thousand thanks. You may not live to regret
+    even having made a friend of Varney&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre!" said Flora.</p>
+
+    <p>He advanced towards her a step, and she involuntarily
+    uttered a scream of terror.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE CONFERENCE BETWEEN THE UNCLE AND NEPHEW, AND THE
+    ALARM.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/095.png"
+             alt="095.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Meanwhile Charles Holland had taken his uncle by the arm,
+    and led him into a private room.</p>
+
+    <p>"Dear uncle," he said, "be seated, and I will explain
+    everything without reserve."</p>
+
+    <p>"Seated!&mdash;nonsense! I'll walk about," said the admiral.
+    "D&mdash;n me! I've no patience to be seated, and very seldom
+    had or have. Go on now, you young scamp."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well&mdash;well; you abuse me, but I am quite sure, had you
+    been in my situation, you would have acted precisely as I have
+    done."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, I shouldn't."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, but, uncle&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't think to come over me by calling me uncle. Hark you,
+    Charles&mdash;from this moment I won't be your uncle any
+    more."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"It ain't very well. And how dare you, you buccaneer, call
+    me sir, eh? I say, how dare you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will call you anything you like."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;that's
+    all, you young rascal. I'd soon teach you to laugh at your
+    superior officer, I would."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, uncle, I did not laugh at you."</p>
+
+    <p>"What did you laugh at, then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"At the joke."</p>
+
+    <p>"Joke. D&mdash;n me, there was no joke at all!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, very good."</p>
+
+    <p>"And it ain't very good."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I will now tell you," said Charles. "I fell in
+    love&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Bah!"</p>
+
+    <p>"With Flora Bannerworth, abroad; she is not only the most
+    beautiful of created beings&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Bah!"</p>
+
+    <p>"But her mind is of the highest order of intelligence,
+    honour, candour, and all amiable feelings&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Bah!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Really, uncle, if you say 'Bah!' to everything, I cannot go
+    on."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what the deuce difference, sir, does it make to you,
+    whether I say 'Bah!' or not?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But d&mdash;&mdash;e, I want to know about the
+    mermaid."</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre, you mean, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well, the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The devil he is!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"She did?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Such were her words, uncle. She implored me&mdash;she used
+    that word, 'implore'&mdash;to fly from her, to leave her to her
+    fate, to endeavour to find happiness with some one else."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well?"</p>
+
+    <p>"But I saw her heart was breaking."</p>
+
+    <p>"What o' that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"She&mdash;she fell upon my breast and wept and blessed me.
+    Could I desert her&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;n
+    you, you puppy, I'd have braced you, and&mdash;and married the
+    girl myself. I would, d&mdash;&mdash;e, but I would."</p>
+
+    <p>"Dear uncle!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"But I&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"You are a wretch&mdash;a confounded lubberly boy&mdash;a
+    swab&mdash;a d&mdash;&mdash;d bad grampus."</p>
+
+    <p>"You mistake, uncle."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, I don't. God bless you, Charles, you shall have
+    her&mdash;if a whole ship's crew of vampyres said no, you shall
+    have her. Let me see her&mdash;just let me see her."</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral gave his lips a vigorous wipe with his sleeve,
+    and Charles said hastily,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear uncle, you will recollect that Miss Bannerworth is
+    quite a young lady."</p>
+
+    <p>"I suppose she is."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, for God's sake, don't attempt to kiss her."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not kiss her! d&mdash;&mdash;e, they like it. Not kiss her,
+    because she's a young lady! D&mdash;&mdash;e, do you think I'd
+    kiss a corporal of marines?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, uncle; but you know young ladies are very
+    delicate."</p>
+
+    <p>"And ain't I delicate&mdash;shiver my timbers, ain't I
+    delicate? Where is she? that's what I want to know."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then you approve of what I have done?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;you couldn't help it."</p>
+
+    <p>"But if I had not so acted," said Charles, with a smile,
+    "what would have become of the family blood, then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, that would have been one way of getting over the
+    difficulty."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I think so to."</p>
+
+    <p>"Of course you do."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, of course?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because it's so d&mdash;&mdash;d reasonable that, being a
+    nephew of mine, you can't possibly help it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Bravo, uncle! I had no idea you were so argumentative."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;where is she, I say?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will fetch her, uncle."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, do; I'll be bound, now, she's one of the right
+    build&mdash;a good figure-head, and don't make too much
+    stern-way."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/097.png"
+             alt="097.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But do you really imagine, now, that the deck of a
+    man-of-war is a nice place to pick up courtly compliments
+    in?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Of course I do. There you hear the best of language,
+    d&mdash;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well&mdash;hark!"</p>
+
+    <p>"What's that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A cry&mdash;did you not hear a cry?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A signal of distress, by G&mdash;d!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The difference of time, however, was very slight, and Henry
+    had only just raised Flora from the floor as Charles
+    appeared.</p>
+
+    <p>"God of Heaven!" cried the latter, "what has happened?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I know not," said Henry; "as God is my judge, I know not.
+    Flora, Flora, speak to us! Flora! Flora!"</p>
+
+    <p>"She has fainted!" cried Charles. "Some water may restore
+    her. Oh, Henry, Henry, is not this horrible?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>Mrs. Bannerworth sat down on the edge of the sofa which was
+    in the room, and could only wring her hands and weep.</p>
+
+    <p>"Avast!" cried the admiral, making his appearance. "Where's
+    the enemy, lads?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Uncle," said Charles, "uncle, uncle, the vampyre has been
+    here again&mdash;the dreadful vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n me, and he's gone, too, and carried half the
+    window with him. Look there!"</p>
+
+    <p>It was literally true; the window, which was a long latticed
+    one, was smashed through.</p>
+
+    <p>"Help! oh, help!" said Flora, as the water that was dashed
+    in her face began to recover her.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are safe!" cried Henry, "you are safe!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora," said Charles; "you know my voice, dear Flora? Look
+    up, and you will see there are none here but those who love
+    you."</p>
+
+    <p>Flora opened her eyes timidly as the said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Has it gone?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes, dear," said Charles. "Look around you; here are
+    none but true friends."</p>
+
+    <p>"And tried friends, my dear," said Admiral Bell, "excepting
+    me; and whenever you like to try me, afloat or ashore,
+    d&mdash;n me, shew me Old Nick himself, and I won't
+    shrink&mdash;yard arm and yard arm&mdash;grapnel to
+    grapnel&mdash;pitch pots and grenades!"</p>
+
+    <p>"This is my uncle, Flora," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"I thank you, sir," said Flora, faintly.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;n
+    me!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I should think not."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are right for once in a way, Charley."</p>
+
+    <p>"What was it that alarmed you?" said Charles, tenderly, as
+    he now took one of Flora's hands in his.</p>
+
+    <p>"Varney&mdash;Varney, the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"Varney!" exclaimed Henry; "Varney here!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, he came in at that door: and when I screamed, I
+    suppose&mdash;for I hardly was conscious&mdash;he darted out
+    through the window."</p>
+
+    <p>"This," said Henry, "is beyond all human patience. By
+    Heaven! I cannot and will not endure it."</p>
+
+    <p>"It shall be my quarrel," said Charles; "I shall go at once
+    and defy him. He shall meet me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, no, no, no," said Flora, as she clung convulsively to
+    Charles. "No, no; there is a better way."</p>
+
+    <p>"What way?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The place has become full of terrors. Let us leave it. Let
+    him, as he wishes, have it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let <i>him</i> have it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>The young men looked aghast.</p>
+
+    <p>"Besides," added Flora, "you cannot tell what dreadful
+    powers of mischief he may have, against which human courage
+    might be of no avail."</p>
+
+    <p>"There is truth and reason," said Mr. Marchdale, stepping
+    forward, "in what Flora says."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A what?" cried the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"A Cyclops."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n me, I served aboard the Cyclops eleven years, and
+    never saw a very big hammer aboard of her."</p>
+
+    <p>"What on earth is to be done?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"We must hold a solemn consultation over this matter," said
+    Henry. "You are safe now, Flora."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, be ruled by me. Give up the Hall."</p>
+
+    <p>"You tremble."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;give it up. Have no more to do with it. Let us make
+    terms with Sir Francis Varney. Remember, we dare not kill
+    him."</p>
+
+    <p>"He ought to be smothered," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is true," remarked Henry, "we dare not, even holding all
+    the terrible suspicions we do, take his life."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You hear?" said Flora.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I hear," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no, no," said Henry; "for the love of Heaven, do not
+    let us quarrel."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;give him your hand."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot assert that I do," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then what the deuce do you make yourself so disagreeable
+    for, eh?" cried the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"One cannot help one's impression and feelings," said
+    Charles; "but I am willing to take Mr. Marchdale's hand."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I yours, young sir," said Marchdale, "in all sincerity
+    of spirit, and with good will towards you."</p>
+
+    <p>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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There now," said the admiral, "that's better."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do not weep, mother," said Flora. "All may yet be well. We
+    will leave this place."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Marchdale was more sad and depressed, to all appearance,
+    than any of them.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>George had gone to call on Mr. Chillingworth, so he was not
+    present at the first part of this serious council of war.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE CONSULTATION.&mdash;THE DETERMINATION TO LEAVE THE
+    HALL.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/099.png"
+             alt="099.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot imagine," added Mr. Marchdale, "that any men could
+    be so unreasonable."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet they are lamentably true," said Henry. "What can we
+    do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Surely there must be some sort of remedy."</p>
+
+    <p>"There is but one that I can imagine, and that is one we all
+    alike revolt from. We might kill him."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is out of the question."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Dare we longer doubt it?" cried Henry, in a tone of
+    excitement. "He is the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll be hanged if I believe it," said Admiral Bell! "Stuff
+    and nonsense! Vampyre, indeed! Bother the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Unless we admit that, simultaneously, the senses of a
+    number of persons have been deceived."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is scarcely possible."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then do you mean really to say there are such fish?" said
+    the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"We think so."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I'm d&mdash;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is monstrous," exclaimed Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>There was a pause of some few moments' duration, and then
+    Mr. Marchdale said, in a low voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am inclined to think so, too," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"But the creditors?" interposed Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly, no harm," said Henry, "for I cannot take the
+    estate with me, as they well know."</p>
+
+    <p>"Precisely. If you do not like to sell it, you can let
+    it."</p>
+
+    <p>"To whom?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, under the existing circumstances, it is not likely you
+    would get any tenant for it than the one who has offered
+    himself."</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir Francis Varney?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"It does, indeed, seem singular, to surrender one's house to
+    such a being."</p>
+
+    <p>"Especially," said Charles, "after what has occurred."</p>
+
+    <p>"True."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," said Mr. Marchdale, "if any better plan of
+    proceeding, taking the whole case into consideration, can be
+    devised, I shall be most happy."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you consent to put off all proceedings for three
+    days?" said Charles Holland, suddenly.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you any plan, my dear sir?" said Mr. Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have, but it is one which I would rather say nothing
+    about for the present."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Charles was silent, and Henry then added,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why will you not trust us?"</p>
+
+    <p>"For two reasons."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"This is one in which I fear no such result. It cannot so
+    happen. Do not urge me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;explicit?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot, uncle."</p>
+
+    <p>"What, are you tongue-tied?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles, I forbear to urge you further," said Henry, "and
+    only implore you to be careful."</p>
+
+    <p>At this moment the room door opened, and George Bannerworth,
+    accompanied by Mr. Chillingworth, came in.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;Mr. Chillingworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"And one of the right sort, I can see," said the admiral, as
+    he shook Mr. Chillingworth by the hand.</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir, you do me much honour," said the doctor.</p>
+
+    <p>"None at all, none at all; I suppose you know all about this
+    infernal odd vampyre business?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I believe I do, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what do you think of it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I think time will develop the circumstances sufficiently to
+    convince us all that such things cannot be."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It would take much more to convince me. I was coming over
+    here when I met Mr. George Bannerworth coming to my house."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said George, "and Mr. Chillingworth has something to
+    tell us of a nature confirmatory of our own suspicions."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let us hear it," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is simply this, that I was sent for by Sir Francis
+    Varney myself."</p>
+
+    <p>"You sent for?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'If you will allow me," said I, 'to see the wound, I will
+    give you my opinion.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"He had evidently been attempting to dress it himself, but
+    finding some considerable inflammation, he very likely got a
+    little alarmed."</p>
+
+    <p>"You dressed the wound?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I did."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"So he can."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is strictly him. You noticed, I presume, his great
+    likeness to the portrait on the panel?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It may be so."</p>
+
+    <p>"Of course you did not hint, sir, at what has passed here
+    with regard to him?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Everything leads to such an assumption certainly," said
+    Charles Holland.</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet you cannot even deduce from that the absolute fact
+    of Sir Francis Varney being a vampyre?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That would not convince me," said Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then you will not be convinced?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you sell it or let it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The latter I should much prefer," was the reply.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That you will not decide upon, however, at present," said
+    Charles Holland, as he rose.</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not; a few days can make no difference."</p>
+
+    <p>"None for the worse, certainly, and possibly much for the
+    better."</p>
+
+    <p>"Be it so; we will wait."</p>
+
+    <p>"Uncle," said Charles, "will you spare me half an hour of
+    your company?"</p>
+
+    <p>"An hour, my boy, if you want it," said the admiral, rising
+    from his chair.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE ADMIRAL'S ADVICE TO CHARLES HOLLAND.&mdash;THE
+    CHALLENGE TO THE VAMPYRE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/103.png"
+             alt="103.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>When Charles Holland got his uncle into a room by
+    themselves, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>The old admiral's eyes sparkled, and he looked comically in
+    the face of Charles, as he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I know now where you are steering."</p>
+
+    <p>"What would you do, uncle?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Fight him!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I knew you would say so, and that's just what I want to do
+    as regards Sir Francis Varney."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And then he shall fight me," added the admiral, "so he
+    shall have two chances, at all events, Charles."</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;from no fault of his,
+    Heaven knows,&mdash;are in a very bad state, and that Flora may
+    yet live to want some kind and able friend."</p>
+
+    <p>"Never fear, Charles. The young creature shall never want
+    while the old admiral has got a shot in the locker."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You write it, boy, and I'll take it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you second me, uncle?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I should say it rather would, my boy."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's clear enough, Charles. Come, just you write your
+    challenge, my boy, at once, and let me have it."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will, uncle."</p>
+
+    <p>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:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class='blkquot'>
+        <p class="ctr">"To SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.</p>
+
+        <p>"Sir,&mdash;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, &amp;c.</p>
+
+        <p class="author">"CHARLES HOLLAND."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Will that do?" said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"Capital!" said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"I am glad you like it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;which is a fight; so
+    it's all right, you see, and nothing can be possibly
+    better."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I repeat, it's a capital letter," he said.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, you said so."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what are you staring at?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, nothing."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you doubt my word?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not at all, uncle; only I thought there was a degree of
+    irony in the manner in which you spoke."</p>
+
+    <p>"None at all, my boy. I never was more serious in all my
+    life."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good. Then you will remember that I leave my honour in
+    this affair completely in your hands."</p>
+
+    <p>"Depend upon me, my boy."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will, and do."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll be off and see the fellow at once."</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral bustled out of the room, and in a few moments
+    Charles heard him calling loudly,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack&mdash;Jack Pringle, you lubber, where are
+    you?&mdash;Jack Pringle, I say."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come on, you rascal, we are going for a walk."</p>
+
+    <p>"The rations will be served out soon," growled Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Flora&mdash;Flora!" he at length said, "how happy we
+    might to have been together&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/105.png"
+             alt="105.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>This was a supposition which carried the imagination to a
+    vast amount of strange conjectures.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"It must be so," he said. "It must be so. Either he or I
+    must fall in the fight which shall surely be."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"My humble home is much honoured, sir, by your presence in
+    it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good morning," said the admiral. "I have come to speak to
+    you, sir, rather seriously."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There is no respect required," said the admiral, "but only
+    a little attention."</p>
+
+    <p>Sir Francis bowed in a stately manner, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I shall be quite unhappy if you will not be seated, Admiral
+    Bell."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I much grieve to hear it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, what a felicitous prospect!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Just hear me out, if you please."</p>
+
+    <p>"With pleasure, sir&mdash;with pleasure."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, to come to the point, my nephew, Charles
+    Holland, has a fancy for fighting with you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+    <p>"You take it d&mdash;&mdash;d easy."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, you make quite sure, then, of settling him, do
+    you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The devil you do!"</p>
+
+    <p>"As you say, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n your assurance, Mr. Vampyre, or whatever odd fish
+    you may be."</p>
+
+    <p>"Admiral Bell, I never called upon you and received a
+    courteous reception, and then insulted you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then why do you talk of cutting off a better man than
+    yourself? D&mdash;n it, what would you say to him cutting you
+    off?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, as for me, my good sir, that's quite another thing.
+    Cutting me off is very doubtful."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What are they, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, that you permit me to espouse my nephew Charles's
+    quarrel, and meet you instead of him."</p>
+
+    <p>"You meet me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; I've met a better man more than once before. It can
+    make no difference to you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There's some reason, I know, in what you say; but, surely,
+    if I am willing, you need not object."</p>
+
+    <p>"And is your nephew willing thus to shift the danger and the
+    job of resenting his own quarrels on to your shoulders?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"This is a strange mode of proceeding."</p>
+
+    <p>"If you will not accede to it, and fight him first, and any
+    harm comes to him, you shall fight me afterwards."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, indeed you shall, however surprised you may look."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Quite so; now you take a sensible view of the question.
+    Will you meet me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have no particular objection. Have you settled all your
+    affairs, and made your will?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What's that to you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I only asked, because there is generally so much food
+    for litigation if a man dies intestate, and is worth any
+    money."</p>
+
+    <p>"You make devilish sure," said the admiral, "of being the
+    victor. Have you made your will?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, my will," smiled Sir Francis; "that, my good sir, is
+    quite an indifferent affair."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, make it or not, as you like. I am old, I know, but I
+    can pull a trigger as well as any one."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Pull a trigger."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you don't suppose I resort to any such barbarous modes
+    of fighting?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Barbarous! Why, how do you fight then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"As a gentleman, with my sword."</p>
+
+    <p>"Swords! Oh, nonsense! nobody fights with swords now-a-days.
+    That's all exploded."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Pray, how many years ago?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then you cannot object to my availing myself of the one in
+    the use of which I am perfectly unequalled."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I am, I think, the first swordsman in Europe; I have
+    had immense practice."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good."</p>
+
+    <p>"With swords?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, never fear that."</p>
+
+    <p>"But I do fear it. The world, my good sir, is censorious,
+    and you cannot stop people from saying extremely ill-natured
+    things."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you require, then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I require you to send me a friend with a formal
+    challenge."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I shall refer him to a friend of mine, and they two
+    must settle everything between them."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is that all?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"When you pink me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Precisely."</p>
+
+    <p>"Upon my word, you take these affairs easy. I suppose you
+    have had a few of them?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n me, there's some reason in that, too," said the
+    admiral; "but why do you insult people?"</p>
+
+    <p>"People insult me first."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, nonsense!"</p>
+
+    <p>"How should you like to be called a vampyre, and stared at
+    as if you were some hideous natural phenomenon?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But you forget the proofs."</p>
+
+    <p>"What proofs?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The portrait, for one."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n your assurance!"</p>
+
+    <p>"And d&mdash;n yours, if you come to that."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;"I don't pretend to a gift of the gab. D&mdash;n
+    me, it ain't one of my peculiarities; but though you may talk
+    me down, you sha'n't keep me down."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is not very good. You shall hear from me."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am willing."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Agreed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you not take some refreshment, sir before you go from
+    my humble house?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No!" roared the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Something cooling?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good, sir. A hospitable host can do no more than offer
+    to entertain his guests."</p>
+
+    <p>Admiral Bell turned at the door, and said, with some degree
+    of intense bitterness,</p>
+
+    <p>"You look rather poorly. I suppose, to-night, you will go
+    and suck somebody's blood, you shark&mdash;you confounded
+    vampyre! You ought to be made to swallow a red-hot brick, and
+    then let dance about till it digests."</p>
+
+    <p>Varney smiled as he rang the bell, and said to a
+    servant,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Show my very excellent friend Admiral Bell out. He will not
+    take any refreshments."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa, Jack," cried the old man, when they were close to
+    the Hall. "Did you see me kick that fellow?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How have you settled it, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Settled what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The fight, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n me, Jack, I haven't settled it at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's bad, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Pinking you, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes. He wants to fight with cutlasses, or toasting-forks,
+    d&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>Jack gave a long whistle, as he replied,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Going to do it, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know now what I'm going to do. Mind, Jack, mum is
+    the word."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;d good care he don't pink Charles."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, sir, don't let him do that. A <i>wamphigher</i>, 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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well, I'll consider, Jack, I'll consider. Something
+    must be done, and that quickly too. Zounds, here's
+    Charles&mdash;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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXIV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE LETTER TO CHARLES.&mdash;THE QUARREL.&mdash;THE
+    ADMIRAL'S NARRATIVE.&mdash;THE MIDNIGHT MEETING.</h3>
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/109.png"
+             alt="109.png">
+    </div><br>
+
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, as to that," said the admiral, with a great deal of
+    fidgetty hesitation, "you see, I can't exactly say."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not say!"</p>
+
+    <p>"No. He's a very odd fish. Don't you think he's a very odd
+    fish, Jack Pringle'?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"There, you hear, Charles, that Jack is of my opinion that
+    your opponent is an odd fish."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, uncle, why trifle with my impatience thus? Have you
+    seen Sir Francis Varney?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Seen him. Oh, yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what did he say?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, to tell the truth, my lad, I advise you not to fight
+    with him at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"Uncle, is this like you? This advice from you, to
+    compromise my honour, after sending a man a challenge?"</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I terrified?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you advise me not to meet this man, even after I have
+    challenged him."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir. The best way."</p>
+
+    <p>"You think so, Jack?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold your tongue, you libellous villain! Now, listen to me,
+    Charles. I got up a scheme of my own."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I begin to perceive now, uncle," said Charles,
+    reproachfully, "why you, with such apparent readiness, agreed
+    to this duel taking place."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I intended to fight the fellow myself, that's the
+    long and short of it, boy."</p>
+
+    <p>"How could you treat me so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Charles looked despairingly, but said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"What was the result?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, the result! D&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well&mdash;well."</p>
+
+    <p>"And he, being the party challenged&mdash;for he says he
+    never himself challenges anybody, as he is quite tired of
+    it&mdash;must have his choice of weapons."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, but he won't understand any such thing, I tell you. He
+    will fight with swords."</p>
+
+    <p>"I suppose he is, then, an adept at the use of the
+    sword?"</p>
+
+    <p>"He says he is."</p>
+
+    <p>"No doubt&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Do I hear you reasoning thus?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"An effort of prudence that, certainly."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, didn't I say so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Come&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Humph! but only consider, this d&mdash;&mdash;d fellow is
+    no less than a hundred and fifty years old."</p>
+
+    <p>"I care not."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, but I do."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know that, boy&mdash;I know that."</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral walked away, and Charles, who really felt much
+    fretted at the delay which had taken place, returned to the
+    house.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"A servant, sir, left this for you just now."</p>
+
+    <p>"For me?" said Charles, as he glanced at the direction.
+    "This is strange, for I have no acquaintance about here. Does
+    any one wait?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>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:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class='blkquot'>
+        <p>"SIR,&mdash;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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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</p>
+
+        <p class="author">"FRANCIS VARNEY."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Charles Holland read this letter twice over carefully, and
+    then folding it up, and placing it in his pocket, he
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;for her sake, I will meet this man,
+    or monster, be he what he may."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles," she said, "what has happened to give such an
+    impetus to your spirits?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Charles, if I could but think so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, indeed, Charles, that is a dear recompense."</p>
+
+    <p>"And it is well that no force of circumstances short of
+    death itself can divide us."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And your love is indeed true gold."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am unworthy of one glance from those dear eyes if it were
+    not."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Think you so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do, indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"It may be so, Flora. You are aware that your brother has
+    made up his mind that he will leave the Hall."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He said so much."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do not, however, imagine, dearest Flora, that those few
+    days will be idly spent."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, Charles, I could not imagine so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do not run into danger, Charles."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you forgive me, Flora, if for once I keep a secret
+    from you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Then, Charles, along with the forgiveness I must conjure up
+    a host of apprehensions."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, why so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You would tell me if there were no circumstances that you
+    feared would fill me with alarm."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, not so&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"You pause."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet you have a sense of what you call honour, which, I
+    fear, would lead you into much risk."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/113.png"
+             alt="113.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>At length a clock striking reminded him of his engagement
+    with his uncle, and he reluctantly rose.</p>
+
+    <p>"Dear Flora," he said, "I am going to sit up to watch
+    to-night, so be under no sort of apprehension."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will feel doubly safe," she said.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have now something to talk to my uncle about, and must
+    leave you."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;as if some
+    momentous calamity was preparing for him, which would almost be
+    enough to drive him to madness, and irredeemable despair.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>Unconsciously he uttered these words, which betrayed the
+    nature of his worst forebodings.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE ADMIRAL'S OPINION.&mdash;THE REQUEST OF
+    CHARLES.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/114.png"
+             alt="114.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I suppose, uncle, you have made up your mind thoroughly by
+    this time?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I don't know that."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you have had long enough surely to think over it. I
+    have not troubled you soon."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then, to tell the truth, uncle, you can come to no sort of
+    conclusion."</p>
+
+    <p>"Only one."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what may that be?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I suspect that that is a conclusion you had from the first,
+    uncle?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will not thwart you, my boy, although in my opinion you
+    ought not to fight with a vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Injured!&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But you never saw a vampyre, uncle?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, certainly; but as regards this duel, will you wait now
+    until to-morrow morning, before you take any further steps in
+    the matter?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Till to-morrow morning?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, uncle."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, only a little while ago, you were all eagerness to
+    have something done off-hand."</p>
+
+    <p>"Just so; but now I have a particular reason for waiting
+    until to-morrow morning."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you? Well, as you please, boy&mdash;as you please.
+    Have everything your own way."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are very kind, uncle; and now I have another favour to
+    ask of you."</p>
+
+    <p>"What is it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"So I have heard."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Will I! of course I will."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I knew I could trespass thus far on your kindness,
+    uncle."</p>
+
+    <p>"Trespass! It's no trespass at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"As you please. I don't altogether like going to that
+    fellow's house again."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, we can manage, I dare say, by note."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Puts you in mind of a circumstance, uncle?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;d sight than this one."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, you only fancy that, uncle, because you have spent so
+    long a time at sea."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"In the ocean, do you mean, that you see those sights,
+    uncle?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I really cannot say."</p>
+
+    <p>"The head of a fish."</p>
+
+    <p>"A fish!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes! a d&mdash;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But where were the sails, uncle?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The sails?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; your man at the mast-head must have been a poor seaman
+    not to have missed the sails."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I should like to know."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! you may say 'oh!' but we all saw him&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what do you suppose it was, uncle?"</p>
+
+    <p>"How should I know?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you ever see it again?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is singular!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, no; it's quite impossible, uncle, any one could ever
+    suspect you of such a thing."</p>
+
+    <p>"You'd believe me, would you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Of course I would."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then here goes. I'll just tell you now of a circumstance
+    that I haven't liked to mention to anybody yet."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed! why so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because I didn't want to be continually fighting people for
+    not believing it; but here you have it:&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Our hands were all tried men&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;while they were able to chew a
+    quid or wink an eye, leave alone wag a pigtail.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>No, no, we were well laden, and well pleased, and weighed
+    anchor with light hearts and a hearty cheer.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," he replied.</p>
+
+    <p>"What ails you? You seem as melancholy as if we were about
+    to cast lots who should be eaten first. Are you well
+    enough?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am hearty enough, thank Heaven," he said, "but I don't
+    like this breeze."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no; I fear that."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That may be; I hope it is, and I really believe and think
+    so."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then what makes you so infernally mopish and
+    melancholy?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, there are the colours, Jack, at the masthead; they are
+    flying over us with a hearty breeze."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, Jack, what do you think of our vessel?" said I.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no; she goes smoothly and sweetly; she is a gallant
+    craft, and this is her first voyage, and I predict a prosperous
+    one."</p>
+
+    <p>"I hope so," he said.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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 <i>billet doux</i> from the Virgin Mary.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He was a tall, spare man&mdash;what is termed long and
+    lathy&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," said I, after we had stood some minutes, "where did
+    you come from, shipmate?"</p>
+
+    <p>He looked at me and then up at the sky, in a knowing
+    manner.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"That's as much as to say," thought I, "that he's sat
+    himself on it."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll go and inform the captain," said I, "of this affair;
+    he'll hardly believe me when I tell him, I am sure."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"What?&mdash;do you mean to say there's a man on board we
+    haven't seen before?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I do, captain. I never saw him afore, and he's sitting
+    beating his heels on the water-cask on deck."</p>
+
+    <p>"The devil!"</p>
+
+    <p>"He is, I assure you, sir; and he won't answer any
+    questions."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on, lad; I'll come up after you."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, my man," said the captain, "how did you come
+    here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm part of the cargo," he said, with an indescribable
+    leer.</p>
+
+    <p>"Part of the cargo be d&mdash;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm contraband," replied the stranger; "and my uncle's the
+    great chain of Tartary."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I must confess you are not in the regular way of
+    trading."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, no," said the stranger; "I am contraband&mdash;entirely
+    contraband."</p>
+
+    <p>"And how did you come on board?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I walked on board," said the stranger.</p>
+
+    <p>"You walked on board; and where did you conceal
+    yourself?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Below."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good; and why didn't you stay below altogether?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!&mdash;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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, very," said the stranger, coolly.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"How have you lived since you came on board?" inquired the
+    captain.</p>
+
+    <p>"Very indifferently."</p>
+
+    <p>"But how? What have you eaten? and what have you drank?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing, I assure you. All I did while was below
+    was&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"What?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, I sucked my thumbs like a polar bear in its winter
+    quarters."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"These," said the stranger, pulling them out, and gazing at
+    them wistfully, and with a deep sigh he continued,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"These were thumbs at one time; but they are nothing now to
+    what they were."</p>
+
+    <p>"Confound the binnacle!" muttered the captain to himself,
+    and then he added, aloud,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"It's cheap living, however; but where are you going to, and
+    why did you come aboard?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I wanted a cheap cruise, and I am going there and
+    back."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, that's where we are going," said the captain.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no," said the captain; "I can't do it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Can't do it!" exclaimed the stranger, angrily. "What do you
+    mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That be&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I say, captain," said the stranger, as he saw him pacing
+    the deck.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well."</p>
+
+    <p>"Just send me up some beef and biscuit, and some coffee
+    royal&mdash;be sure it's royal, do you hear, because I'm
+    partial to brandy, it's the only good thing there is on
+    earth."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I can't help it now; he's here, and I can't throw him
+    overboard."</p>
+
+    <p>The coffee, beef, and biscuit were sent him, and the
+    stranger seemed to eat them with great <i>gout</i>, and drank
+    the coffee with much relish, and returned the things,
+    saying,</p>
+
+    <p>"Your captain is an excellent cook; give him my
+    compliments."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>It was strange, but this man had impressed upon all in the
+    vessel some singular notion of his being more than he should
+    be&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;his own native
+    land and the friends and loved ones he has left behind him.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;it's like asking for more; but he would
+    persist, and the louder and stronger the wind blew, the louder
+    he whistled.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a strong inclination to throw him overboard, and
+    the men conversed in low whispers, and came round the captain,
+    saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"We have come, captain, to ask you what you think of this
+    strange man who has come so mysteriously on board?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I can't tell what to think, lads; he's past thinking
+    about&mdash;he's something above my comprehension altogether, I
+    promise you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, we are thinking much of the same thing,
+    captain."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That he ain't exactly one of our sort."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, he's no sailor, certainly; and yet, for a land lubber,
+    he's about as rum a customer as ever I met with."</p>
+
+    <p>"So he is, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nor nobody amongst us, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, he's in nobody's way, it he?&mdash;nobody wants
+    to take his berth, I suppose?"</p>
+
+    <p>The men looked at each other somewhat blank; they didn't
+    understand the meaning at all&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>He paused some minutes, and then one of them
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"So they would," said the captain.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, sir, he's more than us."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very likely; but how can I help that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"We think he's the main cause of all this racket in the
+    heavens&mdash;the storm and hurricane; and that, in short, if
+    he remains much longer we shall all sink."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But we think if he were thrown overboard all would be
+    well."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, captain, you may depend upon it he's the cause of all
+    the mischief. Throw him overboard and that's all we want."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"We do not ask it, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you desire?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Leave to throw him overboard&mdash;it is to save our own
+    lives."</p>
+
+    <p>"I can't let you do any such thing; he's in nobody's
+    way."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?&mdash;he's not human."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"There now," said another, "he's kicking the water cask with
+    his heels."</p>
+
+    <p>"Confound the binnacle!" said the captain; "it sounds like
+    short peals of thunder. Go and talk to him, lads."</p>
+
+    <p>"And if that won't do, sir, may we&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't ask me any questions. I don't think a score of the
+    best men that were ever born could move him."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't mind trying," said one.</p>
+
+    <p>Upon this the whole of the men moved to the spot where the
+    water casks were standing and the stranger lay.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa!" shouted one.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa!" shouted another.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what do you want?"</p>
+
+    <p>"My hand," said the fellow.</p>
+
+    <p>"Take it then," he said.</p>
+
+    <p>He did take it, and we saw that there was blood on it.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what do you want?" he again exclaimed to us all.</p>
+
+    <p>We looked at one another, and had scarce courage to speak;
+    at length I said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"We wish you to leave off whistling."</p>
+
+    <p>"Leave off whistling!" he said. "And why should I do
+    anything of the kind?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because it brings the wind."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ha! ha! why, that's the very reason I am whistling, to
+    bring the wind."</p>
+
+    <p>"But we don't want so much."</p>
+
+    <p>"Pho! pho! you don't know what's good for you&mdash;it's a
+    beautiful breeze, and not a bit too stiff."</p>
+
+    <p>"It's a hurricane."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nonsense."</p>
+
+    <p>"But it is."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Confound the binnacle!" said the captain, "if ever I saw
+    the like."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Confound the binnacle!" muttered the captain as he walked
+    away. "D&mdash;n the cabouse, if he ain't older than I
+    am&mdash;he's too many for me and everybody else."</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you satisfied?"</p>
+
+    <p>What could we say?&mdash;we turned away and left the place,
+    and stood at our quarters&mdash;there was no help for
+    it&mdash;we were impelled to grin and abide by it.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/121.png"
+             alt="121.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Well, about that time, one night the whistling ceased and he
+    began to sing&mdash;oh! it was singing&mdash;such a voice! Gog
+    and Magog in Guildhall, London, when they spoke were nothing to
+    him&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Confound the binnacle! I'll have no more contraband
+    articles if I can help it."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXVI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE MEETING BY MOONLIGHT IN THE PARK.&mdash;THE TURRET
+    WINDOW IN THE HALL.&mdash;THE LETTERS.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/122.png"
+             alt="122.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He cast a glance at the portrait in the panel before he left
+    the apartment, and then saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Charles, he saw, walked very rapidly, and like a man who has
+    some fixed destination which he wishes to reach as quickly as
+    possible.</p>
+
+    <p>When he dived among the trees which skirted one side of the
+    flower gardens, the admiral was more puzzled than ever, and he
+    said&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Now where on earth is he off to? He is fully dressed, and
+    has his cloak about him."</p>
+
+    <p>After a few moments' reflection he decided that, having seen
+    something suspicious, Charles must have got up, and dressed
+    himself, to fathom it.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have come to tell you that Charles has left the house,"
+    said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Left the house?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; I saw him just now go across the garden."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you are sure it was he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Quite sure. I saw him by the moonlight cross the green
+    plot."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then you may depend he has seen or heard something, and
+    gone alone to find out what it is rather than give any
+    alarm."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is just what I think."</p>
+
+    <p>"It must be so. I will follow him, if you can show me
+    exactly which way he went."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A good thought, certainly; that will at once put an end to
+    all doubt upon the question."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"You see I am right," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are," cried Henry; "but what have we here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Where?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"You perceive them?"</p>
+
+    <p>Henry held them to the light, and after a moment's
+    inspection of them, he said, in a voice of much
+    surprise,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God! what is the meaning of this?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The meaning of what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The letters are addressed to parties in the house here. Do
+    you not see?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To whom?"</p>
+
+    <p>"One to Admiral Bell&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"The deuce!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Another to me, and the third to my sister Flora. There is
+    some new mystery here."</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral looked at the superscription of one of the
+    letters which was handed to him in silent amazement. Then he
+    cried,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Set down the light, and let us read them."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Am I dreaming&mdash;am I dreaming?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n it, what does yours say?" cried the old admiral,
+    in a louder tone.</p>
+
+    <p>"Read it&mdash;what says yours?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Read it&mdash;I'm amazed."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Not to keep our readers in suspense, we at once transcribe
+    each of these letters.</p>
+
+    <p>The one to the admiral contained these words,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class='blkquot'>
+        <p>"MY DEAR UNCLE,</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">"CHARLES HOLLAND."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Henry's letter was this:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class='blkquot'>
+        <p>"MY DEAR SIR,</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"I cannot, therefore, make her my wife under such very
+        singular circumstances.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"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.</p>
+
+        <p>"Accept the assurances of my respect for yourself and
+        pity for your sister, and believe me to be, my dear sir,
+        your sincere friend,</p>
+
+        <p class="author">"CHARLES HOLLAND."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>These two letters might well make the admiral stare at Henry
+    Bannerworth, and Henry stare at him.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>It was the admiral who first recovered from the stunning
+    effect of the epistles, and he, with a gesture of perfect fury,
+    exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The scoundrel&mdash;the cold-blooded villain! I renounce
+    him for ever! he is no nephew of mine; he is some
+    d&mdash;&mdash;d imposter! Nobody with a dash of my family
+    blood in his veins would have acted so to save himself from a
+    thousand deaths."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He is a scoundrel!" roared the admiral. "D&mdash;n him,
+    he'll die on a dunghill, and that's too good a place for him. I
+    cast him off&mdash;I'll find him out, and old as I am, I'll
+    fight him&mdash;I'll wring his neck, the rascal; and, as for
+    poor dear Miss Flora, God bless her! I'll&mdash;I'll marry her
+    myself, and make her an admiral.&mdash;I'll marry her myself.
+    Oh, that I should be uncle to such a rascal!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Calm yourself," said Henry, "no one can blame you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, you can; I had no right to be his uncle, and I was an
+    old fool to love him."</p>
+
+    <p>The old man sat down, and his voice became broken with
+    emotion as he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir, I tell you I would have died willingly rather than
+    this should have happened. This will kill me now,&mdash;I shall
+    die now of shame and grief."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What&mdash;what can I do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Say no more about him at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"I can't help saying something about him. You ought to turn
+    me out of the house."</p>
+
+    <p>"Heaven forbid! What for?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because I'm his uncle&mdash;his d&mdash;&mdash;d old fool
+    of an uncle, that always thought so much of him."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, if I could but have guessed this."</p>
+
+    <p>"It was impossible. Such duplicity never was equalled in
+    this world&mdash;it was impossible to foresee it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold&mdash;hold! did he give you fifty pounds?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Did he give you fifty pounds?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Give me fifty pounds! Most decidedly not; what made you
+    think of such a thing?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because to-day he borrowed fifty pounds of me, he said, to
+    lend to you."</p>
+
+    <p>"I never heard of the transaction until this moment."</p>
+
+    <p>"The villain!"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, doubt, sir, he wanted that amount to expedite his
+    progress abroad."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!'"</p>
+
+    <p>"This is fighting against facts, my dear sir. He is
+    gone&mdash;mention him no more; forget him, as I shall
+    endeavour myself to do, and persuade my poor sister to do."</p>
+
+    <p>"Poor girl! what can we say to her?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing, but give her all the letters, and let her be at
+    once satisfied of the worthlessness of him she loved."</p>
+
+    <p>"The best way. Her woman's pride will then come to her
+    help."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n him, I'll find him out, and make him fight you.
+    He shall give you satisfaction."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no."</p>
+
+    <p>"No? But he shall."</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot fight with him."</p>
+
+    <p>"You cannot?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral wrung Henry by the hand, as he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"To-morrow&mdash;wait till to-morrow; we will talk over this
+    matter to morrow&mdash;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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXVII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE NOBLE CONFIDENCE OF FLORA BANNERWORTH IN HER
+    LOVER.&mdash;HER OPINION OF THE THREE LETTERS.&mdash;THE
+    ADMIRAL'S ADMIRATION.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/126.png"
+             alt="126.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>A more cold blooded, dishonourable proceeding could not
+    possibly be conceived.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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."</p>
+
+    <p>At length came the welcome and beautiful light of day, and
+    Henry rose fevered and unrefreshed.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Let it be so, then," said Henry; "Mr. Marchdale shall
+    decide for us."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing calamitous, I hope?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry placed in Mr. Marchdale's hands the letter addressed
+    to himself, as well as that to the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>Marchdale read them both with marked attention, but he did
+    not exhibit in his countenance so much surprise as regret.</p>
+
+    <p>When he had finished, Henry said to him,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, Marchdale, what think you of this new and
+    extraordinary episode in our affairs?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And are not you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You much surprise me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You were so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"True, true."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And had you from the first such a feeling?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I had."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is very strange."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have noticed that," said George.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well. I dare say, Marchdale, you acted for the best.
+    What shall we do now?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Can you doubt?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The test may be possible."</p>
+
+    <p>"You think so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do, indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You could not, possibly, Henry, have taken a more sensible
+    view of the subject."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am glad you agree with me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What can happen?" said Marchdale; "I think you have now got
+    rid of the greatest evil of all&mdash;a false friend."</p>
+
+    <p>"We have, indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Be calm, Mr. Marchdale, I pray you be calm," said George;
+    "I never saw you so much moved."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"They are feelings which do you honour."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come, then, and pray be calm. The least that is said upon
+    this painful and harassing subject, after this morning, will be
+    the best."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are right&mdash;you are right."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Brother, what is the meaning of this?" said Flora, turning
+    aside from Marchdale, and withdrawing the hand which he would
+    have taken.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And Charles?" said Flora, "where is Charles?"</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n Charles!" cried the admiral, who had not been
+    much accustomed to control his feelings.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/129.png"
+             alt="129.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear child," said Mrs. Bannerworth, "you are ill."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! mother&mdash;hush!" said Flora, "let me know
+    all."</p>
+
+    <p>She read the whole of the letters through, and then, as the
+    last one dropped from her grasp, she exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, God! oh, God! what is all that has occurred compared to
+    this? Charles&mdash;Charles&mdash;Charles!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora!" exclaimed Henry, suddenly turning from the window.
+    "Flora, is this worthy of you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Heaven now support me!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let me implore you," added Marchdale, "to summon
+    indignation to your aid, Miss Bannerworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles&mdash;Charles&mdash;Charles!" she again exclaimed,
+    as she wrung her hands despairingly.</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora, if anything could add a sting to my already
+    irritated feelings," said Henry, "this conduct of yours
+    would."</p>
+
+    <p>"Henry&mdash;brother, what mean you? Are you mad?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you, Flora?"</p>
+
+    <p>"God, I wish now that I was."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have read those letters, and yet you call upon the name
+    of him who wrote them with frantic tenderness."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes," she cried; "frantic tenderness is the word. It
+    is with frantic tenderness I call upon his name, and ever
+    will.&mdash;Charles! Charles!&mdash;dear Charles!"</p>
+
+    <p>"This surpasses all belief," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is the frenzy of grief," added George; "but I did not
+    expect it of her. Flora&mdash;Flora, think again."</p>
+
+    <p>"Think&mdash;think&mdash;the rush of thought distracts.
+    Whence came these letters?&mdash;where did you find these most
+    disgraceful forgeries?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Forgeries!" exclaimed Henry; and he staggered back, as if
+    someone had struck him a blow.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God!" said Henry; "I did not think of that"</p>
+
+    <p>"Madness!&mdash;madness!" cried Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold!" shouted the admiral. "Let me speak to her."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Flora raised her beautiful eyes, and looked the old
+    weather-beaten admiral full in the face.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear," he cried, "you have read those&mdash;those
+    d&mdash;&mdash;d letters, my dear?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what do you think of them?"</p>
+
+    <p>"They were not written by Charles Holland, your nephew."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"God bless you&mdash;God bless you! You are the sweetest,
+    dearest little creature that ever was, or that ever will be,
+    and I'm a d&mdash;&mdash;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&mdash;n me, I shall take shame to
+    myself as long as I live for ever thinking so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will&mdash;I will. I don't renounce him; he is my nephew
+    still&mdash;Charles Holland&mdash;my own dear sister's son; and
+    you are the best girl, God bless you, that ever breathed. He
+    loved you&mdash;he loves you still; and if he's above ground,
+    poor fellow, he shall yet tell you himself he never saw those
+    infamous letters."</p>
+
+    <p>"You&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm d&mdash;&mdash;d if we do."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry had sat down by the table, and, with his hands clasped
+    together, seemed in an agony of thought.</p>
+
+    <p>He was now roused by a thump on the back by the admiral, who
+    cried,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you think, now, old fellow? D&mdash;n it, things
+    look a little different now."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Marchdale, what do you think of this new suggestion,"
+    said George to that gentleman.</p>
+
+    <p>"Pray, excuse me," was his reply; "I would much rather not
+    be called upon to give an opinion."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, what do you mean by that?" said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Precisely what I say, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I was never in the combined, or any other fleet, sir," said
+    Marchdale, coldly.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who the devil said you were?" roared the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>Marchdale merely hawed.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry and George followed the admiral from the
+    breakfast-room, leaving Marchdale there, who looked serious and
+    full of melancholy thought.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXVIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>MR. MARCHDALE'S EXCULPATION OF HIMSELF.&mdash;THE SEARCH
+    THROUGH THE GARDENS.&mdash;THE SPOT OF THE DEADLY
+    STRUGGLE.&mdash;THE MYSTERIOUS PAPER.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/131.png"
+             alt="131.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Those letters," said Flora, "were not written by Charles
+    Holland."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is your opinion."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is more than an opinion. He could not write them."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good. You believe these letters forgeries?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do."</p>
+
+    <p>"And that the disappearance of Charles Holland is enforced,
+    and not of his own free will?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I thank you, Mr. Marchdale."</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear," said the mother, "rely on Mr. Marchdale."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will rely on any one who believe Charles Holland innocent
+    of writing those odious letters, mother&mdash;I rely upon the
+    admiral. He will aid me heart and hand."</p>
+
+    <p>"And so will Mr. Marchdale."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am glad to hear it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said the admiral; "don't."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not intend."</p>
+
+    <p>"I would not advise anybody."</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir, if you use that as a threat&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"A threat?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; I must say, it sounded marvellously like one."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, dear, no&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed, sir!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"You will permit me to say such is a strange mode of
+    allowing every one the free enjoyment of his opinion."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You will?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed I will."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good. You know the consequences."</p>
+
+    <p>"As to fighting you, I should refuse to do so."</p>
+
+    <p>"Refuse?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; most certainly."</p>
+
+    <p>"Upon what ground?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Upon the ground that you were a madman."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come," now interposed Henry, "let me hope that, for my sake
+    as well as for Flora's, this dispute will proceed no
+    further."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have not courted it," said Marchdale. "I have much
+    temper, but I am not a stick or a stone."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;&mdash;e, if I don't think," said the admiral, "you
+    are a bit of both."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"My impression is," said the admiral, "that he got over
+    here."</p>
+
+    <p>"The ivy appears to be disturbed," remarked Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Suppose we mark the spot, and then go round to it on the
+    outer side?" suggested George.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Henry was the first to break the silence with which they
+    each regarded the broken ground.</p>
+
+    <p>"This is conclusive to my mind," he said, with a deep sigh.
+    "Here has poor Charles been attacked."</p>
+
+    <p>"God keep him!" exclaimed Marchdale, "and pardon me my
+    doubts&mdash;I am now convinced."</p>
+
+    <p>The old admiral gazed about him like one distracted.
+    Suddenly he cried&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"They have murdered him. Some fiends in the shape of men
+    have murdered him, and Heaven only knows for what."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A horrible supposition comes across my mind," said George.
+    "What if he met the vampyre?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How!"</p>
+
+    <p>"By some inquiry as to whether Sir Francis Varney was from
+    home at midnight last night."</p>
+
+    <p>"True; that might be done."</p>
+
+    <p>"The question, suddenly put to one of his servants, would,
+    most probably, be answered as a thing of course."</p>
+
+    <p>"It would."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, nay," said Henry, "leave that course to younger
+    hands."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It more befits me to be his challenger."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, Henry. You are differently situated to what I am."</p>
+
+    <p>"How so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa," cried the admiral, "what's this?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"If this be washed," said Henry, "I think we shall be able
+    to read it clearly."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then we will return to the house," said Henry, "and wash
+    the mud from this paper."</p>
+
+    <p>"There is one important point," remarked Marchdale, "which
+    it appears to me we have all overlooked."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"What may that be?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is this. Is any one here sufficiently acquainted with
+    the handwriting of Mr. Charles Holland to come to an opinion
+    upon the letters?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have some letters from him," said Henry, "which we
+    received while on the continent, and I dare say Flora has
+    likewise."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then they should be compared with the alleged
+    forgeries."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know his handwriting well," said the admiral. "The
+    letters bear so strong a resemblance to it that they would
+    deceive anybody."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then you may depend," remarked Henry, "some most deep-laid
+    and desperate plot is going on."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No plan shall be left untried, you may depend."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"&mdash;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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>Here the paper was torn across, and no further words were
+    visible upon it.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"And here we are," said Henry, "completely at fault, and
+    knowing not what to do."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You perceive we have no evidence to connect Sir Francis
+    Varney with this affair, either nearly or remotely," said
+    Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not," replied Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But how is that to be carried out?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Boldly."</p>
+
+    <p>"How boldly?"</p>
+
+    <p>"By going at once, I should advise, to his house, and asking
+    the first one of his domestics you may happen to see."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will go over," cried George; "on such occasions as these
+    one cannot act upon ceremony."</p>
+
+    <p>He seized his hat, and without waiting for a word from any
+    one approving or condemning his going, off he went.</p>
+
+    <p>"If," said Henry, "we find that Varney has nothing to do
+    with the matter, we are completely at fault."</p>
+
+    <p>"Completely," echoed Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"In that case, admiral, I think we ought to defer to your
+    feelings upon the subject, and do whatever you suggest should
+    be done."</p>
+
+    <p>"I shall offer a hundred pounds reward to any one who can
+    and will bring any news of Charles."</p>
+
+    <p>"A hundred pounds is too much," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Perhaps you are right," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"I know I am, as I always am."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"We are at fault again. I am assured that Sir Francis Varney
+    never stirred from home after eight o'clock last evening."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n it, then," said the admiral, "let us give the
+    devil his due. He could not have had any hand in this
+    business."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not."</p>
+
+    <p>"From whom, George, did you get your information?" asked
+    Henry, in a desponding tone.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There can be no mistake, then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly none. The servants answered me at once, and so
+    frankly that I cannot doubt it."</p>
+
+    <p>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:&mdash;</p>"She was more beautiful than death,<br>
+    And yet as sad to look upon."<br>
+
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you found him?" she said. "Have you found Charles?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora, Flora," said Henry, as he approached her.</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, answer me; have you found him? You went to seek him.
+    Dead or alive, have you found him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"We have not, Flora."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;the dreadful
+    vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, now, Flora, this is frenzy."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Calm! calm!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, brother, brother!" she exclaimed, as she dropped into a
+    seat, "you have never loved."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;that there is no
+    perversion of nature on your account."</p>
+
+    <p>"Call you that hideous vampyre form that haunts me no
+    perversion of ordinary nature?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What is is natural," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Cold reasoning to one who suffers as I suffer. I cannot
+    argue with you; I can only know that I am most
+    unhappy&mdash;most miserable."</p>
+
+    <p>"But that will pass away, sister, and the sun of your
+    happiness may smile again."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, if I could but hope!"</p>
+
+    <p>"And wherefore should you deprive yourself of that poorest
+    privilege of the most unhappy?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because my heart tells me to despair."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Providence guarded you," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have one hope," said Marchdale to Flora, as he looked
+    in her wan face.</p>
+
+    <p>"One hope?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes. Recollect you have one hope."</p>
+
+    <p>"What is that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You think that, by removing from this place, you may find
+    that peace which is here denied you."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no, no."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed. I thought that such was your firm conviction."</p>
+
+    <p>"It was; but circumstances have altered."</p>
+
+    <p>"How?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles Holland has disappeared here, and here must I
+    remain to seek for him."</p>
+
+    <p>"True he may have disappeared here," remarked Marchdale;
+    "and yet that may be no argument for supposing him still
+    here."</p>
+
+    <p>"Where, then, is he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go, go, brother; go at once."</p>
+
+    <p>"I go now at once."</p>
+
+    <p>"Shall I accompany you?" said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"No. Remain here to keep watch over Flora's safety while I
+    am gone; I can alone do all that can be done."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will not."</p>
+
+    <p>"Surely&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Our opinions," she said, "of the honour and honesty of
+    Charles Holland. That is what we will adhere to."</p>
+
+    <p>"Of course we will."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;cannot be."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are right, my dear. And now, Master Henry, you be off,
+    will you, if you please."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am off now. Farewell, Flora, for a brief space."</p>
+
+    <p>"Farewell, brother; and Heaven speed you on your
+    errand."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Most willingly," said Flora.</p>
+
+    <p>"I would not advise you to stray far from the house, Miss
+    Bannerworth," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Nobody asked you for advice," said the admiral.
+    "D&mdash;&mdash;e, do you want to make out that I ain't capable
+    of taking care of her?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no; but&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXIX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>A PEEP THROUGH AN IRON GRATING.&mdash;THE LONELY PRISONER
+    IN HIS DUNGEON.&mdash;THE MYSTERY.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/136.png"
+             alt="136.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/137.png"
+             alt="137.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>It is evening&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The place is as silent as the tomb&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>There was not even the low hum of insect life to break the
+    stillness of these ancient ruins.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>For more than ten minutes this mysterious looking figure
+    there stood.</p>
+
+    <p>At length there passed something on the outside of the
+    window, that looked like the shadow of a human form.</p>
+
+    <p>Then the tall, mysterious, apparition-looking man turned,
+    and sought a side entrance to the hall.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>There it a dungeon&mdash;damp and full of the most
+    unwholesome exhalations&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>From the roof, too, came perpetually the dripping of water,
+    which fell with sullen, startling splashes in the pool
+    below.</p>
+
+    <p>At one end, and near to the roof,&mdash;so near that to
+    reach it, without the most efficient means from the inside, was
+    a matter of positive impossibility&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The carol of a bird, too, might reach him there. Alas! sad
+    remembrance of life, and joy, and liberty.</p>
+
+    <p>But now all is deepening gloom. The prisoner sees
+    nothing&mdash;hears nothing; and the sky is not quite dark.
+    That small grating looks like a strange light-patch in the
+    dungeon wall.</p>
+
+    <p>Hark! some footstep sounds upon his ear. The creaking of a
+    door follows&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He cast a withering look of intense hatred on the form of
+    the nearly-unconscious prisoner, and then prepared to follow
+    the other.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The other looked on in silence, and then they both slowly
+    left the dreary dungeon.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE VISIT OF FLORA TO THE VAMPYRE.&mdash;THE
+    OFFER.&mdash;THE SOLEMN ASSEVERATION.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/140.png"
+             alt="140.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Never you mind, Miss Flora," he said; "you will find, I
+    dare say, that all will come right eventually. D&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You should have known him better, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But the circumstances, dear sir, were of a nature to take
+    every one by surprise."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do."</p>
+
+    <p>"You do? Well, then, somebody must tackle him, that's quite
+    clear; we can't put up with his fancies always."</p>
+
+    <p>"What can be done?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n it! then you still think that he has a hand in
+    spiriting away Charles?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Who else could do so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;d sure,
+    now, I'd soon have it out of him."</p>
+
+    <p>"For my sake, Admiral Bell, I wish now to extract one
+    promise from you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Say your say, my dear, and I'll promise you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Whew! is that what you mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; you will, I am sure, promise me so much."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, my dear, you see the case is this. In affairs of
+    fighting, the less ladies interfere the better."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, why so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You would be the last person in the world to esteem a
+    coward."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly. But there is more true courage often in not
+    fighting than in entering into a contest."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are right enough there, my dear."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Unfair?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes. May he not have some means of preventing you from
+    injuring him, and of overcoming you, which no mortal
+    possesses?"</p>
+
+    <p>"He may."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear, I'll consider of this matter."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do so."</p>
+
+    <p>"There is another thing, however, which now you will permit
+    me to ask of you as a favour."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is granted ere it is spoken."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You alarm me by such a preface."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do I? then here goes at once. Your brother Henry, poor
+    fellow, has enough to do, has he not, to make all ends
+    meet."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot deny it, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then don't. It ain't worth denying, my dear. Poverty is no
+    crime, but, like being born a Frenchman, it's a
+    d&mdash;&mdash;d misfortune."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The enemies?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; who else?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You speak in riddles, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do I? Then I'll soon make the riddles plain. When I went to
+    sea I was worth nothing&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; prize after prize we hauled into port, and at last the
+    French vessels wouldn't come out of their harbours."</p>
+
+    <p>"What did you do then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What did we do then? Why what was the most natural thing in
+    the whole world for us to do, we did."</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot guess."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I am surprised at that. Try again."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, yes; I can guess now. How could I have been so dull?
+    You went and took them out."</p>
+
+    <p>"To be sure we did&mdash;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&mdash;don't you see?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I see your noble generosity, admiral."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.'"</p>
+
+    <p>"And can you, dear admiral, imagine that I could conceal the
+    generous source from where so much assistance came?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;it's yours, and I have no right and no inclination
+    to ask you what use you put it to."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot accept of so much generosity, sir&mdash;I dare
+    not"</p>
+
+    <p>"Dare not!"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; I should think meanly of myself were I to take
+    advantage of the boundless munificence of your nature."</p>
+
+    <p>"Take advantage! I should like to see anybody take advantage
+    of me, that's all."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, settle it your own way, only remember I have a right
+    to do what I like with my own money."</p>
+
+    <p>"Undoubtedly."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will consider," said Flora, with much
+    emotion&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, bother&mdash;stuff."</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral now at once changed the subject, and began to
+    talk of Charles&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"The idea," he added, to a warm eulogium he had uttered
+    concerning Charles&mdash;"the idea that he could write those
+    letters my dear, is quite absurd."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is, indeed. Oh, that we could know what had become of
+    him!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am rejoiced to hear you say so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Flora shuddered.</p>
+
+    <p>"But don't you fret yourself. You may depend that the sweet
+    little cherub that sits up aloft has looked after him."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will hope so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will&mdash;I will."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's right. Now, go in doors, for there's a cold air
+    blowing here, and you are a delicate plant rather just
+    now&mdash;go in and make yourself comfortable and easy. The
+    worst storm must blow over at last."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXXI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>SIR FRANCIS VARNEY AND HIS MYSTERIOUS VISITOR.&mdash;THE
+    STRANGE CONFERENCE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>With a shudder he returned to the seat he had so recently
+    left, and there for some time he appeared to meditate in
+    silence.</p>
+
+    <p>Suddenly now, a clock, which was in the hall of that mansion
+    he had purchased, sounded the hour loudly.</p>
+
+    <p>"The time has come," said Sir Francis. "The time has come.
+    He will surely soon be here. Hark! hark!"</p>
+
+    <p>Slowly and distinctly he counted the strokes of the clock,
+    and, when they had ceased, he exclaimed, with sudden
+    surprise&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Eleven! But eleven! How have I been deceived. I thought the
+    hour of midnight was at hand."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>That extremely well known and popular disease called the
+    fidgets, now began, indeed, to torment Sir Francis Varney. He
+    could not sit&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>It was an ancient looking place, very large, end capable of
+    containing a number of guests. Several were present.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The other maiden was altogether different; her complexion
+    altogether fairer&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"The wind howls and moans," said an aged domestic, "in an
+    awful manner. I never heard the like."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay," said her aged companion, "it is a windy night, and
+    there will be a storm before long, or I'm mistaken."</p>
+
+    <p>"It was just such a night as that my son Henry left his
+    home," said Mrs. Bradley, "just such another&mdash;only it had
+    the addition of sleet and rain."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I would that I might again see him before my body seeks its
+    final home in the cold remorseless grave."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Many, Emma?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, mamma, many."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is now two years since he was here last," said the old
+    man,</p>
+
+    <p>"This night two years was the night on which he left."</p>
+
+    <p>"This night two years?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"It was this night two years," said one of the servant men,
+    "because old Dame Poutlet had twins on that night."</p>
+
+    <p>"A memorable circumstance."</p>
+
+    <p>"And one died at a twelvemonth old," said the man; "and she
+    had a dream which foretold the event."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, and moreover she's had the same dream again last
+    Wednesday was a week," said the man.</p>
+
+    <p>"And lost the other twin?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes sir, this morning."</p>
+
+    <p>"Omens multiply," said the aged man; "I would that it would
+    seem to indicate the return of Henry to his home."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Poor Henry," said Emma.</p>
+
+    <p>"Alas, poor boy! We may never see him again&mdash;it was a
+    mistaken act of his, and yet he knew not otherwise how to act
+    or escape his father's displeasure."</p>
+
+    <p>"Say no more&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why," said the old woman, "he thought you meant what you
+    said."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a long pause, during which all gazed at the
+    blazing fire, seemingly wrapt in their own meditation.</p>
+
+    <p>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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed, father!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; I wish you to go there with me to see the young
+    lady."</p>
+
+    <p>"In the character of a suitor?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," replied the father, "certainly; it's high time you
+    were settled."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed, I would rather not go, father; I have no intention
+    of marrying just yet. I do not desire to do so."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"It is not much, Henry, that I trespass upon your obedience;
+    but when I do so, I expect that you will obey me."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, father, this matter affects me for my whole life."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is why I have deliberated so long and carefully over
+    it."</p>
+
+    <p>"But it is not unreasonable that I should have a voice in
+    the affair, father, since it may render me miserable."</p>
+
+    <p>"You shall have a voice."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I say no to the whole regulation," said Henry,
+    decisively.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot."</p>
+
+    <p>"You will not?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, father; I cannot do as you wish me; my mind is fully
+    made up upon that matter."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/145.png"
+             alt="145.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I should prefer being such," said Henry, "than to marry any
+    young lady, and be unable to love her."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is not required."</p>
+
+    <p>"No! I am astonished! Not necessary to love the woman you
+    marry!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will not argue with you, father, upon the matter. You are
+    a better judge than I; you have had more experience."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have."</p>
+
+    <p>"And it would be useless to speak upon the subject; but of
+    this I can speak&mdash;my own resolve&mdash;that I will not
+    marry the lady in question."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"You will not marry her whom I have chosen for your
+    bride?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then, no, father."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good, sir; and now we are strangers."</p>
+
+    <p>With that Mr. Bradley turned abruptly from his son, and left
+    him to himself.</p>
+
+    <p>It was the first time they had any words of difference
+    together, and it was sudden and soon terminated.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Mrs. Bradley and Emma were alone when he entered their
+    apartment, and to them he related all that had passed between
+    himself and father.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;not before he had taken a
+    long and affectionate farewell of one other who lived within
+    those walls.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;she, a poor cousin. For
+    her sake he had braved all his father's anger, and attempted to
+    seek his fortune abroad.</p>
+
+    <p>This done, he quietly left the Hall, without giving any one
+    any intimation of where he was going.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;once again!"</p>
+
+    <p>"How the wind howls," added the aged man; "and it's getting
+    worse and worse."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"It will be a heavy fall before morning," said one of the
+    men.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, it has been gathering for some days; it will be much
+    warmer than it has been when it is all down."</p>
+
+    <p>"So it will&mdash;so it will."</p>
+
+    <p>At that moment there was a knocking at the gate, and the
+    dogs burst into a dreadful uproar from their kennels.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The man went out, and shortly returned, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Bid him come in; we shall lose no warmth because there is
+    one more before the fire."</p>
+
+    <p>The stranger entered, and said,&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thanks," replied the stranger; "the welcome is most
+    seasonable."</p>
+
+    <p>"Be seated, sir; take your seat by the ingle; it is
+    warm."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you travelled far?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"You appear to belong to the army, if I mistake not?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a pause; the stranger seemed not inclined to speak
+    of himself much; but Mr. Bradley continued,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you come from foreign service, sir? I presume you
+    have."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; I have not been in this country more than six
+    days."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed; shall we have peace think you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"May I ask, sir, if you have any person whom you regard in
+    the army&mdash;any relative?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Alas! I have&mdash;perhaps, I ought to say I had a son. I
+    know not, however, where he is gone."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! a runaway; I see."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, no; he left because there were some family differences,
+    and now, I would, that he were once more here."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh!" said the stranger, softly, "differences and mistakes
+    will happen now and then, when least desired."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is Henry!" exclaimed Ellen Mowbray, rising and rushing
+    into his arms.</p>
+
+    <p>It was Henry, and he threw off the several coats he had on,
+    as well as the large beard he wore to disguise himself.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXXII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE THOUSAND POUNDS.&mdash;THE STRANGER'S
+    PRECAUTIONS.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/147.png"
+             alt="147.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>In a few moments one of his servants came, and
+    said&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes! yes!" gasped Varney; "admit him, I know him! Bring him
+    here? It is&mdash;an&mdash;old friend&mdash;of mine."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;dreaded&mdash;and yet dared not refuse to
+    see. And now a footstep approaches&mdash;a slow and a solemn
+    footstep&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,</p>
+
+    <p>"I presume I was expected?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You were," said Varney. "It is the day, and it is the
+    hour."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are right. I like to see you so mindful. You don't
+    improve in looks since&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is well," said the stranger; "as you please. Let our
+    interview be brief. You know my errand?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do. So fearful a drag upon limited means, is not likely
+    to be readily forgotten."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, you are too ingenious&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because," said Varney&mdash;and he trembled as he
+    spoke&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have been among the dead?" said the stranger.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet are mortal."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," repeated Varney, "yes, and yet am mortal."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Like what I am," interrupted Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have passed through the agony of death," said Varney,
+    "and have again endured the torture&mdash;for it is
+    such&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I regain a comparative
+    peace, until the time slowly comes around again, when we are
+    doomed to meet."</p>
+
+    <p>"I understand you. You seem well lodged here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have ever kept my word, and sent to you, telling you
+    where I am."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I dare not deceive you, although to keep such faith I may
+    be compelled to deceive a hundred others."</p>
+
+    <p>"Of that I cannot judge. Fortune seems to smile upon you;
+    you have not as yet disappointed me."</p>
+
+    <p>"And will not now," said Varney. "The gigantic and frightful
+    penalty of disappointing you, stares me in the face. I dare not
+    do so."</p>
+
+    <p>He took from his pocket, as he spoke, a clasped book, from
+    which he produced several bank notes, which he placed before
+    the stranger.</p>
+
+    <p>"A thousand pounds," he said; "that is the agreement."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is to the very letter. I do not return to you a thousand
+    thanks&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And then," said Varney, "shall you still require of me such
+    an amount as this?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It may! it may! With what an earnest gaze you still regard
+    me!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I never shall be," said Varney; "never&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you leave England, then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>Varney rang for a servant to show the stranger from the
+    house, and without another word they parted.</p>
+
+    <p>Then, when he was alone, that mysterious owner of that
+    costly home drew a long breath of apparently exquisite
+    relief.</p>
+
+    <p>"That is over!&mdash;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!&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Then, with his hat in his hand, he passed out of his house,
+    and appeared to be taking his way towards Bannerworth
+    House.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Time, and the now rapidly accumulating incidents of our
+    tale, will soon tear aside the veil of mystery that now
+    envelopes some of our <i>dramatis personae</i>.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXXIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE STRANGE INTERVIEW.&mdash;THE CHASE THROUGH THE
+    HALL.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/150.png"
+             alt="150.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"yes,
+    the very sight of that man recalls all the frightful pageantry
+    of a horrible tragedy, which I can never&mdash;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&mdash;'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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;which I
+    know&mdash;contains my treasure, though I cannot lay my hands
+    upon it, or exult in its glistening beauty."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/153.png"
+             alt="153.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>But she knew it not, and onwards she went until the very hem
+    of her garment touched the face of Sir Francis Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>And he was terrified&mdash;he dared not move&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles! Charles! and do you love me still? No&mdash;no;
+    you have not forsaken me. Save me, save me from the
+    vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>She shuddered, and Sir Francis Varney heard her weeping.</p>
+
+    <p>"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:&mdash;a house, which superstition will point
+    out as the abode of evil spirits;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;a spot hitherto sacred to the best and
+    noblest feelings, but now doomed for ever to be associated with
+    that terrific spectre of despair.</p>
+
+    <p>But she was in no state to see so terrible a sight. Her
+    hands were over her face, and she was weeping still.</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ha!" muttered Varney, "this passion is her first, and takes
+    a strong hold on her young heart&mdash;she loves him&mdash;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&mdash;perchance she may be."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a diabolical look of concentrated hatred upon
+    Varney's face, as he now advanced two paces towards the
+    beautiful Flora.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXXIV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE THREAT.&mdash;ITS CONSEQUENCES.&mdash;THE RESCUE, AND
+    SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S DANGER.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/155.png"
+             alt="155.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Alas! and they who would have flown to her
+    rescue,&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>But still she slept&mdash;if that half-waking sleep could
+    indeed be considered as any thing akin to ordinary
+    slumber&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora Bannerworth, awake! awake! and look upon me, although
+    the sight blast and drive you to despair. Awake! awake!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Help, help!" she cried. "Gracious Heavens! Where am I?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre&mdash;the vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said Varney, "the vampyre. You know me, Flora
+    Bannerworth&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>Flora shook as in a convulsion, and she looked as white as
+    any marble statue.</p>
+
+    <p>"This is horrible!" she said. "Why does not Heaven grant me
+    the death I pray for?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, horror&mdash;horror!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;a career extending over centuries of
+    time&mdash;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!"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"May the great God forgive even you!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have need of such a prayer," exclaimed
+    Varney&mdash;"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush," said the vampire, "you must hear more&mdash;you must
+    know more ere you speak of the matters that have of late
+    exercised an influence of terror over you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have powers," said Varney, assuming from Flora's words,
+    that she would believe such arrogance&mdash;"I have powers
+    which suffice to bend many purposes to my will&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will attend," said Flora. "I do not shudder now; there's
+    an icy coldness through my veins, but it is the night
+    air&mdash;speak, I will attend you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Can such a being as you," said Flora "be susceptible of
+    such an earthly passion?"</p>
+
+    <p>"And wherefore not?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Love is either too much of heaven, or too much of earth to
+    find a home with thee."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, Flora, no! it may be that the feeling is born of pity.
+    I will save you&mdash;I will save you from a continuance of the
+    horrors that are assailing you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! then may Heaven have mercy in your hour of need!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Amen!"</p>
+
+    <p>"May you even yet know peace and joy above."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is a faint and straggling hope&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That wish," said Flora, "shall be father to the deed.
+    Heaven has boundless mercy yet."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no, no!" shrieked Flora, "never!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Enough," said Varney, "I am answered. It was a bad
+    proposal. I am a vampyre still."</p>
+
+    <p>"Spare me! spare me!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Blood!"</p>
+
+    <p>Flora sank upon her knees, and uplifted her hands to heaven.
+    "Mercy, mercy!" she said.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;the penalty be
+    yours."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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?&mdash;I cannot love you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then be content to suffer. Flora Bannerworth, will you not,
+    even for a time, to save yourself and to save me, become
+    mine?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Horrible proposition!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A fearful state!" said Flora.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have my pity," said Flora; "even you have my pity."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on, go on."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! tell me how I may escape the terrible infliction."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Safe! Oh! say that word again."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes; I understand."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! horrible! most horrible!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;a terror to yourself and a
+    desolation to all around."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;flight from Bannerworth Hall, I will
+    pause not until continents and oceans divide us."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;again to seize
+    you in my full embrace&mdash;again to draw from your veins the
+    means of prolonged life&mdash;again to convulse your very soul
+    with terror."</p>
+
+    <p>"I need no incentives," said Flora, with a shudder, "in the
+    shape of descriptions of the past, to urge me on."</p>
+
+    <p>"You will fly from Bannerworth Hall?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;more pity than reproach&mdash;more curiosity than
+    loathing."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"It will&mdash;it will," said Flora.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you think so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do; and I will pray that the thought may turn to
+    certainty in such a cause."</p>
+
+    <p>The vampyre appeared to be much affected; and then he
+    added,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora, you know that this spot has been the scene of a
+    catastrophe fearful to look back upon, in the annals of your
+    family?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It has," said Flora. "I know to what you allude; 'tis a
+    matter of common knowledge to all&mdash;a sad theme to me, and
+    one I would not court."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I know not what you mean," said Flora.</p>
+
+    <p>"To be more explicit, then, do you remember the day on which
+    your father breathed his last?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Too well&mdash;too well."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you see him or converse with him shortly before that
+    desperate act was committed?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; he shut himself up for some time in a solitary
+    chamber."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ha! what chamber?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The one in which I slept myself on the night&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes; the one with the portrait&mdash;that speaking
+    portrait&mdash;the eyes of which seem to challenge an intruder
+    as he enters the apartment."</p>
+
+    <p>"The same."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It was so."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then, Flora, ere I bid you adieu&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXXV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE EXPLANATION.&mdash;MARCHDALE'S ADVICE.&mdash;THE
+    PROJECTED REMOVAL, AND THE ADMIRAL'S ANGER.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/159.png"
+             alt="159.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"For Heaven's sake, Flora," he said, "unhand me; this is a
+    time for action."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, Henry, Henry, hear me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Presently, presently, dear Flora; I will yet make another
+    effort to arrest the headlong flight of Varney."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Broadside to broadside! Give it them again, Jack! Hit them
+    between wind and water!"</p>
+
+    <p>Then there was another rattling discharge, and Henry
+    exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"What is the meaning of that firing?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is so," replied George; "and, no doubt, hearing an
+    alarm, he has commenced operations by firing into the
+    enemy."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Of that possibility you doubt?" said George, as they
+    hurried on across the meadows.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Gracious Heaven!" said Flora, "whence have you come
+    from?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have never left," said Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"But I saw you fly from this spot."</p>
+
+    <p>"You did; but it was only to another immediately outside the
+    summer house. I had no idea of breaking off our conference so
+    abruptly."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you anything to add to what you have already
+    stated?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Absolutely nothing, unless you have a question to propose
+    to me&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said Flora. "What has become of Charles Holland?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Listen. Do not discard all hope; when you are far from here
+    you will meet with him again."</p>
+
+    <p>"But he has left me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let us hope," said Marchdale, "that some other course may
+    be adopted, which shall put an end to these proceedings."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/161.png"
+             alt="161.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;she
+    will advise you rightly, be assured."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>They all three walked together towards the house, conversing
+    in a similar strain as they went.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXXVI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE CONSULTATION.&mdash;THE DUEL AND ITS RESULTS.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/162.png"
+             alt="162.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is true," said Mr. Chillingworth, "to a considerable
+    extent, but then it takes too much for granted to please
+    me."</p>
+
+    <p>"How so, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Facts are stubborn things," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Apparently," remarked Mr. Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, sir; and here we have the fact of a vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"The presumed fact. One swallow don't make a summer, Mr.
+    Marchdale."</p>
+
+    <p>"This is waste of time," said Henry&mdash;"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I will discover the fate of Charles Holland, and then leave
+    the Hall."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You're a d&mdash;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I fully expected this abuse," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I really," said Henry, "must protest, Admiral Bell, against
+    this conduct."</p>
+
+    <p>"Protest and be d&mdash;&mdash;d."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Marchdale may be right, sir, or he may be wrong, it's a
+    matter of opinion."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Me into an asylum!" shouted the admiral. "Jack, did you
+    hear that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Farewell all of you," said Marchdale; "my best wishes be
+    with this family. I cannot remain under this roof to be so
+    insulted."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;e, you're
+    worse than a lawyer."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, nay," cried they, "Mr. Marchdale, stay."</p>
+
+    <p>"Stay, stay," cried George, and Mrs. Bannerworth, likewise,
+    said stay; but at the moment Flora stepped forward, and in a
+    clear voice she said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Huzza!" shouted Jack Pringle; "that's one good job."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Only on one condition," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Name it&mdash;name it!</p>
+
+    <p>"You think of letting the Hall?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let me have it, then, and let me pay a few years in
+    advance. If you don't, I'm d&mdash;&mdash;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&mdash;&mdash;me, that's the thing, Jack, isn't it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a silence of some few moments after this
+    extraordinary offer had been made, and then they spoke,
+    saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, bother my actions! what are they to you? Come, now, I
+    consider myself master of the house, d&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Wants some sheathing, sir, here and there."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very like; but, however, it will do well enough for us;
+    we're in port, you know. Come along."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>And off went the admiral and Jack, after leaving a twenty
+    pound note in Mrs. Bannerworth's lap.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXXVII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S SEPARATE OPPONENTS.&mdash;THE
+    INTERPOSITION OF FLORA.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/165.png"
+             alt="165.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To one, Sir Francis, that I believe you are better
+    acquainted with than you will have the candour to admit."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;since we have so few compliments to stand between us
+    and our purpose, we shall in all due time arrive at it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>Varney, however, returned the gaze as steadily, but coldly,
+    as he replied in his measured accents,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I have heard of the young gentleman."</p>
+
+    <p>"And seen him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry had something of a struggle to keep down the rising
+    anger, at these cool taunts of Varney; but he
+    succeeded&mdash;and then he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I suspect Charles Holland, Sir Francis Varney, has met with
+    unfair treatment, and that he has been unfairly dealt with, for
+    an unworthy purpose."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;you acknowledge so much, I doubt not?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do, Sir Francis Varney; and hence the purpose of my visit
+    here&mdash;for this reason I apply to you&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir Francis," said Henry, his anger raising his
+    tones&mdash;"this will not serve you&mdash;I have come to exact
+    an account of how you have disposed of my friend; and I will
+    have it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;and, so help me
+    Heaven! if I have not justice, I will have vengeance!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;a kind of
+    vivid insanity has taken possession of your mind, which
+    distorts&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir Francis Varney!" exclaimed Henry, now perfectly
+    uncontrollable.</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir," said Varney, as he filled up the pause, "proceed; I
+    am all attention. You do me honour."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on, sir," said Sir Francis Varney, in a bland and sweet
+    tone; "I am all attention; pray proceed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You don't mean on the carpet here?" said Varney,
+    deliberately.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You shrink from the combat, do you? Now, indeed, I know
+    you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Young man&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are a coward, and worse, if you refuse my
+    challenge."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not refuse it; I accept it," said Varney, calmly, and
+    in a dignified manner; and then, with a sneer, he
+    added,&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The circumstances under which it is given are as
+    unexampled, and will excuse the mode of the challenge," said
+    Henry, with much warmth.</p>
+
+    <p>"Singular coincidence&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Early to-morrow, Sir Francis, you shall hear from me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have said all I intended to say, Sir Francis Varney; we
+    shall see each other again."</p>
+
+    <p>"I may not detain you, I presume, to taste aught in the way
+    of refreshment?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Henry walked homeward, satisfied that he had now done all
+    that he could under the circumstances.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, sir," replied the servant, who had paused a few
+    moments to examine the individual who gave this odd kind of
+    address.</p>
+
+    <p>In another minute word was brought to him that Sir Francis
+    Varney would be very happy to see Admiral Bell.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay," he muttered; "just as the devil likes to meet with
+    holy water, or as I like any water save salt water."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"None of your gammon."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you be seated. Allow me to offer you such refreshments
+    as this poor house affords."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what is that to you? D&mdash;n me, I didn't come here
+    to talk to you about myself."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then may I presume upon your courtesy so far as to beg that
+    you will enlighten me upon the object of your visit!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; in pretty quick time. Just tell me where you have
+    stowed away my nephew, Charles Holland?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Really, I&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, will you give him up alive? but, hark ye, you mustn't
+    have made very queer fish of him, do ye see?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That won't do for me," said the admiral, positively,
+    shaking his head.</p>
+
+    <p>"I am particularly sorry, Admiral Bell, that it will not,
+    seeing that I have nothing else to say."</p>
+
+    <p>"I see how it is; you've put him out of the way, and I'm
+    d&mdash;&mdash;d if you shan't bring him to life, whole and
+    sound, or I'll know the reason why."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Gammon again, now, Sir Francis Varney, or Blarney."</p>
+
+    <p>"Varney, if you please, Admiral Bell; I was christened
+    Varney."</p>
+
+    <p>"Christened, eh?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, christened&mdash;were you not christened? If not, I
+    dare say you understand the ceremony well enough."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/169.png"
+             alt="169.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"I should think I did; but, as for christening,
+    a&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"A vampyre! why I should as soon think of reading the burial
+    service of a pig."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very possible; but what has all this to do with your visit
+    to me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"This much, you lubber. Now, d&mdash;n my carcass from head
+    to stern, if I don't call you out."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You were to have fought a duel with him, and now he's
+    gone."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am here," said Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And that's marvellous little, so far as the sense is
+    concerned," said Varney, without the movement of a muscle.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is explicit, but it is to no purpose, since the
+    gentleman in question hasn't placed himself at my
+    disposal."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then, d&mdash;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't want any allowance; d&mdash;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&mdash;&mdash;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&mdash;that's the truth of it."</p>
+
+    <p>"With the other part of your speech, Admiral Bell, allow me
+    to say, you have mixed up a serious accusation&mdash;one I
+    cannot permit to pass lightly."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you or not fight?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's settled, then."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, d&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes, I've done&mdash;d&mdash;&mdash;e,
+    no&mdash;yes&mdash;no. I will keel-haul you but I'll know
+    something of my neavy, Charles Holland."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>He proceeded homeward, considerably vexed and annoyed that
+    he had been treated with so much calmness, and all knowledge of
+    his nephew denied.</p>
+
+    <p>When he got back, he quarrelled heartily with Jack
+    Pringle&mdash;made it up&mdash;drank
+    grog&mdash;quarrelled&mdash;made it up, and finished with grog
+    again&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>With this wish, he fell asleep.</p>
+
+    <p>Early next morning, Henry Bannerworth sought Mr.
+    Chillingworth, and having found him, he said in a serious
+    tone,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Chillingworth, I have rather a serious favour to ask
+    you, and one which you may hesitate in granting."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir Francis Varney and I must have a meeting," said
+    Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you really determined upon such a course?" said Mr.
+    Chillingworth; "you know the character of your adversary?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That is all settled,&mdash;I have given a challenge, and he
+    has accepted it; so all other considerations verge themselves
+    into one&mdash;and that is the when, where, and how."</p>
+
+    <p>"I see," said Mr. Chillingworth. "Well, since it cannot be
+    helped on your part, I will do what is requisite for
+    you&mdash;do you wish anything to be done or insisted on in
+    particular in this affair."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then there remains but little else to do, but to arrange
+    preliminaries, I believe. Are you prepared on every other
+    point?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;but he accepted the challenge which Charles
+    Holland sent him&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;do
+    not be seen out alone."</p>
+
+    <p>"I fear not."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will do so&mdash;in the mean time, I trust myself
+    confidently in your hands&mdash;you know all that is
+    necessary."</p>
+
+    <p>"This affair is quite a secret from all of the family?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Most certainly so, and will remain so&mdash;I shall be at
+    the Hall."</p>
+
+    <p>"And there I will see you&mdash;but be careful not to be
+    drawn into any adventure of any kind&mdash;it is best to be on
+    the safe side under all circumstances."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That I will attend to. Farewell for the present."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;and at this
+    moment I can see no reason why he should not do so&mdash;it
+    will tend much to deprive him of the mystery about him; but if,
+    on the other hand, he refuse&mdash;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&mdash;he is cool and unruffled&mdash;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&mdash;I would it were all over."</p>
+
+    <p>With these thoughts and feelings strangely intermixed, Mr.
+    Chillingworth set forward for Sir Francis Varney's house.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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&mdash;something of the mermaid
+    species.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;is&mdash;a
+    seaman's native element, as the newspapers say, though I never
+    read 'em now, it's such a plague."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa, hilloa, hil&mdash;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&mdash;n you, where
+    are you?&mdash;you're never at hand when you are wanted. Oh,
+    you lubber,&mdash;a-hoy!"</p>
+
+    <p>"A-hoy!" shouted a voice, as the door opened, and Jack
+    thrust his head in; "what cheer, messmate? what ship is
+    this?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, you lubberly&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>The door was shut in a minute, and Jack Pringle
+    disappeared.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa, Jack Pringle, you don't mean to say you'll desert
+    your colours, do you, you dumb dog?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Who says I'll desert the ship as she's sea-worthy!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Then why do you go away?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, come here, and just listen to the log, and be
+    d&mdash;&mdash;d to you."</p>
+
+    <p>"What's the orders now, admiral?" said Jack, "though, as we
+    are paid off&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>Jack ducked, and the pillow produced a clatter in the
+    washhand-stand among the crockery, as Jack said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"There's a mutiny in the ship, and hark how the cargo
+    clatters; will you have it back again?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Come, will you? I've been dreaming, Jack."</p>
+
+    <p>"Dreaming! what's that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Thinking of something when you are asleep, you swab."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Jack; "never did such a thing in my
+    life&mdash;ha, ha, ha! what's the matter now?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Another second! what's in the wind, now?" said Jack. "Is
+    this the dream?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's uncommon true," said Jack, turning a quid.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, I'm going to fight."</p>
+
+    <p>"Fight!" exclaimed Jack. "Avast, there, I don't see where's
+    the enemy&mdash;none o' that gammon; Jack Pringle can fight,
+    too, and will lay alongside his admiral, but he don't see the
+    enemy anywhere."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What the <i>wamphigher</i>?" remarked Jack,
+    parenthetically.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then," resumed Jack, "then we shall see another
+    blaze, at least afore we die; but he's an odd fish&mdash;one of
+    Davy Jones's sort."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's the thing, Jack; now you know you must go to Sir
+    Francis Varney and tell him you come from me."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't care if I goes on my own account," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"That won't do; I've challenged him and I must fight
+    him."</p>
+
+    <p>"In course you will," returned Jack, "and, if he blows you
+    away, why I'll take your place, and have a blaze myself."</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral gave a look at Jack of great admiration, and
+    then said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You are a d&mdash;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Single fight?" said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, to be sure; I ain't lived all these years without
+    knowing your lingo."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Never fear," said Jack; "you shall fight him, at any rate.
+    I'll go and see he don't back out, the warmint."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"The wamphigher."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The wamphigher."</p>
+
+    <p>The servant frowned, and was about to say something uncivil
+    to Jack, who winked at him very hard, and then said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, may be you don't know him, or won't know him by that
+    name: I wants to see Sir Francis Varney."</p>
+
+    <p>"He's at home," said the servant; "who are you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXXVIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>MARCHDALE'S OFFER.&mdash;THE CONSULTATION AT BANNERWORTH
+    HALL.&mdash;THE MORNING OF THE DUEL.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/173.png"
+             alt="173.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Gentlemen," said Sir Francis, in his usual bland tone, "you
+    are welcome."</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir Francis," said Mr. Chillingworth, "I have come upon
+    matters of some importance; may I crave a separate
+    audience?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not exactly understand this," said Mr. Chillingworth;
+    "do you, Mr. Pringle? perhaps you can enlighten me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I should say so," said Jack, with a wink and a nod of a
+    familiar character. "I've seen a few of them."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Chillingworth looked at Jack, and Jack Pringle looked at
+    Mr. Chillingworth, and then the former said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am agreeable to anything that is at all
+    reasonable&mdash;pistols, I presume?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;myself, at
+    least."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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;&mdash;one at a time, I
+    presume?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;e! all must be above board."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then your acquaintances are no friends, d&mdash;&mdash;e!"
+    said Jack Pringle, spitting through his teeth into the bars of
+    a beautifully polished grate. "I'd stick to anybody&mdash;the
+    devil himself, leave alone a vampyre&mdash;if so be as how I
+    had been his friends and drunk grog from the same can. They are
+    a set of lubbers."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Jack Pringle whistled, and spit, and chewed and turned his
+    quid&mdash;hitched up his trousers, and looked wistfully from
+    one to the other, as he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"So then it's likely to be no fight at all, Sir Francis
+    what's-o'-name?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I believe it," said Varney, bowing politely.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What, Admiral Bell?" exclaimed Varney, lifting his eyebrows
+    with surprise.</p>
+
+    <p>"What, Charles Holland's uncle!" exclaimed Mr.
+    Chillingworth, in accents of amazement.</p>
+
+    <p>"And why not?" said Jack, with great gravity. "I will pledge
+    my word&mdash;Jack Pringle's word&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"That will, I hope, remove your scruples, Mr.
+    Chillingworth," said Varney, with a courteous smile.</p>
+
+    <p>"But will Admiral Bell do this?"</p>
+
+    <p>"His second says so, and has, I daresay, influence enough
+    with him to induce that person to act in conformity with his
+    promise."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;no. Depend upon it, Sir Francis, he'll be as sure
+    to do what I say, as I have said it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot object to its taking place. I shall be most happy
+    to meet your second in the field, and will arrange with
+    him."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am satisfied," said Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"And I also," said Chillingworth; "but, understand, Sir
+    Francis, any default for seconds makes the meeting a
+    blank."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will not doubt Mr. Pringle's honour so much as to believe
+    it possible."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm d&mdash;&mdash;d," said Jack, "if you ain't a
+    trump-card, and no mistake; it's a great pity as you is a
+    wamphigher."</p>
+
+    <p>"The time, Mr. Chillingworth?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To-morrow, at seven o'clock," replied that gentleman.</p>
+
+    <p>"The place, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I think we have nothing further to arrange now," said Mr.
+    Chillingworth. "You will meet with Admiral Bell."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly. I believe there is nothing more to be done; this
+    affair is very satisfactorily arranged, and much better than I
+    anticipated."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good morning, Sir Francis," said Mr. Chillingworth. "Good
+    morning."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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&mdash;it's only waiting awhile."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's all," said Sir Francis.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>They had got but very few paces from Sir Francis Varney's
+    house, when they were joined by Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, we have," said Mr. Chillingworth. "I thought you had
+    left these parts?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I had intended to do so," replied Marchdale; "but second
+    thoughts are sometimes best, you know."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is very disinterested of you; you will remain here for
+    some time, I suppose?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, undoubtedly; unless, as I do not anticipate, I should
+    see any occasion to quit my present quarters."</p>
+
+    <p>"I tell you what it is," said Jack Pringle; "if you had been
+    here half-an-hour earlier you could have seconded the
+    wamphigher."</p>
+
+    <p>"Seconded!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, we're here to challenge."</p>
+
+    <p>"A double challenge?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will not, you may rely upon it; but Mr. Chillingworth, do
+    I not see you in the character of a second?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You do, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"To Mr. Henry?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The same, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you reflected upon the probable consequences of such
+    an act, should any serious mischief occur?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;had I been at the
+    hall, you will admit that Henry Bannerworth would have chosen
+    myself, without any disparagement to you, Mr.
+    Chillingworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well sir, what then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I see all that, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"This cannot be done, unless by Mr. Henry Bannerworth's
+    consent," said Mr. Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Chillingworth could not but admit the reasonableness of
+    this proposal, and it was agreed they should return to
+    Bannerworth Hall in company.</p>
+
+    <p>Here they arrived in a very short time after, and entered
+    together.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, not John&mdash;Jack Pringle, you mean," said that
+    individual.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Admiral!" he said, "I perceive you are unwell this
+    morning."</p>
+
+    <p>"Unwell be d&mdash;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Admiral, admiral, I didn't say you were ill; only you
+    looked ill&mdash;a&mdash;a little nervous, or so. Rather pale,
+    eh? Is it not so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral gave a look of some amazement at Mr.
+    Chillingworth, and then he said, muttering to
+    himself,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"If Jack Pringle should have betrayed me&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Eh?" said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"What!" exclaimed Henry; "had he challenged you,
+    admiral?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Challenged me!" exclaimed Admiral Bell, with a round oath.
+    "I&mdash;however&mdash;since it comes to this, I must admit I
+    challenged him."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He wouldn't fight, then?" exclaimed Henry. "I see it all
+    now."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not fight!" said Admiral Bell, with a sort of melancholy
+    disappointment. "D&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You challenged him in person, too, I suppose?" said
+    Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, confound him! I went there last night."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I too."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You see," said Chillingworth, "Sir Francis was willing to
+    fight both Henry and the admiral, as he told us."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said Jack; "he told us he would fight us both, if so
+    be as his light was not doused in the first brush."</p>
+
+    <p>"That was all that was wanted," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"We could expect no more."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Decidedly," said Henry; "but it is unfortunate&mdash;very
+    unfortunate."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very," said the admiral&mdash;"very. What a rascally thing
+    it is there ain't another rogue in the country to keep him in
+    countenance."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/177.png"
+             alt="177.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Eh! who? I!" exclaimed the admiral in some perplexity.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well," said the admiral, "I only wish Mr. Henry
+    Bannerworth had been his second; I think I was entitled to the
+    first meeting."</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said Jack, "you warn't, for Mr. Chillingworth was
+    there first; first come first served, you know."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;e he shall fight&mdash;yes, yes, he shall
+    fight."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh!" said the admiral, with a huge twist of his
+    countenance.</p>
+
+    <p>"What I was about to say was this,&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I!&mdash;Yes&mdash;certainly&mdash;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,&mdash;that's all I have to say at present."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then this is a final arrangement?" said Mr.
+    Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have done what I have done," said Chillingworth, "because
+    I believed it was my duty to do so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is true," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, Henry, you must permit me to insist that you take some
+    hours' repose, else you will scarcely be as you ought to
+    be."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good," said Henry. "I have just finished, and can take
+    your advice."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Is it time, Marchdale? I have not overslept myself, have
+    I?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; time enough&mdash;time enough," said Marchdale. "I
+    should have let you sleep longer, but I should have awakened
+    you in good time."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>It would be difficult for us to analyse the different and
+    conflicting emotions that filled the breasts of the various
+    individuals composing that party&mdash;the hopes and
+    fears&mdash;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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;the result of which would be, his
+    acquisition of a reputation as unenviable as it would be
+    universal.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>A change, however, was at hand&mdash;a change of a most
+    startling and alarming character to Varney&mdash;one which he
+    might expect, yet not be well prepared for.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>There was a kind of dim gloominess over all objects; and as
+    there were no bright lights, there were no deep
+    shadows&mdash;the consequence of which was a sureness of effect
+    over the landscape, that robbed it of many of its usual
+    beauties.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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
+    <i>causus belli</i>, that might justify him in adopting a
+    threatening attitude towards somebody.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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"</p>
+
+    <p>"That's liberal of you," said Henry, "at all event"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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&mdash;n you,
+    hit him if you can."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurra" said Jack Pringle, at this moment.</p>
+
+    <p>"What's the matter with you? Who told you to hurra?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Enemy in the offing," said Jack, "three or four pints to
+    the sou-west."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I say, Jack, you lubber, there's a face for a figure
+    head."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you ever see such a d&mdash;&mdash;d grin as that in
+    your life, in any latitude?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"You did you swab."</p>
+
+    <p>"I should think so."</p>
+
+    <p>"It's a lie, and you know it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;blessed
+    if you didn't give just such a grin as that."</p>
+
+    <p>"I didn't, you rascal."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I say you did."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mutiny, by God!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Go to blazes!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. who?" said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"Pringle, I believe, is your name?" returned Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"It were; but blowed if ever I was called mister
+    before."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am here," said Varney, "and therefore it becomes a work
+    of supererogation to remark that I've come."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! does it? I never bolted a dictionary, and, therefore, I
+    don't know exactly what you mean."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do with you! D&mdash;&mdash;d if I'll do anything with
+    you."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't expect you will regret me; you will eat."</p>
+
+    <p>"Eat!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, and drink as usual, no doubt, notwithstanding being
+    witness to the decease of a fellow-creature."</p>
+
+    <p>"Belay there; don't call yourself a fellow-creature of mine;
+    I ain't a vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XXXIX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE STORM AND THE FIGHT.-THE ADMIRAL'S REPUDIATION OF HIS
+    PRINCIPAL.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/181.png"
+             alt="181.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Well," said the admiral, when they were fairly under the
+    tree, upon the leaves of which the pattering rain might be
+    heard falling: "well&mdash;what is it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You may depend I sha'n't."</p>
+
+    <p>"Just take the matter perfectly easy&mdash;as a thing of
+    course."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! I mean d&mdash;&mdash;d easy."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;an oriental looking tree, of the
+    fir tribe, which, fan-like, spreads its deep green leaves;
+    across the azure sky."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! bother it; it's a d&mdash;&mdash;d old tree, growing
+    upon a little bit of a hill, I suppose you mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Precisely; only much more poetically expressed. The moon
+    rises at a quarter past four to-night, or rather to-morrow,
+    morning."</p>
+
+    <p>"Does it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How very unkind."</p>
+
+    <p>"Uncommon, ain't it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well, since that is your determination, I must take
+    care of myself in another way. I can do so, and I will."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;now you
+    know."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;fire!</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There can be no shadow of a doubt regarding your
+    justification. Have at him, and Heaven protect you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Amen!"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you ready, gentlemen?&mdash;once."</p>
+
+    <p>They looked sternly at each other, and each grasped his
+    pistol.</p>
+
+    <p>"Twice!"</p>
+
+    <p>Sir Francis Varney smiled and looked around him, as if the
+    affair were one of the most common-place description.</p>
+
+    <p>"Thrice!"</p>
+
+    <p>Varney seemed to be studying the sky rather than attending
+    to the duel.</p>
+
+    <p>"Fire!" said the admiral, and one report only struck upon
+    the ear. It was that from Henry's pistol.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Sir Francis, however, seemed in no hurry, but smiled
+    significantly, and gradually raised the point of his
+    weapon.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You d&mdash;&mdash;d rascal, I'll&mdash;I'll have your back
+    scored, I will."</p>
+
+    <p>"So you will, when you are afloat again, which you never
+    will be&mdash;you're paid off, that's certain."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry looked steadily at Varney, expecting every moment to
+    feel his bullet. Mr. Marchdale hastily exclaimed that this was
+    not according to usage.</p>
+
+    <p>Sir Francis Varney took no notice, but went on elevating his
+    weapon; when it was perpendicular to the earth he fired in the
+    air.</p>
+
+    <p>"I had not anticipated this," said Marchdale, as he walked
+    to Henry. "I thought he was taking a more deadly aim."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, you have escaped, Henry; let me congratulate you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not so fast; we may fire again."</p>
+
+    <p>"I can afford to do that," he said, with a smile.</p>
+
+    <p>"You should have fired, sir, according to custom," said the
+    admiral; "this is not the proper thing."</p>
+
+    <p>"What, fire at your friend?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, that's all very well! You are my friend for a time,
+    vampyre as you are, and I intend you shall fire."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;to point mortal weapons at me is mere child's play,
+    they will not hurt me."</p>
+
+    <p>"The devil they won't," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The same bullet!" said Marchdale, stepping
+    forward&mdash;"the same bullet! How is this?"</p>
+
+    <p>"My eyes," said Jack; "who'd a thought it; there's a go!
+    Wouldn't he do for a dummy&mdash;to lead a forlorn hope, or to
+    put among the boarders?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Here," said Sir Francis, handing a bullet to Henry
+    Bannerworth&mdash;"here is the bullet you shot at me."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry looked at it&mdash;it was blackened by powder; and
+    then Marchdale seized it and tried it in the pistol, but found
+    the bullet fitted Henry's weapon.</p>
+
+    <p>"By heavens, it is so!" he exclaimed, stepping back and
+    looking at Varney from top to toe in horror and amazement.</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;&mdash;e," said the admiral, "if I understand this.
+    Why Jack Pringle, you dog, here's a strange fish."</p>
+
+    <p>"On, no! there's plenty on 'um in some countries."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you insist upon another fire, or may I consider you
+    satisfied?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I shall object," said Marchdale. "Henry, this affair must
+    go no further; it would be madness&mdash;worse than madness, to
+    fight upon such terms."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh!" said Jack Pringle; "a man may as well fire at the back
+    of a halligator as a wamphigher."</p>
+
+    <p>"This must be considered as having been concluded," said Mr.
+    Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"No!" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"And wherefore not?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because I have not received his fire."</p>
+
+    <p>"Heaven forbid you should."</p>
+
+    <p>"I may not with honour quit the ground without another
+    fire."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Henry; let me implore you to quit this scene; it can do no
+    good."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The murmurs and shouts that now arose in the distance were
+    indistinct and confused.</p>
+
+    <p>"What can all this mean?" said Marchdale; "there is
+    something very strange about it. I cannot imagine a cause for
+    so unusual an occurrence."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nor I," said Sir Francis Varney, looking suspiciously at
+    Henry Bannerworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"Upon my honour I know neither what is the cause nor the
+    nature of the sounds themselves."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;&mdash;e, they are too late to spoil the sport.
+    Hilloa! hurrah!"</p>
+
+    <p>"What's all that about, Jack?" inquired the admiral, as he
+    came puffing along. "What's the squall about?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Only a few horse-marines and bumboat-women, that have been
+    startled like a company of penguins."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! my eyes! wouldn't a whole broadside set 'em flying,
+    Jack?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay; just as them Frenchmen that you murdered on board the
+    Big Thunderer, as you called it."</p>
+
+    <p>"I murder them, you rascal?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; there was about five hundred of them killed."</p>
+
+    <p>"They were only shot."</p>
+
+    <p>"They were killed, only your conscience tells you it's
+    uncomfortable."</p>
+
+    <p>"You rascal&mdash;you villain! You ought to be keel-hauled
+    and well payed."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay; you're payed, and paid off as an old hulk."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;&mdash;e&mdash;you&mdash;you&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n your&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"What's the matter?" inquired Marchdale, as he arrived.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot tell the cause of it," said Henry Bannerworth;
+    "but they seem to me to be coming towards this place."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I think so too," said Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"With what object?" inquired Sir Francis Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed! but why come here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"If I knew that I could have at once told the cause."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That appears to be Mr. Chillingworth," said Henry; "I think
+    that is he."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Does you, though?" said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You infernal dog&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, you know it was; it might a been our own shadow for
+    all I can tell. Indeed, I think it was."</p>
+
+    <p>"You think!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, why be so mutinous?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because you aggrawates me."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Surely," said Marchdale, "Mr. Chillingworth has not named
+    anything respecting the duel that has taken place."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with the vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Eh!" said the admiral, "eh, what's that, eh? What did they
+    say?"</p>
+
+    <p>"If you'll listen they'll tell you soon enough, I'll
+    warrant."</p>
+
+    <p>"May be they will, and yet I'd like to know now."</p>
+
+    <p>Sir Francis Varney looked significantly at Marchdale, and
+    then waited with downcast eyes for the repetition of the
+    words.</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/185.png"
+             alt="185.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Then came Mr. Chillingworth's voice, who, with much
+    earnestness, endeavoured to exhort them to moderation, and to
+    refrain from violence.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Oh, that artful Mrs. Chillingworth! too well she knew what
+    was the matter; yet she pretended to be so oblivious upon the
+    subject.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God!" cried Mr. Chillingworth, as he started up in
+    bed, "what's all that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"All what?" said his wife.</p>
+
+    <p>"All what! Do you mean to say you heard nothing?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I think I did hear a little sort of something."</p>
+
+    <p>"A little sort of something? It shook the house."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well; never mind. Go to sleep again; it's no business
+    of ours."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what's that to you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Perhaps nothing; but, perhaps, everything."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Then, in a temporary lull, a loud voice shouted,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with the vampyre&mdash;down with the vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>The truth in an instant burst over the mind of Mr.
+    Chillingworth; and, turning to his wife, he
+    exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I understand it now. You've been gossipping about Sir
+    Francis Varney, and have caused all this tumult."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But you must have spoken of it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who have I got to speak to about it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you, or did you not?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Who should I tell?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"For Heaven's sake," said Mr. Chillingworth, "stop; What are
+    you about to do all of you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Burn the vampyre&mdash;burn the vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold&mdash;hold! this is folly. Let me implore you all to
+    return to your homes, or you will get into serious trouble on
+    this subject."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XL'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XL.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE POPULAR RIOT.&mdash;SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S
+    DANGER.&mdash;THE SUGGESTION AND ITS RESULTS.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/188.png"
+             alt="188.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;apparently onward&mdash;first and
+    foremost among the rioters, he was really doing all in his
+    power to quell that tumult which superstition and dread had
+    raised.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The <i>ghoul</i> of eastern nations is but the same being,
+    altered to suit habits and localities; and the <i>sema</i> 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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Varney the vampyre&mdash;Varney the vampyre!" cried a
+    hundred voices. "Death to the vampyre! Where is he? Bring him
+    out. Varney the vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"My good people, Sir Francis Varney is not at home. He took
+    an early breakfast, and has been out nearly an hour."</p>
+
+    <p>The mob paused a moment in indecision, and then one of the
+    foremost cried,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Who'd suppose they'd own he was at home? He's hiding
+    somewhere of course; let's pull him out."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, pull him out&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>But how could he leave, watched and surrounded as he was by
+    an infuriated multitude&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"He's in the town somewhere," cried one. "Let's go back to
+    the town."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;well acquainted with them as he
+    doubtless was,&mdash;he had every chance of eluding their
+    pursuit.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What can Mr. Chillingworth be about," said Henry, "to bring
+    such a mob here? has he taken leave of his senses?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay," said Marchdale; "look again; he seems to be trying to
+    keep them back, although ineffectually, for they will not be
+    stayed."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;&mdash;e," said the admiral, "here's a gang of
+    pirates; we shall be boarded and carried before we know where
+    we are, Jack."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay ay, sir," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Impossible," said Marchdale; "if that had been his
+    intention, he could have done so quietly, through the medium of
+    the civil authorities."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You always was a little deaf," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"What?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A little deaf, I say."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you lubberly lying swab, how dare you say so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because you was."</p>
+
+    <p>"You slave-going scoundrel!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Agreed," said Marchdale; and they both stepped forward at a
+    rapid pace, to meet the advancing throng.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Every individual composing that mob carried some weapon
+    calculated for defence, such as flails, scythes, sickles,
+    bludgeons, &amp;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Seem to be," said Mr. Chillingworth, "without being so. You
+    are not sought, nor any of your friends?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Who, then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir Francis Varney," was the immediate reply.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mr. Bannerworth, it has become known, through my
+    indiscretion, that Sir Francis Varney is suspected of being a
+    vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is this so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!" shouted the mob. "Down with the vampyre! hurrah!
+    where is he? Down with him!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>When he did succeed in so doing, he cried, with a loud
+    voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hear him, hear him!" cried Mr. Marchdale; "he speaks both
+    wisdom and truth."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You hear him?" said Mr. Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, we does," said a man; "but we comes out to catch a
+    vampyre, for all that."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!" shouted everybody. "Down with the vampyre! where
+    is he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;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&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir, I should."</p>
+
+    <p>"Shiver me, if I see an opportunity, if I don't let some of
+    those rascals know what's what."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"By Heaven!" exclaimed Henry, "they have him."</p>
+
+    <p>"God forbid!" said Mr. Marchdale; "this grows too
+    serious."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no," said Henry; "no more violence, at least there has
+    been enough&mdash;there has been enough."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Bravo!" shouted the admiral, "a stern chase is a long
+    chase, and I wish them joy of it&mdash;d&mdash;&mdash;e, Jack,
+    did you ever see anybody get along like that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"You never did, you scoundrel."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I did."</p>
+
+    <p>"When and where?"</p>
+
+    <p>"When you ran away off the sound."</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral turned nearly blue with anger, but Jack looked
+    perfectly imperturbable, as he added,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You know you ran away after the French frigates who
+    wouldn't stay to fight you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! that indeed. There he goes, putting on every stitch of
+    canvass, I'll be bound."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack," said the admiral, "this won't do. Look at that great
+    lubberly fellow with the queer smock-frock."</p>
+
+    <p>"Never saw such a figure-head in my life," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"Stop him."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Bravo," said the admiral; "there's another of them."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Any luck, old chap?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you caught anything?" said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"Caught anything?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; you've been in for eels, haven't you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But to what possible cause can we attribute such an
+    outrage?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, I know not. Have you fought the duel?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; and, as you perceive, harmlessly."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank Heaven for that."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/193.png"
+             alt="193.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;stink pots and pipkins&mdash;broadside to
+    broadside&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;come on!"</p>
+
+    <p>His friends needed no further urging, but, at a brisk pace,
+    they all proceeded by the nearest footpaths towards the
+    town.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Holding, as he did, so strange a place in
+    society&mdash;living among men, and yet possessing so few
+    attributes in common with humanity&mdash;he must all along have
+    felt the possibility of drawing upon himself popular
+    violence.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;some ebullition of anger or annoyance by some
+    member of the family&mdash;or a communication from some friend
+    who had been treated with confidence&mdash;might, at any time,
+    awaken around him some such a storm as that which now raged at
+    his heels.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;we all
+    know he's here&mdash;why do you hesitate? Do you expect me to
+    go alone and drag him out by the ears?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Over and over again the ruins were searched&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What's to be done, now?" said one.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! that's it," said another, sententiously. "I'll be
+    hanged if I know."</p>
+
+    <p>"He's given us the slip," remarked a third.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Find him, then," cried several at once.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! that's nothing to do with the argument; he's here,
+    whether we find him or not."</p>
+
+    <p>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:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"My good friend, you must know Sir Francis Varney is here or
+    he isn't."</p>
+
+    <p>"Agreed, agreed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>All looked at him, for it was evident he was big with some
+    suggestion. After a pause, he resumed,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, capital!" said everybody.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then you all agree to that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa! hilloa!&mdash;stop! stop! you know one of us is to
+    wait?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, ay; yes, yes, yes!" said everybody, and still they
+    moved on.</p>
+
+    <p>"But really, you know, what's the use of this? who's to
+    wait?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XLIV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XLIV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>VARNEY'S DANGER, AND HIS RESCUE.&mdash;THE PRISONER AGAIN,
+    AND THE SUBTERRANEAN VAULT.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/196.png"
+             alt="196.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The prisoner&mdash;the same prisoner of whom we before
+    spoke&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Then he moves restlessly, and repeats in hurried accents the
+    names of some who are dear to him, and far away&mdash;some who
+    may, perchance, be mourning him, but who know not, guess not,
+    aught of his present sufferings.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>But soon a better nature seems to come over him, and gentler
+    words fall from his lips. He preaches patience to
+    himself&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>It is the sound of feet&mdash;on, on they come; far overhead
+    he hears them; they beat the green earth&mdash;that sweet,
+    verdant sod, which he may never see again&mdash;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&mdash;a
+    hasty footstep; he hears some one labouring for
+    breath&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>The captive raises himself as far as his chains will allow
+    him; he clutches the throat of his enervated visitor.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>About midday, then, she saw the domestic party
+    returning&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>To all this, Admiral Bell replied that he might go and be
+    d&mdash;&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay," says Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I appeal to you, sir," said Flora, turning to the
+    admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good," replied the old man; "then I say&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora," said Henry, when the admiral had left the room, "I
+    can see that you wish to leave the Hall."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do, brother; but not to go far&mdash;I wish rather to
+    hide from Varney than to make myself inaccessible by
+    distance."</p>
+
+    <p>"You still cling to this neighbourhood?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do, I do; and you know with what hope I cling to it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Perfectly; you still think it possible that Charles Holland
+    may be united to you."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do, I do."</p>
+
+    <p>"You believe his faith."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, yes; as I believe in Heaven's mercy."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, would that I could think so!"</p>
+
+    <p>"And I; but, unhappily, we have by far too many, and too
+    conclusive evidences to the contrary."</p>
+
+    <p>"We have, indeed, brother."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have no doubt, brother?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Most reluctantly, I must confess, that I feel compelled to
+    consider Varney as something more than mortal."</p>
+
+    <p>"He must be so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Has he such an opinion?"</p>
+
+    <p>"He has."</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis very strange."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He certainly wishes to possess it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Which is merely that he is fond of old houses."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It may be, brother."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is sufficiently perceivable."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is very strange."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Thus, brother. It is said&mdash;and well may I who have
+    been subject to an attack of such a nature, tremble to repeat
+    the saying&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have heard so much, sister," replied Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is true."</p>
+
+    <p>"There may have been a time&mdash;who shall say there was
+    not?&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I would&mdash;I would."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not far, Flora?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"True."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then do I wish to make some sort of parade, in the way of
+    publicity, of our leaving the Hall."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That, sister, I doubt. If you seek for that species of
+    solitude which you contemplate, it is only to be found in a
+    desert."</p>
+
+    <p>"A desert?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; or in a large city."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then there is no resource. We must go far."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Dear&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"As Heaven is my judge, I do."</p>
+
+    <p>"A thousand, thousand thanks for such an assurance. I know
+    him too well to doubt, for one moment, his faith. Oh, brother!
+    could he&mdash;could Charles Holland, the soul of honour, the
+    abode of every noble impulse that can adorn
+    humanity&mdash;could he have written those letters? No, no!
+    perish the thought!"</p>
+
+    <p>"It has perished."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank God!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I only, upon reflection, wonder how, misled for the moment
+    by the concurrence of a number of circumstances, I could ever
+    have suspected him."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You allude to Mr. Marchdale?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"May there?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;too soon, alas! deprives us of our
+    trusting confidence in human nature."</p>
+
+    <p>"It may be so; but yet, he, knowing as he did so very little
+    of Charles Holland, judged him hastily and harshly."</p>
+
+    <p>"You rather ought to say, Flora, that he did not judge him
+    generously."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, be it so."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you must recollect, when you say so, that Marchdale did
+    not love Charles Holland."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Where?"</p>
+
+    <p>"There. Do you not see the admiral and Mr. Chillingworth
+    walking among the trees?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes; I do now."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;he called him from the
+    room."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"We shall."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I thank you, admiral, I am much better."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, to be sure. Have we not, doctor?"</p>
+
+    <p>"We have, admiral."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good; and what, now, Miss Flora, do you suppose it is?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I really cannot say."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then we are to understand," said Henry, with a smile, "that
+    we are no longer to be your guests, Admiral Bell?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Belay there!" cried the admiral; "who told you to
+    understand any such thing, I should like to know?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/201.png"
+             alt="201.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"It is an honourable mode."</p>
+
+    <p>"Of course it is. Well, I am going to&mdash;what the deuce
+    do you call it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That's just what I want to know. Oh, I have it now. I am
+    going to what the lawyers call invest it."</p>
+
+    <p>"A prudent step, admiral, and one which it is to be hoped,
+    before now, has occurred to you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good."</p>
+
+    <p>"We cannot&mdash;we dare not."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;bless her sweet
+    eyes&mdash;don't want to stay at Bannerworth Hall any longer
+    than she can help it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on imposing, then."</p>
+
+    <p>"But&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Psha! Can't a man be imposed upon if he likes? D&mdash;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."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;doors opened and shut without human agency; and
+    windows rattled that never had been known to rattle before.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;yes," said everybody.</p>
+
+    <p>"There was Miles, the butcher; you know how fat he was, and
+    then how fat he wasn't."</p>
+
+    <p>A general assent was given to the proposition; and then,
+    elevating one arm in an oratorical manner, the clever fellow
+    continued,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But what's to be done?" cried one, who trembled so
+    excessively that he could scarcely stand under his
+    apprehension.</p>
+
+    <p>"There is but one plan&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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, <i>en route</i>, 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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"It's Waggles! it's Waggles!" cried everybody "it's Waggles,
+    the beadle!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"There's Mr. Leigh," said several; "how unlucky he should be
+    here."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It's all about the vampyre!" cried one fellow&mdash;"Mr.
+    Leigh, how should you like a vampyre in the pulpit?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;alike
+    disgraceful to yourselves and afflicting to me."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Even then he might have done something in the way of pacific
+    exertion, but for the interference of Waggles, the beadle, who
+    spoilt everything.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XLV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XLV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE OPEN GRAVES.&mdash;THE DEAD BODIES.&mdash;A SCENE OF
+    TERROR.</h3>
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/205.png"
+             alt="205.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The crowd now had entire possession&mdash;without even the
+    sort of control that an exhortation assumed over them&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh!" cried one, "it's Fletcher, the ranter. What does he do
+    here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hear him! hear him!" cried others; "he won't stop us."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hear, hear, hear, hurra!" said every body. "Mr. Fletcher's
+    not such a fool, after all. He means well."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, you sinners," said the ranter, "and if you find Miles,
+    the butcher, decaying&mdash;even as men are expected to decay
+    whose mortal tabernacles are placed within the bowels of the
+    earth&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"There he is," said the man, whose spade struck upon the
+    coffin.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>It was, indeed, a scene of intense excitement&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>It is singular what reasons people find for backing their
+    opinion.</p>
+
+    <p>"You may depend he's a vampyre," said one, "or it wouldn't
+    be so difficult to get him out of the grave."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, there can be no mistake about that," said one; "when
+    did a natural Christian's coffin stick in the mud in that
+    way?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Each man looked anxiously in his neighbour's face, and
+    several audibly wondered why somebody else didn't open the
+    coffin.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oughtn't we to have the service for the dead?" said
+    one.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said the impertinent boy who had before received the
+    knock on the head, "I think we ought to have that read
+    backwards."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Afraid&mdash;afraid!" cried everybody: "who's afraid."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"He's a-coming&mdash;he's a-coming!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>But such is popularity!</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;d me and I've
+    d&mdash;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;&mdash;d first," said the boy; "open the lid, Dick,
+    let's have a look."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hell&mdash;we know," said the boy; "why don't you open the
+    lid, Dick?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm a going," said Dick; "kim up."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>A shudder pervaded the multitude, and, popularly speaking,
+    you might have heard a pin drop in that crowded churchyard at
+    that eventful moment.</p>
+
+    <p>Dick then proceeded to the other side, and executed the same
+    manoeuvre.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now for it," he said; "we shall see him in a moment, and
+    we'll think we seed him still."</p>
+
+    <p>"What a lark!" said the boy.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A what, do you say, Dick?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Request information from the extreme point of my
+    elbow."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>They might all have spared themselves the trouble, for the
+    coffin was empty&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I'm blowed, here's a transmogrification; he's
+    consolidified himself into a blessed brick&mdash;my eye, here's
+    a curiosity."</p>
+
+    <p>"But you don't mean to say that's the butcher, Dick?" said
+    the boy.</p>
+
+    <p>Dick reached over, and gave him a tap on the head with the
+    brick.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Give it to me, Dick," said the boy; "I should like to have
+    that brick, just for the fun of the thing."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;d
+    if it ain't."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>The mob looked at each other, and none attempted to answer
+    the question.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a general expression of horror, and then Dick
+    continued,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You'd better all of you go home; I shall have no hand in
+    pulling up any more of the coffins&mdash;this is a dose for me.
+    Of course you can do what you like."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/209.png"
+             alt="209.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Pull them all up!" cried a voice; "pull them all up! Let's
+    see how many vampyres there are in the churchyard."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, it's no business of mine," said Dick; "but I
+    wouldn't, if I was you."</p>
+
+    <p>"You may depend," said one, "that Dick knows something about
+    it, or he wouldn't take it so easy."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! down with him," said the man who had received the box
+    on the ears; "he's perhaps a vampyre himself."</p>
+
+    <p>The mob made a demonstration towards him, but Dick stood his
+    ground, and they paused again.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The mob looked at him, wondering what he was going to
+    do.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>A general dispersion of the crowd ensued, and the brick fell
+    in the centre of a very large circle indeed.</p>
+
+    <p>"There you are again," said Dick; "why, what a nice act you
+    are!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;it's snug
+    enough."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;don't say anything."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good again," said the boy; "what shall I do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Give a sort of a howl and a squeak, when they've all come
+    back again."</p>
+
+    <p>"Won't I!" said the boy; "pop on the lid."</p>
+
+    <p>"There you are," said Dick; "d&mdash;&mdash;d if I don't
+    adopt you, and bring you up to the science of nothing."</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, listen to me, good people all," added Dick; "I have
+    really got something to say to you."</p>
+
+    <p>At this intimation the people slowly gathered again round
+    the grave.</p>
+
+    <p>"Listen," said Dick, solemnly; "it strikes me there's some
+    tremendous do going on."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, there is," said several who were foremost.</p>
+
+    <p>"It won't be long before you'll all of you be most
+    d&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, Dick; we won't&mdash;we won't&mdash;we won't."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;hush! come a little closer."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes; we are closer."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Get out," said Dick, "it's all right&mdash;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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XLVI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XLVI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE PREPARATIONS FOR LEAVING BANNERWORTH HALL, AND THE
+    MYSTERIOUS CONDUCT OF THE ADMIRAL AND MR. CHILLINGWORTH.</h3>
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/210.png"
+             alt="210.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>It seemed now, that, by the concurrence of all parties,
+    Bannerworth Hall was to be abandoned; and, notwithstanding
+    Henry was loth&mdash;as he had, indeed, from the first shown
+    himself&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>He, however, now made his consent to depend wholly upon the
+    full and free acquiescence of every member of the family.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But my mother?</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, there, I don't know. You must speak to her yourself. I
+    never, if I can help it, interfere with the women folks."</p>
+
+    <p>"If she consent, then I am willing."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you ask her?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good. That'll do; and the proper way to put it, too.
+    There's no mistake about that, I can tell you."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He was, therefore, prepared for what his mother said, which
+    was,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But will you leave it freely, mother?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then, mother, we may consider that as settled."</p>
+
+    <p>"As you please."</p>
+
+    <p>"'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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>But to resume.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How do you mean?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Leave me alone for that," said the admiral. "Do you think
+    I'm an ass?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay," said Jack Pringle, who came in at that moment, and
+    thought the question was addressed to him.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who spoke to you, you bad-looking horse-marine?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Me a horse-marine! didn't you ask a plain question of a
+    fellow, and get a plain answer?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;-n your impudence!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, d&mdash;-n yours."</p>
+
+    <p>"Shiver my timbers!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, you may do what you like with your own timbers."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you won't leave me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Sartingly not."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come here, then?"</p>
+
+    <p>Jack might have expected a gratuity, for he advanced with
+    alacrity.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I'm d&mdash;&mdash;d!" said Jack; "who'd have thought
+    of that?&mdash;he's a turning rumgumtious, and no mistake.
+    Howsomdever, I must turn it over in my mind, and be even with
+    him, somehow&mdash;I owes him one for that. I say,
+    admiral."</p>
+
+    <p>"What now, you lubber?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He went direct to Flora, and he said to her,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To-morrow! That is soon indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Would it be possible to remove from a house like this so
+    very quickly?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is true, brother; I recollect well."</p>
+
+    <p>"So that, upon the whole, sister, there is little to
+    remove."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I'll consider that as settled," said Henry.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XLVII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XLVII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE REMOVAL FROM THE HALL.&mdash;THE NIGHT WATCH, AND THE
+    ALARM.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/213.png"
+             alt="213.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Upon this, Henry sought the admiral, and told him as much,
+    at the same time adding,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;n it, what good do you
+    suppose an empty house is to me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The tables and chairs!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I was not aware, admiral, that that was your plan."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It shall be so."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who's that giving such a thundering ring at the gate?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, I know not. We have few visitors and no servants, so I
+    must e'en be my own gate porter."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry walked to the gate, and having opened it, a servant in
+    a handsome livery stepped a pace or two into the garden.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Is Mr. Henry Bannerworth within, or Admiral Bell?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Both," cried the admiral. "I'm Admiral Bell, and this is
+    Mr. Henry Bannerworth. What do you want with us, you
+    d&mdash;&mdash;d gingerbread-looking flunkey?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir, my master desires his compliments&mdash;his very best
+    compliments&mdash;and he wants to know how you are after your
+    flurry."</p>
+
+    <p>"What?"</p>
+
+    <p>"After your&mdash;a&mdash;a&mdash;flurry and
+    excitement."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who is your master?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir Francis Varney."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, ha!" said the footman, adjusting his collar; "very
+    good. This seems a d&mdash;&mdash;d, old-fashioned, outlandish
+    place of yours. Any ale?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, shiver my hulks!" said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! hush!" said Henry; "who knows but there may be a
+    design in this? We have no ale."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, ah! dem!&mdash;dry as dust, by God! What does the old
+    commodore say? Any message, my ancient Greek?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, thank you," said the admiral; "bless you, nothing. What
+    did you give for that waistcoat, d&mdash;n you? Ha! ha! you're
+    a clever fellow."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;adieu."</p>
+
+    <p>"Bravo!" said the admiral; "that's it&mdash;go it&mdash;now
+    for it. D&mdash;n it, it is a <i>do</i>!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't pump on that fellow now."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir; give us a hand."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;e, you go back as wet as a mop.
+    Won't it do to kick him out, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well&mdash;as you please, Jack."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>In lieu of a better explanation&mdash;and, after all, it was
+    no bad one&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"A vampyre&mdash;a vampyre&mdash;a vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Come into the house&mdash;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&mdash;a vampyre&mdash;a vampyre!
+    Heaven save us from a vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Soon, from a hundred throats, rose the dreadful cry of "A
+    vampyre&mdash;a vampyre!" The alarm was given throughout the
+    whole town; the bugles of the military sounded; there was a
+    clash of arms&mdash;the shrieks of women; altogether, the
+    premonitory symptoms of such a riot as was not likely to be
+    quelled without bloodshed and considerable disaster.</p>
+
+    <p>It is truly astonishing the effect which one weak or
+    vicious-minded person can produce upon a multitude.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>It is one of the most insidious processes of that decay
+    which appears to regret with its</p>
+
+    <div class='blkquot'>
+        <p>"&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash; offensive fingers,
+        To mar the lines where beauty lingers."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XLVIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE STAKE AND THE DEAD BODY.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/216.png"
+             alt="216.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/217.png"
+             alt="217.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Let us precede these furious rioters for a few moments, and
+    look upon the chamber of the dead&mdash;that chamber, which for
+    a whole week, had been looked upon with a kind of shuddering
+    terror&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Such, however, had not been the case, and so his funeral had
+    been determined upon.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>It happened, too, that the face was full of flesh&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>There was, unquestionably, a plumpness, a freshness, and a
+    sort of vitality about the countenance that was remarkable.</p>
+
+    <p>For a few moments there was a death-like stillness in the
+    apartment, and then one voice broke the silence by
+    exclaiming,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes," cried several voices at once; "a vampyre! a
+    vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, well, certainly, gentlemen; anything you please.
+    Coming&mdash;coming, as I always say; give your orders, the
+    waiter's in the room."</p>
+
+    <p>"Look upon the fare of that corpse."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly, certainly&mdash;directly."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you ever seen it before?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I don't know; somehow, it don't look so rum."</p>
+
+    <p>"Does it look fresher?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, somehow or another, now you mention it, it's very
+    odd, but it does."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no!" cried everybody.</p>
+
+    <p>"Is not this, then, one of that dreadful order of
+    beings?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;yes; what's to be done?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Drive a stake through the body, and so prevent the
+    possibility of anything in the shape of a restoration."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;a proceeding which, it was currently
+    believed, inflicted so much physical injury to the frame, as to
+    render his resuscitation out of the question.</p>
+
+    <p>The cries of alarm from below, joined now to the shouts of
+    those mad rioters, produced a scene of dreadful confusion.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XLIX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XLIX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE MOB'S ARRIVAL AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.&mdash;THE
+    ATTEMPT TO GAIN ADMISSION.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/220.png"
+             alt="220.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The cry then rose of "Down with Sir Francis
+    Varney&mdash;slay him&mdash;burn his house&mdash;death to all
+    vampyres!" and, at a rapid pace, they proceeded in the
+    direction of his mansion.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>These were formidable means of defence, if not of offence,
+    down a very narrow staircase, had they been used with
+    judgment.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>And besides, after all, if their position had been ever so
+    impregnable, they must come down eventually, or be starved
+    out.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>They paused a moment, by word of command, on the landing,
+    and then, after this slight pause, the word was given to
+    advance.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>At the sound of fire-arms, the women who were outside the
+    inn had, of course, raised a most prodigious clamour.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"But we heard the gun," said a woman.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;that
+    sixpenny worth of powder had defeated them.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>In a few more minutes there came in stragglers from the open
+    country, shouting "Fire! fire!" with all their might.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_L'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER L.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE MOB'S ARRIVAL AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.&mdash;THE
+    ATTEMPT TO GAIN ADMISSION.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/223.png"
+             alt="223.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>With so much system and so quietly had this attack been made
+    upon the house of Sir Francis Varney&mdash;for the consequences
+    of it now exhibited themselves most unequivocally&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Accordingly, in such cries and shouts as&mdash;but for
+    caution's sake&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Death to the vampyre!&mdash;death to the vampyre!" was the
+    principal shout, and it was uttered in tones which sounded like
+    those of rage and disappointment.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"That's right&mdash;that's right. Nobody speak."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre's room!" said several. "The vampyre's room!
+    That is it!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said he who had a kind of moral control over his
+    comrades; "I have no doubt but he is there."</p>
+
+    <p>"What's to be done?" asked several.</p>
+
+    <p>"Make no noise whatever, but stand aside, so as not to be
+    seen from the door when it is opened."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Try again," whispered one.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, have patience; I am going to try again."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Perhaps you may as well say at once what you want, instead
+    of knocking there to no purpose."</p>
+
+    <p>He gave a start, for the voice seemed to come from the very
+    door itself.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>This was terribly provoking. Here was an extent of caution
+    on the part of the garrison quite unexpected. What was to be
+    done?</p>
+
+    <p>"Well?" said the man who appeared at the little opening.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh," said he who had knocked; "I&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I&mdash;that is to say&mdash;ahem! Is Sir Francis Varney
+    within?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I say, is Sir Francis Varney within?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well; you have said it!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, but you have not answered it."</p>
+
+    <p>"No."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, is he at home?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>As he spoke, the servant shut the little square door with a
+    bang that made his questioner jump again. Here was a
+    dilemma!</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE ATTACK UPON THE VAMPYRE'S HOUSE.&mdash;THE STORY OF THE
+    ATTACK.&mdash;THE FORCING OF THE DOORS, AND THE
+    STRUGGLE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/224.png"
+             alt="224.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, so we must."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, that's the way he does; bring him out, I say, then
+    see what we will do with him."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Haven't we come on purpose?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, but do it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ain't we trying it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You will presently, when we come to get into the
+    house."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/225.png"
+             alt="225.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"I wish we could get in."</p>
+
+    <p>"But how is a question I don't very well see," said a large
+    specimen of humanity.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! that's the way to bother them all round; they'll give
+    in, and then the place is our own."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"If you can."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, to be sure, if we can, as you say; but can't we? that's
+    what I want to know."</p>
+
+    <p>"To be sure we can."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then we'll do it, mate&mdash;that's my mind; we'll do it.
+    Come on, and let's have another look at the street-door."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>They continued at this violent exercise for some
+    time&mdash;perhaps for five minutes, when the little square
+    hole in the door was again opened, and a voice was heard to
+    say,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You had better cease that kind of annoyance."</p>
+
+    <p>"We want to get in."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! it's all very well; but, an you won't open, why we'll
+    make you; that's all about it."</p>
+
+    <p>This was said as the big countryman and his companions were
+    leaving the avenue towards the rest of the body.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What luck?" inquired one of the mob to the others, as they
+    came back; "I'm afraid you had all the honour."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what's to be done?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Danged if I know," said one.</p>
+
+    <p>"Give it up," said another.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;they can't have
+    many; and besides, if they have, we are too many for them.
+    Besides, we shall all die in our beds."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah! down with the vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no; he has the better of us then. We'll have him
+    out&mdash;we'll burn him&mdash;that's the way we'll do it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, so we will; only let us get in."</p>
+
+    <p>At that moment a chosen party returned who had been round
+    the house to make a reconnaissance.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well," inquired the mob, "what can be done
+    now&mdash;where can we get in?"</p>
+
+    <p>"In several places."</p>
+
+    <p>"All right; come along then; the place is our own."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There is, besides, a garden-door, that opens into the
+    house&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The very point to make an attack."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not quite."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah! down with the vampyre!" said the mob, as they
+    listened to this advice, and appreciated the plan.</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with the vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the mob.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;which, in fact,
+    they were&mdash;against the door.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, then, we have them," exclaimed the servants, who began
+    to belabour the whole party with blows, with every weapon they
+    could secure.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!" shouted the mob; "the house is our own."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not yet," shouted the servants.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>Two or three of the mob reeled and fell.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>That shout was caused by an entrance being gained in another
+    quarter, whence the servants were flying, and all was
+    disorder.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the mob.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;the
+    grand staircase, with long poles or sticks, about the size of
+    quarter-staves, and with these they belaboured those below most
+    unmercifully.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Fire, again," exclaimed a voice from among the
+    servants.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with the vampyre&mdash;pull down&mdash;destroy and
+    burn the whole place&mdash;down with them all."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE MOB AND SIR FRANCIS
+    VARNEY.&mdash;THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.&mdash;THE WINE
+    CELLARS.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/228.png"
+             alt="228.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The shout that had so discomposed the parties who were thus
+    engaged in a terrific struggle came from a party above.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah! hurrah!" they shouted a number of times, in a wild
+    strain of delight. "Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!" shouted the mob below.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!" shouted the mob above.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with the vampyre!" they shouted.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Here he is," they cried.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who? who?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampire."</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with him! kill him! burn him!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah! down with the vampire!"</p>
+
+    <p>These sounds were shouted out by a score of voices, and they
+    rushed headlong into the room.</p>
+
+    <p>But here their violence and headlong precipitancy were
+    suddenly restrained by the imposing and quiet appearance of the
+    individual who was there seated.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, dang my smock-frock!" said one, "who'd ha' thought of
+    this? He don't seem to care much about it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I'm d&mdash;&mdash;d!" said another; "he seems pretty
+    easy, at all events. What is he going to do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"If you honour me with this visit from pure affection and
+    neighbourly good-will, I thank you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with the vampyre!" said one, who was concealed behind
+    the rest, and not so much overawed, as he had not seen Sir
+    Francis.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with the vampyre!" shouted one.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is the vampyre?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Where has he gone?"</p>
+
+    <p>These were cries that escaped every one's lips; and yet no
+    one could give an answer to them.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>They looked over every inch of flooring and of wainscoting;
+    not the remotest trace could be discovered.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know," said one&mdash;"I can't see where he could
+    have gone. There ain't a hole as big as a keyhole."</p>
+
+    <p>"My eye!" said one; "I shouldn't be at all surprised, if he
+    were to blow up the whole house."</p>
+
+    <p>"You don't say go!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I never heard as how vampyres could do so much as that.
+    They ain't the sort of people," said another.</p>
+
+    <p>"But if they can do one thing, they can do another."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's very true."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what's more, I never heard as how a vampyre could make
+    himself into nothing before; yet he has done so."</p>
+
+    <p>"He may be in this room now."</p>
+
+    <p>"He may."</p>
+
+    <p>"My eyes! what precious long teeth he had!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"He was very tall."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; too tall to be any good."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Every hole and corner of the house was searched, but there
+    was no Sir Francis Varney to be found.</p>
+
+    <p>"The cellars, the cellars!" shouted a voice.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurray!" said one, as he knocked off the neck of the bottle
+    that first came to hand.</p>
+
+    <p>"Here's luck to vampyre-hunting! Success to our chase!"</p>
+
+    <p>"So say I, neighbour; but is that your manners to drink
+    before your betters?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n it!" cried the man; "how it makes my eyes smart!
+    Dang thee! if I could see, I'd ring thy neck!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Success to vampyre-hunting!" said one.</p>
+
+    <p>"May we be lucky yet!" said another.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Excellent!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Capital wine this!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I say, Huggins!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," said Huggins.</p>
+
+    <p>"What are you drinking?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Wine."</p>
+
+    <p>"What wine?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you sure it ain't bottled men's blood?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Eh?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Or vampyres."</p>
+
+    <p>"There's a pretty thing to think of."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE DESTRUCTION OF SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S HOUSE BY
+    FIRE.&mdash;THE ARRIVAL OF THE MILITARY, AND A SECOND
+    MOB.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/230.png"
+             alt="230.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Fire the house, and burn him out," said one.</p>
+
+    <p>"Fire the house!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Burn him out&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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 <i>con
+    amore</i>. 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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"All right!" exclaimed one man, in exultation.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," replied a second; "all right&mdash;all right! Set
+    light to it, and he will be smoked out if not burned."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let us be sure that all are out of the house," suggested
+    one of the bystanders.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay," shouted several; "give them all a chance. Search
+    through the house and give them a warning."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Come out&mdash;come out! the house is on fire!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Fire! fire! fire!" shouted the mob as a chorus, every now
+    and then at intervals.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Make haste, lads, and fire away, for I see the red coats
+    are leaving the town."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurra! hurra!" shouted the infuriated mob.
+    "Fire&mdash;fire&mdash;fire the house! Burn out the vampyre!
+    Burn down the house&mdash;burn him out, and see if he can stand
+    fire."</p>
+
+    <p>Amidst all this tumult there came a sudden blaze upon all
+    around, for the pile had been fired.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurra!" shouted the mob&mdash;"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Get the poles and firewood&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurra&mdash;fire! Hurra&mdash;fire!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Each new victory of the element was a signal to the mob for
+    a cheer; and a hearty cheer, too, came from them.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is the vampyre now?" exclaimed one.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ha! where is he?" said another.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ha, ha! what a funny old man is Bob Mason; he's always
+    poking fun; he'd joke if his wife were dying."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>This was said with much apparent sincerity, and several
+    laughed at the old man's heartiness.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;not a bit on it. I tells you what it is,
+    neighbour, I never made but one grand mistake in all my
+    life."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what was that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To tie myself to a woman."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you'd get married to-morrow if your wife were to die
+    to-day," said one.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, nor anybody else."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"The red coats!" shouted one.</p>
+
+    <p>"The military!" shouted another.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Here they come," said one.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, just in time to see what is done."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, they can go back and say we have burned the vampyre's
+    house down&mdash;hurra!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurra!" shouted the mob, in prolonged accents, and it
+    reached the ears of the military.</p>
+
+    <p>The officer urged the men onwards, and they responded to his
+    words, by exerting themselves to step out a little faster.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, they should have been here before this; it's no use,
+    now, they are too late."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, they are too late."</p>
+
+    <p>"I wonder if the vampyre can breathe through the smoke, and
+    live in fire," said one.</p>
+
+    <p>"I should think he must be able to do so, if he can stand
+    shooting, as we know he can&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"So he can."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurra!" shouted the mob, as a tall flame shot through the
+    top windows of the house.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurra!" shouted the mob with the military, who came up with
+    them.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurra!" shouted the others in reply.</p>
+
+    <p>"Quick march!" said the officer; and then, in a loud,
+    commanding tone, he shouted, "Clear the way, there! clear the
+    way."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, there's room enough for you," said old Mason; "what are
+    you making so much noise about?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"We have come too late."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, much."</p>
+
+    <p>"The house is now nearly gutted."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And if you did, you could not say who had done it, and who
+    had not; you could prove nothing."</p>
+
+    <p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+    <p>"I shall not attempt to take prisoners, unless any act is
+    perpetrated beyond what has been done."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is a singular affair."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very."</p>
+
+    <p>"This Sir Francis Varney is represented to be a courteous,
+    gentlemanly man," said the officer.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I expect they will."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LIV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LIV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE BURNING OF VARNEY'S HOUSE.&mdash;A NIGHT
+    SCENE.&mdash;POPULAR SUPERSTITION.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/232.png"
+             alt="232.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>After the usual salutation, he waited for the inquiry to be
+    put to him as to what he had seen.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, Scott, what have you done?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No strangers, eh?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, sir, none."</p>
+
+    <p>"You saw nothing at all likely to lead to any knowledge as
+    to who it was that has caused this catastrophe?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you learnt anything among the people who are the
+    perpetrators of this fire?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, that will do, unless there is anything else
+    that you can think of."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing further, sir, unless it is that I heard some of
+    them say that Sir Francis Varney has perished in the
+    flames."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good heavens!"</p>
+
+    <p>"So I heard, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/233.png"
+             alt="233.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>At length the sergeant came to one man, whom he accosted,
+    and said to him,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you know anything of yonder fire?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes: I do know it is a fire."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, and so do I."</p>
+
+    <p>"My friend," said the sergeant, "when a soldier asks a
+    question he does not expect an uncivil answer."</p>
+
+    <p>"But a soldier may ask a question that may have an uncivil
+    end to it."</p>
+
+    <p>"He may; but it is easy to say so."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do say so, then, now."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I'll not trouble you any more."</p>
+
+    <p>The sergeant moved on a pace or two more, and then, turning
+    to the mob, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Is there any one among you who can tell me anything
+    concerning the fate of Sir Francis Varney?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Burnt!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you see him burnt?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; but I saw him."</p>
+
+    <p>"In the flames?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; before the house was on fire."</p>
+
+    <p>"In the house?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; and he has not been seen to leave it since, and we
+    conclude he must have been burned."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you come and say as much to my commanding officer? It
+    is all I want."</p>
+
+    <p>"Shall I be detained?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>The sergeant led the man back to the spot, where the officer
+    stood a little way in advance of his men.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, Scott," he said, "what have we here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A man who has volunteered a statement, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! Well, my man, can you say anything concerning all this
+    disturbance that we have here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then what did you come here for?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I understood the sergeant to want some one who could speak
+    of Sir Francis Varney."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I saw him."</p>
+
+    <p>"Where?"</p>
+
+    <p>"In the house."</p>
+
+    <p>"Exactly; but have you not seen him out of it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not since; nor any one else, I believe."</p>
+
+    <p>"Where was he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;not even fly out!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Fly out! I'm speaking of a man!"</p>
+
+    <p>"And I of a vampire!" said the man carelessly.</p>
+
+    <p>"A vampyre! Pooh, pooh!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>The officer looked at the man in astonishment for a few
+    moments, as if he doubted his own ears, and then he
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you serious?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am ready to swear to it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"For all that," said the man, "Sir Francis Varney is a
+    vampyre&mdash;a blood-sucker&mdash;a human blood-sucker!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Get away with you," said the officer, "and do not repeat
+    such folly before any one."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The red glare of the flames fell upon all objects around for
+    some distance&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Thus the men stood idly by, passing their remarks upon the
+    fire and the mob.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE RETURN OF THE MOB AND MILITARY TO THE TOWN.&mdash;THE
+    MADNESS OF THE MOB.&mdash;THE GROCER'S REVENGE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/235.png"
+             alt="235.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I can jump it," exclaimed one.</p>
+
+    <p>"And so can I," said another. "I have done so before, and
+    why should I not do so now."</p>
+
+    <p>This was unanswerable, and as there were many present, at
+    least a dozen were eager to jump.</p>
+
+    <p>"If thee can do it, I know I can," said a brawny countryman;
+    "so I'll do it at once.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold your noise," said another, "and help me to get the mud
+    out of my eye; I can't see."</p>
+
+    <p>"Never mind," added a third, "considering how you jump, I
+    don't think you want to see."</p>
+
+    <p>"This comes a hunting vampyres."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"However pleasant it may be to you," remarked one, "it's
+    profitable to a good many."</p>
+
+    <p>"How so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"So it is, but you may benefit anybody you like, so you
+    don't do it at my expence."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"It's shameful," he muttered; "what would I give for a
+    little retort. I'd plaster his ugly countenance."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>A bright idea now struck him.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah; I have a knife, a large pocket knife, that will do,
+    that is the sort of thing I want."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, here's something that will do better."</p>
+
+    <p>As he made a grasp at it, he found he had inserted his hand
+    into something soft.</p>
+
+    <p>"God bless me! what now?"</p>
+
+    <p>He pulled his hand hastily away, and found that it stuck
+    slightly, and then he saw what it was.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, the very thing. Surely it must have been placed
+    here on purpose by the people."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>When he made this discovery he dabbed his hand again into
+    the pitch-pot, exclaiming,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"In for a penny, in for a pound."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LVI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LVI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE DEPARTURE OF THE BANNERWORTHS FROM THE HALL.&mdash;THE
+    NEW ABODE.&mdash;JACK PRINGLE, PILOT.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/238.png"
+             alt="238.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack, you dog."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay&mdash;ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mind you convoy these women into the right port; do you
+    hear? and no mistaking the bearings; do you hear?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"These crafts want care; and you are pilot, commander, and
+    all; so mind and keep your weather eye open."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no, Jack; you needn't do that; but mind your bearings.
+    Jack, mind your bearings."</p>
+
+    <p>"Never fear; I know 'em, well enough; my eyes ain't laid up
+    in ordinary yet."</p>
+
+    <p>"Eh? What do you mean by that, you dog, eh?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing; only I can see without helps to read, or glasses
+    either; so I know one place from another."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack, you lubber; where are you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir, here am I."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Admiral Bell," said Henry, "here we are, trusting
+    implicitly to you; and in doing so, I am sure I am doing
+    right."</p>
+
+    <p>"You will see that," said the admiral. "All's fair and
+    honest as yet; and what is to come, will speak for itself."</p>
+
+    <p>"I hope you won't suffer from any of these nocturnal
+    visits," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; and experience has come pretty thick sometimes, I can
+    tell you, when it comes in the shape of Frenchmen's
+    broadsides."</p>
+
+    <p>"I dare say, then, it must be rather awkward."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I dare say; but here are Flora and my mother."</p>
+
+    <p>As he spoke, Flora and her mother entered the apartment.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have our promises, admiral; and they shall be
+    religiously kept, I can assure you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Boat, ahoy&mdash;ahoy!" shouted Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir&mdash;and so I did."</p>
+
+    <p>"You did."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay&mdash;ay, sir," said Jack, and he disappeared.</p>
+
+    <p>"Rather a lucid description," said Henry, as he thought of
+    Jack's report to the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Farewell, admiral."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good bye," said the admiral. "I hope the place you are
+    going to will be such as please you&mdash;I hope it will."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am sure we shall endeavour to be pleased with it, and I
+    am pretty sure we shall."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good bye."</p>
+
+    <p>"Farewell, Admiral Bell," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"You remember your promises?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do. Good bye, Mr. Chillingworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good bye," said Mr. Chillingworth, who came up to bid them
+    farewell; "a pleasant journey, and may you all be the happier
+    for it."</p>
+
+    <p>"You do not come with us?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I hope not," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>The door of the carriage was shut by the admiral, who looked
+    round, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack&mdash;Jack Pringle, where are you, you dog?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Here am I," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where have you been to?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Only been for pigtail," said Jack. "I forgot it, and
+    couldn't set sail without it."</p>
+
+    <p>"You dog you; didn't I tell you to mind your bearings?"</p>
+
+    <p>"So I will," said Jack, "fore and aft&mdash;fore and aft,
+    admiral."</p>
+
+    <p>"You had better," said the admiral, who, however, relaxed
+    into a broad grin, which he concealed from Jack Pringle.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," he said, "they are gone, Admiral Bell, and we are
+    alone; we have a clear stage and no favour."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;d&mdash;&mdash;e, I'll do everything."</p>
+
+    <p>"Everything that can be done."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay&mdash;ay."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>At length, after some time had been spent thus, Flora
+    Bannerworth turned to Jack Pringle, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Are we near, or have we much further to go?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not very much, ma'am," said Jack. "All's right,
+    however&mdash;ship in the direct course, and no breakers
+    ahead&mdash;no lookout necessary; however there's a land-lubber
+    aloft to keep a look out."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa!&mdash;take in sails, and drop anchor."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is this the place?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, here we are," said Jack; "we're in port now, at all
+    events;" and he began to sing,&mdash;</p>"The trials and the
+    dangers of the voyage is past,"<br>
+
+
+    <p>when the coach door opened, and they all got out and looked
+    about them where they were.</p>
+
+    <p>"Up the garden if you please, ma'am&mdash;as quick as you
+    can; the night air is very cold."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," said Flora, "this is very thoughtful of the admiral.
+    The place will really be charming, and the garden, too,
+    delightful."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mustn't be made use of just now," said Jack, "if you
+    please, ma'am; them's the orders at present."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well," said Flora, smiling. "I suppose, Mr. Pringle,
+    we must obey them."</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack Pringle, if you please," said Jack. "My commands only
+    temporary. I ain't got a commission."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LVII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LVII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE LONELY WATCH, AND THE ADVENTURE IN THE DESERTED
+    HOUSE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/240.png"
+             alt="240.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>It was one of those nights to produce melancholy
+    reflections&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/241.png"
+             alt="241.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>And to descend from great things to smaller&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The shutters, too, were all closed, and that circumstance
+    contributed largely to the production of that gloomy effect
+    which otherwise could not have ensued.</p>
+
+    <p>In fact, what could be done without attracting very special
+    observation was done to prove to any casual observer that the
+    house was untenanted.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>It was in this room, then, that two men sat in silence, and
+    nearly in darkness.</p>
+
+    <p>Before them, and on a table, were several articles of
+    refreshment, as well of defence and offence, according as their
+    intentions might be.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Close at hand, by the same party, lay some more modern fire
+    arms, as well as a long dirk, with a silver mounted handle.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I do hope," said Mr. Chillingworth, after a long pause,
+    "that our efforts will be crowned with success&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.'"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.'"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is it? put it out with another, then."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; true, true."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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&mdash;&mdash;e, you're an honest doctor!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hark'ee, my friend," said the admiral; "I've left a weak
+    point for the enemy."</p>
+
+    <p>"A what, admiral?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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;&mdash;and, d&mdash;&mdash;e, there it is!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come on," cried the former; "here'll be a precious
+    row&mdash;take the lantern."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm coming, I'm coming," said Mr. Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, that's odd," said the admiral; "I balanced them up
+    amazingly careful, and two of 'em edgeways&mdash;d&mdash;e, a
+    fly would have knocked them down."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mew," said a great cat, emerging from under a chair.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>With, a click went the darkening slide over the lantern, and
+    all was obscurity.</p>
+
+    <p>At that instant a shrill, clear whistle came from the
+    garden.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LVIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LVIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE ARRIVAL OF JACK PRINGLE.&mdash;MIDNIGHT AND THE
+    VAMPYRE.&mdash;THE MYSTERIOUS HAT.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/244.png"
+             alt="244.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Bless me! what is that?" said Mr. Chillingworth; "what a
+    very singular sound."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold your noise," said the admiral; "did you never hear
+    that before?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; how should I?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Lor, bless the ignorance of some people, that's a
+    boatswain's call."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, it is," said Mr. Chillingworth; "is he going to call
+    again?"</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;&mdash;e, I tell ye it's a boatswain's call."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, d&mdash;&mdash;e, if it comes to that," said
+    Mr. Chillingworth, "what does he call here for?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, Jack," he said, "did you see anybody?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, ye don't mean that&mdash;where?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Where I bought the grub; a woman&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;&mdash;e, you're a fool, Jack."</p>
+
+    <p>"You're another."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa, ye scoundrel, what d'ye mean by talking to me in
+    that way? is this your respect for your superiors?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ship's been paid off long ago," said Jack, "and I ain't got
+    no superiors. I ain't a marine or a Frenchman."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you're drunk."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know it; put that in your eye."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To be sure you did."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet you come here like a rum cask."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; now you've had your say, what then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You'd better leave him alone," said Mr. Chillingworth;
+    "it's no use arguing with a drunken man."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;that's my
+    opinion&mdash;tol de rol."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let him alone, let him alone," urged Mr. Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you going to stand anything to drink," said Jack, "my
+    old buffer? Do you recollect where you got your knob scuttled
+    off Beyrout&mdash;how you fell on your latter end and tried to
+    recollect your church cateckis, you old brute?&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Death and the devil!" said the admiral, breaking from the
+    grasp of Mr. Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay," said Jack, "you'll come to 'em both one of these days,
+    old cock, and no mistake."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll have his life, I'll have his life," roared the
+    admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What's that you say?" cried
+    Jack&mdash;"hollands!&mdash;who's got any?&mdash;next to rum
+    and Elizabeth Baker, if I has an affection, it's hollands."</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack!" said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir!" said Jack, instinctively.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come this way."</p>
+
+    <p>Jack staggered after him, and they all reached the room
+    where the admiral and Mr. Chillingworth had been sitting before
+    the alarm.</p>
+
+    <p>"There!" said the admiral, putting the light upon the table,
+    and pointing to the bottle; "what do you think of that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I never thinks under such circumstances," said Jack.
+    "Here's to the wooden walls of old England!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"So far, so good," said the admiral. "He's out of the way,
+    at all events."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush!" said the admiral. "What's that?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hist!" said the doctor. "Not a word. They come."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you say they for?" said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes&mdash;that'll do. The moon has risen; see how it
+    streams through the chinks of the shutters."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; and there's the footstep again, or another."</p>
+
+    <p>Tramp, tramp came a footfall again upon the gravel path,
+    and, as before, died away upon their listening ears.</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you say now," said Mr. Chillingworth&mdash;"are
+    there not two?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;we shall be beforehand."</p>
+
+    <p>"A good idea&mdash;a good idea. Be it so."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you think," said the admiral, "we've distanced
+    them?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly we have. It's unlucky that the blind of the
+    window is down."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is it? By Heaven, there's a d&mdash;&mdash;d
+    strange-looking shadow creeping over it."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who should you say that was?" whispered the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Varney, the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;&mdash;e, he's ill-looking and big enough for
+    anything&mdash;there's a noise!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"He's coming in," whispered the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, yes; I did."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go and do it, then; for, as sure as you are a living man,
+    his leg will be in in a minute."</p>
+
+    <p>"Here goes," said the admiral; "I never suggest anything
+    which I'm unwilling to do myself."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>His patience was not severely tried, for in another moment
+    it rested upon his chest.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;d&mdash;&mdash;e, he has&mdash;Doctor, the light!
+    the light! Why what's this?&mdash;Hilloa, there!"</p>
+
+    <p>Dr. Chillingworth sprang into the passage, and procured the
+    light&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Admiral Bell sat up and looked at the boot with a rueful
+    countenance.</p>
+
+    <p>"Done again!" he said.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"All's right, my lad," said the admiral; "now for it."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Call this fair fighting," he shouted&mdash;"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know," said the doctor; "but there's somebody
+    getting into the balcony&mdash;now we shall be murdered in cold
+    blood!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Where's the pistols?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Fired off, of course; you did it yourself."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Come on, you lubbers, many of you as like. I'm the tar for
+    all weathers."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, d&mdash;&mdash;e," said the admiral, "it's Jack
+    Pringle."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, Jack, you scoundrel," roared the admiral, "how came
+    you here? Don't you know me? I'm your admiral, you
+    horse-marine."</p>
+
+    <p>"Eh?" said Jack. "Ay&mdash;ay, sir, how came you here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"How came you, you villain?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Boarded the enemy."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Lor!" said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"Explain, you scoundrel, directly&mdash;explain."</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Smash yourself!" said Jack. "You know you're drunk."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Murder!" shouted the admiral; "you are indeed. Is that what
+    you call pulling me out of it? You've stuck me fast."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Beware of the dead!" said a voice. "Let the living contend
+    with the living, the dead with the dead. Beware!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LIX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LIX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE WARNING.&mdash;THE NEW PLAN OF OPERATION.&mdash;THE
+    INSULTING MESSAGE FROM VARNEY.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/248.png"
+             alt="248.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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 <i>propria persona</i> and given him notice to quit
+    the premises.</p>
+
+    <p>He was, however, the first to speak, and the words he spoke
+    were addressed to Jack, to whom he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack, you lubber, what do you think of all that?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, it seems so," said the admiral; "for I'll be hanged
+    if I can make head or tail of the fellow."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A mistake! how?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;a fact, concerning
+    which he can easily obtain information&mdash;and then he
+    immediately, without trouble, walks into the premises, to his
+    own satisfaction."</p>
+
+    <p>"But what the deuce can he want upon the premises?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/249.png"
+             alt="249.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack, suddenly; "all's right."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you vagabond," said the admiral, "I do believe you've
+    been shamming!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Shamming what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Being drunk, to be sure."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what made you make sure of that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, because you scuttled away like an empty tar-barrel in
+    full tide."</p>
+
+    <p>"Confound you, you scoundrel!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But who threw such a confounded lot of things into the
+    room?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You're another," said Jack; "and you knows it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I wish he'd do, then, what he considers for the worst, next
+    time."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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'."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The note, exteriorly, was well got up, and had all the
+    appearance of great care having been bestowed upon its folding
+    and sealing.</p>
+
+    <p>It was duly addressed to "Admiral Bell, Bannerworth Hall,"
+    and the word "immediate" was written at one corner.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The note was as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class='blkquot'>
+        <p>"My dear sir,&mdash;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.</p>
+
+        <p>"In consequence of a little accident which occurred last
+        evening to my own residence, I am, <i>ad interim</i>, 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.</p>
+
+        <p>"I trust that any little difference of opinion on other
+        subjects will not interfere to prevent the harmony of our
+        morning's meal together.</p>
+
+        <p>"Believe me to be, my dear sir, with the greatest
+        possible consideration, your very obedient, humble
+        servant,</p>
+
+        <p>"FRANCIS VARNEY."</p>
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"That's about the coolest piece of business," said Mr.
+    Chillingworth, "that ever I heard of."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"What are you going to do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Just in the neighbourhood; but&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Come on, then; come on."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, really, admiral, you don't mean to say you'll
+    breakfast with&mdash;with&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE INTERRUPTED BREAKFAST AT SIR FRANCIS VARNEY'S.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/251.png"
+             alt="251.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>Notwithstanding all Mr. Chillingworth could say to the
+    contrary, the admiral really meant to breakfast with Sir
+    Francis Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>This was conclusive, so the doctor said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How do you mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, couldn't you persuade him he's ill, and wants some
+    physic? That would soon settle him, you know."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what may that be? Is it, not to make too sure of a
+    vampyre, even when you have him by the leg?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have; and it seems to me to be completely verified by
+    the proceedings of the night. There, then, admiral, is the
+    great mystery&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But really, admiral, you do not still cling to that foolish
+    superstition of believing that Sir Francis Varney is in reality
+    a vampyre?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, there's something in that; but how far have we got to
+    go now?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you, my learned friend, recollect that you were invited
+    too; so that you are no intruder upon the hospitality of Varney
+    the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well; come to no collision with him, while we're his
+    guests."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not if I can help it."</p>
+
+    <p>The doctor rang at the gate bell of Walmesley Lodge, and was
+    in a few moments answered by a woman, who demanded their
+    business.</p>
+
+    <p>"Is Sir Francis Varney here?" said the doctor.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, ah! yes," she replied; "you see his house was burnt
+    down, for something or other&mdash;I'm sure I don't know
+    what&mdash;by some people&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! that's it, is it?" said the admiral&mdash;"tell him
+    that Admiral Bell and Dr. Chillingworth are here."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well," said the woman; "you may walk in."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank ye; you're vastly obliging, ma'am. Is there anything
+    going on in the breakfast line?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, yes; I am getting him some breakfast, but he didn't
+    say as he expected company."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," said Admiral Bell, "you invited me to breakfast, and
+    my learned friend; here we are."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Dear friends!" he said; "well, well&mdash;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&mdash;&mdash;d name is&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold, my dear sir," said Varney&mdash;"after breakfast, if
+    you please&mdash;after breakfast."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you address those observations to me," he said, at
+    length, "you blood-sucking vagabond?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Eh?" said Sir Francis Varney, looking over the admiral's
+    head, as if he saw something interesting on the wall
+    beyond.</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear admiral," said Mr. Chillingworth, "come away."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll see you d&mdash;&mdash;d first!" said the admiral.
+    "Now, Mr. Vampyre, no shuffling; did you address those
+    observations to me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Deborah," said Sir Francis Varney, in silvery tones, "you
+    can remove this tray and bring on the next."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not if I know it," said the admiral "I came to breakfast,
+    and I'll have it; after breakfast I'll pull your nose&mdash;ay,
+    if you were fifty vampyres, I'd do it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Old who?" shouted the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Bell, Bell&mdash;is not your name Bell?&mdash;a family
+    cognomen, I presume, on account of the infernal clack, clack,
+    without any sense in it, that is the characteristic of your
+    race."</p>
+
+    <p>"You'll fight me?" said the admiral, jumping up.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; if you challenge me."</p>
+
+    <p>"By Jove I do; of course"</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I accept it; and the challenged party, you know well,
+    or ought to know, can make his own terms in the encounter."</p>
+
+    <p>"Make what terms you please; I care not what they are. Only
+    say you will fight, and that's sufficient."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is well," said Sir Francis Varney, in a solemn tone.</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, nay," interrupted Mr. Chillingworth; "this is boyish
+    folly."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold your row," said the admiral, "and let's hear what he's
+    got to say."</p>
+
+    <p>"In this mansion," said Sir Francis Varney&mdash;"for a
+    mansion it is, although under the unpretending name of a
+    lodge&mdash;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&mdash;palpable, thick, and
+    obscure as the darkness of the tomb, and I know what that
+    is."</p>
+
+    <p>"The devil you do!" said this admiral "It's damp, too, ain't
+    it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The room?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; the grave."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! uncommonly, after autumnal rains. But to
+    resume&mdash;this room is large, lofty, and perfectly
+    empty."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I propose that we procure two scythes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Two what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Scythes, with their long handles, and their convenient
+    holding places."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I'll be hanged! What next do you propose?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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"&mdash;here Sir Francis jumped upon his chair,
+    and sat upon the back of it&mdash;"to get the better of you.
+    How do you like the plan I have proposed? Does it meet your
+    wishes?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Curse your impudence!" said the admiral, placing his elbows
+    upon the table and resting his chin in astonishment upon his
+    two hands.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Chillingworth ran to help him up, and, when they both
+    recovered their feet, they found they were alone.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER.&mdash;THE PARTICULARS OF THE
+    SUICIDE AT BANNERWORTH HALL.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/254.png"
+             alt="254.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa where the deuce is he?" said the admiral. "Was there
+    ever such a confounded take-in?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"What?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That we had never come here at all; and I think the sooner
+    we get out of it the better."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, but that's what he won't do. Now, admiral, listen to
+    me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, go on; what next?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Come away at once."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, you said that before."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; but I'm going to say something else. Look round you.
+    Don't you think this a large, scientific-looking room?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What of that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The devil! Come along!"</p>
+
+    <p>The door at which they entered was at this moment opened,
+    and the old woman made her appearance.</p>
+
+    <p>"Please, sir," she said, "here's a Mr. Mortimer," in a loud
+    voice. "Oh, Sir Francis ain't here! Where's he gone,
+    gentlemen?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To the devil!" said the admiral. "Who may Mr. Mortimer
+    be?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I must see him," he said; "I must see him."</p>
+
+    <p>Mr. Chillingworth started back as if in amazement.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God!" he cried, "you here!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Confusion!" said Mortimer; "are you Dr.&mdash;&mdash;
+    Dr.&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Chillingworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"The same. Hush! there is no occasion to betray&mdash;that
+    is, to state my secret."</p>
+
+    <p>"And mine, too," said Chillingworth. "But what brings you
+    here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot and dare not tell you. Farewell!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa! bravo!" cried the admiral; "the more the merrier!
+    Here's a combined squadron! Why, how came you here, Mr. Henry
+    Bannerworth?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Bannerworth!" said Mortimer; "is that young man's name
+    Bannerworth?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said Henry. "Do you know me, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no; only I&mdash;I&mdash;must be off. Does anybody know
+    anything of Sir Francis Varney?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Stuff! stuff!" said Mortimer, impatiently. "What do you all
+    want here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, Sir Francis Varney," said Henry,&mdash;"and I care not
+    if the whole world heard it&mdash;is the persecutor of my
+    family."</p>
+
+    <p>"How? in what way?"</p>
+
+    <p>"He has the reputation of a vampyre; he has hunted me and
+    mine from house and home."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," cried Dr. Chillingworth; "and, by some means or
+    another, he seems determined to get possession of Bannerworth
+    Hall."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let me ask but one question," said Dr. Chillingworth,
+    imploringly.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ask it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did he live after&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! he did."</p>
+
+    <p>"You always told me to the contrary."</p>
+
+    <p>"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:&mdash;Society at large is divided into two great
+    classes."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what may they be?" said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Those who have been hanged, and those who have not.
+    Adieu!"</p>
+
+    <p>He turned and left the room; and Mr. Chillingworth sunk into
+    a chair, and said, in a low voice,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"It's uncommonly true; and I've found out an acquaintance
+    among the former."</p>
+
+    <p>"-D&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, now, my young friend," said Mr. Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not expect. Admiral Bell," said Henry, "that it is to
+    you; but it is to me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Psha!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Respecting you, sir, as I do&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Gammon!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I must confess that I did expect&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then," exclaimed Henry, impetuously, "I will wring from him
+    answers to various questions which concern my peace and
+    happiness."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"How is Flora, now," he asked of Henry, "since her
+    removal?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Anxious still," said Henry; "but, I think, better."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you expect for that, doctor?" said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"There is nothing," said Henry, "that I could relate at all,
+    that I should shrink from relating to Admiral Bell."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am assured of that."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I understand you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is scarcely possible," remarked Henry, sadly, "that
+    popular rumour should exaggerate the facts."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>They passed again into the garden which they all knew so
+    well, and then Henry paused and looked around him with a deep
+    sigh.</p>
+
+    <p>In answer to an inquiring glance from Mr. Chillingworth, he
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Henry was silent for some few moments, and then he said,
+    with a deep sigh, as he looked mournfully around
+    him,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/257.png"
+             alt="257.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh," said the admiral, "he died here, did he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, where you are now sitting."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You might well do so," said the doctor.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"So I should imagine," replied Mr. Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"You, doctor," added Henry, "who know much of my family,
+    need not be told what sort of man my father was."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, but," said Mr. Chillingworth, "it so happens that those
+    are the people whose opinions are of the very least
+    consequence."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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 <i>bon vivants</i>, while he considered
+    that the grave admonitions of his real friends proceeded from
+    nothing in the world but downright envy and malice.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry paused for a few moments, and then he
+    added,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That was an odd affair," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It may be so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; I know to what you allude."</p>
+
+    <p>"Be so good as to state it to the admiral."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'Where, in the name of all that's damnable, can he have put
+    the money!'"</p>
+
+    <p>"And did you never find out who this man was?" asked the
+    admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Never."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is an odd affair."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! I remember," said the admiral; "the newspapers were
+    full of it for a long time."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And, in addition," said Mr. Chillingworth, and he changed
+    colour a little as he spoke, "there was an execution shortly
+    afterwards."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said Henry, "there was."</p>
+
+    <p>"The execution of a man named Angerstein," added Mr.
+    Chillingworth, "for a highway robbery, attended with the most
+    brutal violence."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, yes; I am quite well&mdash;you are mistaken."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is it so?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Premature be d&mdash;&mdash;d!" said the admiral; "out with
+    it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, nay, dear sir; I am not now in a position to say what
+    is passing through my mind."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you scoundrel!" cried the admiral, "how came you
+    here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"On my legs," said Jack. "Do you think nobody wants to know
+    nothing but yourself? I'm as fond of a yarn as anybody."</p>
+
+    <p>"But if you are," said Mr. Chillingworth, "you had no
+    occasion to come against me as if you wanted to move a
+    house."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is this fellow," said the doctor, shaking his head, as he
+    accosted the admiral, "the most artful or stupid?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A little of both," said Admiral Bell&mdash;"a little of
+    both, doctor. He's a great fool and a great scamp."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;n language, I'll
+    leave you."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll turn him off the first moment I catch him sober enough
+    to understand me," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well; do as you please; but now let me ask a favour
+    of both of you."</p>
+
+    <p>"What is it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That you will leave Bannerworth Hall to me for a week."</p>
+
+    <p>"What for?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I hope to make some discoveries connected with it which
+    shall well reward you for the trouble."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I," said the admiral. "Be it so&mdash;be it so. For one
+    week, you say?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then that's a bargain."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what's to be done at once?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't be longer," said the admiral, "for I am so desperately
+    hungry, that I shall certainly begin to eat somebody, if you
+    are."</p>
+
+    <p>"Depend upon me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well," said Henry; "you may depend we will wait here
+    until you come back."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE MYSTERIOUS MEETING IN THE RUIN AGAIN.&mdash;THE
+    VAMPYRE'S ATTACK UPON THE CONSTABLE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/261.png"
+             alt="261.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Other motives dictated their presence in that
+    spot&mdash;motives of rapine; peradventure of murder
+    itself.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"He comes&mdash;he comes!"</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;who was evidently
+    advancing&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>About three minutes more sufficed to bring the second man to
+    the ruin, and he, at once, and fearlessly, plunged into its
+    recesses.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who comes?" said the first man, in a deep, hollow
+    voice.</p>
+
+    <p>"He whom you expect," was the reply.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>At length the second comer spoke, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I have made some exertion to get here to my time, and yet I
+    am beyond it, as you are no doubt aware."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, such would not have been the case; but yet, I stayed
+    to bring you some news of importance."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Explain yourself more fully."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The other laughed a short, hollow, restless sort of laugh,
+    which had not one particle of real mirth in it.</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on&mdash;go on," he said. "What did they do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes. He did but stay, at the earnest solicitation of his
+    comrades, to take yet another glass, ere he came upon his
+    expedition."</p>
+
+    <p>"He must be met. The idiot! what business is it of his?"</p>
+
+    <p>"There are always people who will make everything their
+    business, whether it be so or not."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Your reputation as a vampyre, Sir Francis Varney, you
+    mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; but there is no occasion for you to utter my name
+    aloud, even here where we are alone together."</p>
+
+    <p>"It came out unawares."</p>
+
+    <p>"Unawares! Can it be possible that you have so little
+    command over yourself as to allow a name to come from your lips
+    unawares?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Sometimes."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am surprised."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, it cannot be helped. What do you now propose to
+    do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I must confess I have no plan."</p>
+
+    <p>"I listen with astonishment."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, now, you are jesting."</p>
+
+    <p>"When did you ever hear of me jesting?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then you throw it all on me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I throw a weight, naturally enough, upon the shoulders
+    which I think the best adapted to sustain it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Be it so, then&mdash;be it so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, we have."</p>
+
+    <p>"I pray you avoid that in the next campaign."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"We have&mdash;we have."</p>
+
+    <p>"And placed the probability of success afar off indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are too enthusiastic."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Kill him."</p>
+
+    <p>"What?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I say kill him. Do you not understand me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do, indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, how you wrong me. This is the reward of
+    confidence."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't want such confidence."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you surely don't want me to flatter you."</p>
+
+    <p>"No; but&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A short time will tire him out of watching. He is one of
+    those men of impulse who soon become wearied of inaction."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, and then the Bannerworths return to the Hall."</p>
+
+    <p>"It may be so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"In what way would you get rid of this troublesome
+    admiral?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I scarcely know. A letter from his nephew might, if well
+    put together, get him to London."</p>
+
+    <p>"I doubt it. I hate him mortally. He has offended me more
+    than once most grievously."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know it. He saw through you."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not give him so much credit. He is a suspicious man,
+    and a vain and a jealous one."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;than&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Than what? Do you hesitate?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then what is it you were about to say?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He has."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"All that is strictly true."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You contemplated it then?" asked the other.</p>
+
+    <p>"No; I cannot be said to have contemplated it. That is not
+    the proper sort of expression to use."</p>
+
+    <p>"What is then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To contemplate a deed seems to me to have some close
+    connexion to the wish to do it."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you have no such wish?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have no such wish, and what is more I will not do
+    it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then it must be done with something like danger."</p>
+
+    <p>"As you please."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Dissatisfied!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I really cannot understand you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I will take care that you shall."</p>
+
+    <p>"How?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Listen. I will not have the life of Charles Holland
+    taken."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who wishes to take it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"'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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! hush!"</p>
+
+    <p>"What is it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I fancy I hear a footstep."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed; that were a novelty in such a place as this."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet not more than I expected. Have you forgotten what I
+    told you when I reached here to-night after the appointed
+    hour?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"In faith do I. What is to be done with such a meddling
+    fool?"</p>
+
+    <p>"He ought certainly to be taught not to be so fond of
+    interfering with other people's affairs."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A good thought."</p>
+
+    <p>"Shall it be done?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; if you will arrange that which shall accomplish such a
+    result."</p>
+
+    <p>"Be it so. The moon rises soon."</p>
+
+    <p>"It does."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE GUESTS AT THE INN, AND THE STORY OF THE DEAD
+    UNCLE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/264.png"
+             alt="264.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Indeed, the strange, mysterious, and horrible circumstances
+    which had occurred, bade fair to be gossipping stock in trade
+    for many a year.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/265.png"
+             alt="265.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A fright!" said several.</p>
+
+    <p>"I believe I speak English&mdash;I said a fright."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, but had it anything to do with the vampyre?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Everything."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! do tell us; do tell us all about it. How was it? Did he
+    come to you? Go on. Well, well."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"It's no use trying to hurry him," said one.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Was it very dreadful?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Rather. You wouldn't have survived it at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"No. Now listen. I went to bed at a quarter after eleven, as
+    usual. I didn't notice anything particular in the room."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you peep under the bed?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said another. "I recollect once&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And did you think of the vampyre?" said one of the
+    listeners.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good. The striking of the clock I should not at all
+    have objected to; but it was what followed that did the
+    business."</p>
+
+    <p>"What, what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"No sooner had the last sound of it died away, than I heard
+    something on the stairs."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How dreadful!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, to be sure."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What a situation!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What an escape!"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, it was not."</p>
+
+    <p>"No?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How terrific!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What a moment!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Horrid, horrid!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Take a drop of ale."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, you wouldn't have said well, if you had been there, I
+    can tell you."</p>
+
+    <p>"No; but what become of you. What happened next? How did it
+    end? What was it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, what exactly happened next after I fainted I cannot
+    tell you; but the first thing I saw when I recovered was a
+    candle."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"And then a crowd of people."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, ah!"</p>
+
+    <p>"And then Dr. Web."</p>
+
+    <p>"Gracious!"</p>
+
+    <p>"And. Mrs. Bulk, my housekeeper. I was in my own bed, and
+    when I opened my eyes I heard Dr. Webb say,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'"</p>
+
+    <p>"'The Lord have mercy upon me!' said I.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'"</p>
+
+    <p>There was a general look of disappointment when this
+    explanation was given, and one said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Then it was not the vampire?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not."</p>
+
+    <p>"And, after all, only a clock weight."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's about it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why didn't you tell us that at first?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because that would have spoilt the story."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a general murmur of discontent, and, after a few
+    moments one man said, with some vivacity,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very true&mdash;very true."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what's to be done to rid the town of such a man?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, don't call him a man."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, a monster."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not I."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I would."</p>
+
+    <p>"What! and after what has happened as regards the vampyre in
+    connection with it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I would."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll bet you twenty shilling you won't."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I&mdash;and I," cried several.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And when will you go?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," said one, "that's fair, Tom Eccles. Here's a
+    handkerchief of mine; I should know it again among a hundred
+    others."</p>
+
+    <p>"Agreed; I'll leave it in the ruins."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>However, it was resolved among them, that they would stay
+    until half-past twelve, in the expectation of his return,
+    before they separated.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But go on&mdash;let's know all about it; we sha'n't hear
+    what he has got to say at all, at this rate."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, could he do so?" inquired one of the guests.</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't see what was to hinder him," replied a third. "He
+    could do so, certainly."</p>
+
+    <p>"But there was a son, and, as I take it, a son's nearer than
+    a nephew any day."</p>
+
+    <p>"But the son is illegitimate."</p>
+
+    <p>"Legitimate, or illegitimate, a son's a son; don't bother me
+    about distinction of that sort; why, now, there was old
+    Weatherbit&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Order, order."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let's hear the tale."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;the illegitimates looking the colour of
+    sloes; but he knew the law, and would have it put in
+    force."</p>
+
+    <p>"Law's law, you know."</p>
+
+    <p>"Uncommonly true that; and the nephew stuck to it like a
+    cobbler to his last&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, as I was saying, he had them all out and the house
+    clear to himself.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now," said he, "I have an open field and no favour. I don't
+    care for no&mdash;Eh! what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"There was a sudden knocking, he thought, the door, and went
+    and opened it, but nothing was to be seen.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! I see&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>He turned about, looked over room after room, and satisfied
+    himself that he was alone&mdash;that the house was empty.</p>
+
+    <p>At every room he entered he paused to think over the
+    value&mdash;what it was worth, and that he was a very fortunate
+    man in having dropped into such a good thing.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! there's the old boy's secretary, too&mdash;his
+    bureau&mdash;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&mdash;a very odd sort of
+    man."</p>
+
+    <p>With that he gave himself a shrug, as if some very
+    uncomfortable feeling had come over him.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;a
+    mere ceremony.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He then went up stairs again, and sat down in the room where
+    the bureau was placed.</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll be bound," said one of the guests, "he was in a bit of
+    a stew, notwithstanding all his brag."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have felt it, then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ha! ha! ha!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But you won your wager?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I did."</p>
+
+    <p>"And of course you slept there?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To be sure I did."</p>
+
+    <p>"And met with nothing?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing, save a few bumps against the gravestones."</p>
+
+    <p>"Those were hard knocks, I should say."</p>
+
+    <p>"They were, I assure you; but I lay there, and slept there,
+    and won my wager."</p>
+
+    <p>"Would you do it again?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No."</p>
+
+    <p>"And why not?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Because of the rheumatism."</p>
+
+    <p>"You caught that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I did; I would give ten times my wager to get rid of them.
+    I have them very badly."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come, order, order&mdash;the tale; let's hear the end of
+    that, since it has begun."</p>
+
+    <p>"With all my heart. Come, neighbour."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"If one bottle produces such an effect," he muttered, "what
+    will two do?"</p>
+
+    <p>This was a question that could only be solved by trying it,
+    and this he proceeded to do.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What is that?" he muttered; "what is that?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The figure instantly began to jump about; it was dressed in
+    white&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>This was very dreadful&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>The narrator concluded, and one of the guests
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"And do you really believe it?"&mdash;"No, no&mdash;to be
+    sure not."</p>
+
+    <p>"You don't?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXIV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXIV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE VAMPIRE IN THE MOONLIGHT.&mdash;THE FALSE
+    FRIEND.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/270.png"
+             alt="270.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Among these question was the very pertinent one
+    of,&mdash;"It's no argument against vampyres, because I don't
+    see the use of 'em&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;"Hist!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hist&mdash;hist!" said the voice again.</p>
+
+    <p>"What&mdash;what," gasped Tom Eccles&mdash;"what are
+    you?"&mdash;"Hush&mdash;hush&mdash;hush!"</p>
+
+    <p>The perspiration broke out upon his brow, and he leaned
+    against the wall for support, as he managed to say,
+    faintly,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, hush&mdash;what then?"&mdash;"Hist!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I hear you. Where are you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Here at hand. Who are you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Tom Eccles. Who are you?"&mdash;"A friend. Have you seen
+    anything?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; I wish I could. I should like to see you if I
+    could."&mdash;"I'm coming."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a slow and cautious footstep, and Marchdale
+    advanced to where Tom Eccles was standing.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Armed!" exclaimed Marchdale, and he at once
+    paused.&mdash;"Yes, I am."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The deuce you have: and pray what may your name
+    be?"&mdash;"Marchdale."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! certainly&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I know you, sir, well."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what brings you here?"&mdash;"A wager for one thing,
+    and a wish to see the vampyre for another."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"&mdash;"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"As for capturing him," said Marchdale, "I should prefer
+    shooting him."&mdash;"You would?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"&mdash;"I have some
+    handkerchiefs to hide here, as a proof that I have to-night
+    really been to this place."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"&mdash;"Willingly."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I shall try a pistol bullet on him. You say you are
+    armed?"&mdash;"Yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"With pistols?"&mdash;"One. Here it is."</p>
+
+    <p>"A huge weapon; loaded well, of course?"&mdash;"Oh, yes, I
+    can depend upon it; but I did not intend to use it, unless
+    assailed."</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis well. What is that?"&mdash;"What&mdash;what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't you see anything there? Come farther back.
+    Look&mdash;look. At the corner of that wall there I am certain
+    there is the flutter of a human garment."&mdash;"There
+    is&mdash;there is."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! Keep close. It must be the vampyre."&mdash;"Give me
+    my pistol. What are you doing with it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"Well,
+    I&mdash;I don't know."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have scruples?"&mdash;"I certainly have."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well&mdash;don't you fire, then, but leave it to me.
+    There; look&mdash;look. Now have you any doubt? There he goes;
+    in his cloak. It is&mdash;it is&mdash;&mdash;"&mdash;"Varney,
+    by Heavens!" cried Tom Eccles.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/273.png"
+             alt="273.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Surrender!" shouted Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>At the instant Sir Francis Varney sprang forward, and made
+    off at a rapid pace across the meadows.</p>
+
+    <p>"Fire after him&mdash;fire!" cried Marchdale, "or he will
+    escape. My pistol has missed fire. He will be off."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"You have hit him," said Marchdale&mdash;"you have hit him.
+    Bravo!"&mdash;"I have&mdash;hit him."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, a capital shot, by Jove!"&mdash;"I am very sorry."</p>
+
+    <p>"Sorry! sorry for ridding the world of such a being! What
+    was in your pistol?"&mdash;"A couple of slugs."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, they have made a lodgment in him, that's quite clear.
+    Let's go up and finish him at once."&mdash;"He seems
+    finished."</p>
+
+    <p>"I beg your pardon there. When the moonbeams fall upon him
+    he'll get up and walk away as if nothing was the
+    matter."&mdash;"Will he?" cried Tom, with animation&mdash;"will
+    he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly he will."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go off?"&mdash;"Yes; I don't want to have even a vampyre's
+    blood upon my hands."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are exceedingly delicate."&mdash;"Perhaps I am; it's my
+    way, though. I have shot him&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"I understand; he won't recover."&mdash;"Certainly not."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, as I want him to recover, that don't suit
+    me."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"He lies upon his face," said Marchdale. "Will you go and
+    turn him over?"&mdash;"Who&mdash;I? God forbid I should touch
+    him."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well&mdash;well, I will. Come on."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"He is quite dead," he said; "but I cannot see the
+    hurt."&mdash;"I think he turned his head as I fired."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did he? Let us see."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The slugs have taken effect on his face."&mdash;"I know
+    it&mdash;I know it. Don't tell me."</p>
+
+    <p>"He looks horrible."&mdash;"And I am a murderer."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, but if he be?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, you really do take a serious view of the
+    affair."&mdash;"Not more serious than it deserves."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what do you mean to do?"&mdash;"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do indeed."&mdash;"Then here will I wait."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Half-an-hour, certainly not more, might have elapsed; when
+    suddenly Tom Eccles uttered an exclamation, partly of surprise
+    and partly of terror,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"He moves; he moves!" he cried. "Look at the vampyre's
+    body."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Behold!" said Marchdale&mdash;"behold!"&mdash;"Heaven have
+    mercy upon us!"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is as I said; the beams of the moon have revived the
+    vampyre. You perceive now that there can be no
+    doubt."&mdash;"Yes, yes, I see him; I see him."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, he's coming here," said Tom.&mdash;"He seems so
+    indeed," remarked Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you mean to stay?"&mdash;"I think I shall."</p>
+
+    <p>"You do, do you?"&mdash;"Yes, I should much like to question
+    him, and as we are two to one I think we really can have
+    nothing to fear."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"You do not mean to
+    say that you will desert me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"Well, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Is he much terrified?" said Varney, as he came up to
+    Marchdale.&mdash;"Yes, most completely."</p>
+
+    <p>"This then, will make a good story in the town."&mdash;"It
+    will, indeed, and not a little enhance your reputation."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"I think you may now safely
+    reckon that you have done so. This man who has fled with so
+    much precipitation, had courage."</p>
+
+    <p>"Unquestionably."&mdash;"Or else he would have shrunk from
+    coming here at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"True, but his courage and presence arose from his strong
+    doubts as to the existence of such beings as
+    vampyres."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I hope so."&mdash;"And yet it cannot much avail you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"That I do not
+    wonder at."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"It will be so."</p>
+
+    <p>"It shall."&mdash;"And now, then, for a consideration of
+    what is to be done with our prisoner. What is your resolve upon
+    that point?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;"&mdash;"Kill him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no."&mdash;"What then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To set him free."&mdash;"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You talk in vain, Marchdale; I know to what it all tends;
+    you have a strong desire for the death of this young
+    man."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"So there must; therefore, I will make a sacrifice, and let
+    this young prisoner free from his dungeon."&mdash;"If such be
+    your determination, I know well it is useless to combat with
+    it. When do you purpose giving him his freedom?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"That would be well."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good; your prudence approves of the plan, and therefore it
+    shall be done."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Most probably," said Varney, calmly.&mdash;"Will you
+    release him to-night?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"&mdash;"He has."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"The accomplishment of
+    our purpose, I regret to say, seems as far off as ever."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not so&mdash;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,&mdash;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."&mdash;"Be it so."</p>
+
+    <p>"And now, Marchdale, I want more money."&mdash;"More
+    money!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; you know well that I have had large demands of
+    late."&mdash;"But I certainly had an impression that you were
+    possessed, by the death of some one, with very ample
+    means."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come on, then, at once. I would certainly, of course,
+    rather leave this place now, before daybreak. Come on, I say,
+    come on."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>VARNEY'S VISIT TO THE DUNGEON OF THE LONELY PRISONER IN THE
+    RUINS.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/277.png"
+             alt="277.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Speak," said Sir Francis Varney, as he entered the
+    dungeon&mdash;"If the occupant of this dreary place live, let
+    him answer one who is as much his friend as he has been his
+    enemy."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have no friend," said Charles Holland, faintly; "unless
+    it be one who would come and restore me to liberty."</p>
+
+    <p>"And how know you that I am not he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"&mdash;"I am unaccustomed to dissemble, and,
+    therefore I will say at once that I have a guess."</p>
+
+    <p>"In which way does it tend?"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Against Sir Francis Varney, called the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"Does it not strike you that this may be a dangerous
+    candour?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"Indeed! and yet can behave in
+    the manner you have done towards me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You object?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Sir Francis Varney was silent for a few moments, and then he
+    said, in a tone of deep solemnity,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"&mdash;"I promise?"&mdash;"I will."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"This is delightful, indeed," he said.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is," said Sir Francis Varney&mdash;"it is but a
+    foretaste of the happiness you will enjoy when you are entirely
+    free. You see that I have trusted you."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have trusted me as you might trust me, and you perceive
+    that I have kept my word."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is well; and now I have a request to make of you, which,
+    perhaps, you will consider the hardest of all."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>Charles Holland hesitated for some moments, and then he
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Sir Francis Varney looked coldly on while Charles uttered
+    this enthusiastic speech.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"'Tis well. Goodnight."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXVI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXVI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>FLORA BANNERWORTH'S APPARENT INCONSISTENCY.&mdash;THE
+    ADMIRAL'S CIRCUMSTANCES AND ADVICE.&mdash;MR. CHILLINGWORTH'S
+    MYSTERIOUS ABSENCE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/280.png"
+             alt="280.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;he'd find us out somehow."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you not tell me something, sir, of Mr. Chillingworth
+    talking of taking possession of the Hall for a brief space of
+    time?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, he ain't," said Jack Pringle, at that moment entering
+    the room; "you're wrong again, as you always are, somehow or
+    other."</p>
+
+    <p>"What, you vagabond, are you here, you mutinous
+    rascal?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I did; but I brought them back again; there's nobody
+    there, and don't seem likely to be, except a dead body."</p>
+
+    <p>"A dead body! Whose body can that be!"&mdash;"Tom somebody;
+    for I'm d&mdash;&mdash;d if it ain't a great he cat."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"&mdash;"How could I see him, if he wasn't there?"</p>
+
+    <p>"But he was there; he said he would be there."&mdash;"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&mdash;I mean the house&mdash;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.'"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"Ay, ay,
+    sir."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/281.png"
+             alt="281.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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?"&mdash;"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&mdash;&mdash;d first."</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral caught up a table-fork, and made a rush at Jack;
+    but Henry Bannerworth interfered.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no," he said, "admiral; no, no&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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 <i>skirf</i> 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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you infernal scoundrel," said the admiral, "nothing of
+    the sort ever happened, and you know it. Jack, you're no
+    seaman."&mdash;"Werry good," said Jack; "then, if I ain't no
+    seaman, you are what shore-going people calls a jolly fat old
+    humbug."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I tell you what it is, Jack," said the admiral; "you've got
+    your good qualities, I admit."&mdash;"Ay, ay, sir&mdash;that's
+    enough; you may as well leave off well while you can."</p>
+
+    <p>"But I'll just tell you what you resemble more than anything
+    else."&mdash;"Chew me up! what may that be, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A French marine."&mdash;"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&mdash;me, if it isn't enough
+    to make human nature stand on an end! Now, I've done with
+    you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"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,&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;and&mdash;"&mdash;"Hold yourself," said Jack; "I know
+    what you're going to say, and I won't hear you say it&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;yes; enough, Jack."&mdash;"Why, let me
+    see&mdash;that was a matter of forty years ago, nearly, when I
+    was a youngster."</p>
+
+    <p>"There&mdash;there, Jack&mdash;that'll do. You bring the
+    events of other years fresh upon my memory. Peace&mdash;peace.
+    I have not forgotten; but still, to hear what you know of them,
+    if recited, would give the old man a pang."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go, go."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"It is so," said
+    the old admiral; "just look at me, now. Do I look like the hero
+    of a romantic love story?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not exactly, I admit."&mdash;"Well, notwithstanding that,
+    Jack Pringle has touched a chord that vibrates in my heart
+    yet," replied the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you any objection to tell me of it?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXVII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXVII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE ADMIRAL'S STORY OF THE BEAUTIFUL BELINDA.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/283.png"
+             alt="283.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"A love story," said
+    Flora; "you tell a love story, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, my dear, and not only tell it, but be the hero of it,
+    likewise; ain't you astonished?"&mdash;"I am, indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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 <i>elite</i> 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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you loved her?" said Flora&mdash;"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&mdash;but what a d&mdash;&mdash;d old fool,
+    I am; we'll skip that if you please."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, nay," said Flora; "that is what I want to
+    hear."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He's neither," said Flora; "true feelings can never
+    disgrace any one."&mdash;"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&mdash;I&mdash;yes; I'm sure I kissed
+    her; and so, I told her I loved her; and then, what do you
+    think she said?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why," said Flora, "that she reciprocated the
+    passion."&mdash;"D&mdash;n my rags," said Jack, who at the
+    moment came into the room, "I suppose that's the name of some
+    shell or other."</p>
+
+    <p>"You here, you villain!" said the admiral; "I thought you
+    were gone."&mdash;"So I was," said Jack, "but I came back for
+    my hat, you see."</p>
+
+    <p>Away he went again, and the admiral resumed his story.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; I didn't know the cause of her emotion, but at last I
+    got it out of her."&mdash;"What was it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, a mere trifle; she was already married to somebody
+    else, that's all; some d&mdash;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you left her?"&mdash;"No, I didn't. Guess again. I was
+    a mad-headed youngster. I only felt&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Gracious Heavens! what a tragedy!"&mdash;"Yes, tolerable,"
+    said the old man.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who would have thought, Henry," said Flora, "that such a
+    man as Admiral Bell had been the hero of such an
+    adventure?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It does indeed&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"True&mdash;true. I can feel something for him; for have I
+    not lost one who loved me&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will endeavour to do so," replied Flora.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said Flora; "but he may have done that, brother,
+    still in furtherance of his object."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXVIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXVIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>MARCHDALE'S ATTEMPTED VILLANY, AND THE RESULT.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/284.png"
+             alt="284.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, Sir Francis Varney," he said, "you are out
+    late."&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you know I should be out late," said Varney, "and you
+    likewise know the errand upon which I was to be out."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I recollect; you were to release your
+    prisoner."&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I was."</p>
+
+    <p>"And have you done so?"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, no."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, indeed. I&mdash;I am glad you have taken better
+    thoughts of it. Good night&mdash;good night; we shall meet
+    to-morrow."&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Adieu," said Sir Francis Varney; and he watched the
+    retreating figure of Marchdale, and then he added, in a low
+    tone to himself,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Marchdale walked on for some little distance, and then he
+    turned and looked after Sir Francis Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;its edge is keen and sharp, and will
+    readily find a way to his heart."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What is that'" said Marchdale, shrinking back a moment;
+    "what is that&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>He listened for a few moments, and fixed his eyes intently
+    in the direction of the horizon from where the muttering sounds
+    had proceeded.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is sweeping on apace," he said; "why did I not come
+    earlier?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Ho! what ho! is there any one here?"&mdash;"Yes," said
+    Charles Holland, who fancied it might be his former visitor
+    returned. "Have you come to repent of your purpose?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah!" said Marchdale to himself, "Sir Francis, after all,
+    has told me the truth&mdash;the prisoner is still here."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where are you?" said Marchdale; "I cannot see
+    you."&mdash;"Here!" said Charles, "you may feel my grip;" and
+    he sprung upon him in an instant.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;chains!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Villain!" exclaimed Charles Holland, "you shall there
+    remain; and, let you have what mental sufferings you may, you
+    richly deserve them."</p>
+
+    <p>He heeded not the cries of Marchdale&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>His limbs trembled, and a profuse perspiration bedewed his
+    brow, although the night was rather cold than otherwise.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;namely, upon an
+    unoffending man, whom he supposed to be loaded with chains, and
+    incapable of making the least efficient resistance.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I shall behold her now," he said&mdash;"I shall behold her
+    how! A few minutes more, and I shall hold her to my
+    heart&mdash;that heart which has been ever hers, and which
+    carried her image enshrined in its deepest recesses, even into
+    the gloom of a dungeon!"</p>
+
+    <p>But let us, while Charles Holland is indulging in these
+    delightful anticipations&mdash;anticipations which, we regret,
+    in consequence of the departure of the Bannerworths from the
+    Hall, will not be realized so soon as he supposes&mdash;look
+    back upon the discomfited hypocrite and villain, Marchdale, who
+    occupies his place in the dungeon of the old ruins.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>When now, however, he felt confident that he was
+    deserted&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>But it was in vain. The chains&mdash;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&mdash;effectually resisted Marchdale.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;curses! Oh, mercy&mdash;mercy&mdash;mercy!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXIX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXIX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>FLORA BANNERWORTH AND HER MOTHER.&mdash;THE EPISODE OF
+    CHIVALRY.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/288.png"
+             alt="288.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/289.png"
+             alt="289.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"the knight with the
+    green shield is as good a knight as ever buckled on a sword, or
+    wore spurs."&mdash;"Then how comes it he is not one of the
+    victors in the day's tournament?" exclaimed another.&mdash;"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."&mdash;"And mine, too," said another.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But how canne he to be so easily overthrown to-day? That
+    speaks something."&mdash;"His horse is an old one."</p>
+
+    <p>"So much the better," said another; "he's used to his work,
+    and as cunning as an old man."&mdash;"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"He did not seem distressed about his accident, at all
+    events, but sat contented in the tent."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"A health to the
+    Knight with the Green Shield!" shouted the men-at-arms, as they
+    lifted their cups on high.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who is he?" inquired one of the men-at-arms, of him who had
+    spoken favourably of the stranger.&mdash;"I don't know."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet you spoke favourably of him a few seconds back, and
+    said what a brave knight he was!"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then they hadn't stood the shock of the foeman?"&mdash;"No;
+    that's certain."</p>
+
+    <p>"But still I should like to know the knight,&mdash;to know
+    his name very well."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"&mdash;"Yes; and he took a banner from the enemy in
+    the last battle that was fought."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, well! he deserves a better fortune to-morrow. Who is to
+    be the bridegroom of the beautiful Bertha, daughter of Lord de
+    Cauci?"&mdash;"That will have to be decided: but it is presumed
+    that Sir Guthrie de Beaumont is the intended."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! but should he not prove the victor?"&mdash;"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,&mdash;save on such conditions as would not endanger the
+    fruits of victory."</p>
+
+    <p>"No?"&mdash;"Certainly not; they would lay the trophies at
+    the foot of the beauty worshipped by the knights at the
+    tournament."</p>
+
+    <p>"So, triumphant or not, he's to be the bridegroom; bearing
+    off the prize of valour whether or no,&mdash;in fact, deserve
+    her or not,&mdash;that's the fact."&mdash;"So it is, so it
+    is."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The lady was beautiful, but, at the same time, she was an
+    unwilling bride,&mdash;every one could see that; but the
+    bridegroom cared not for that. There was a sealed sorrow on her
+    brow,&mdash;a sorrow that seemed sincere and lasting; but she
+    spoke not of it to any one,&mdash;her lips were seldom parted.
+    She loved another. Yes; she loved one who was far away,
+    fighting in the wars of his country,&mdash;one who was not so
+    rich in lands as her present bridegroom.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>She wept to think of the past, and to dream of the future;
+    both alike were sorrowful to think upon&mdash;no comfort in the
+    past and no joy in the future.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>Bertha sat late&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>As she spoke she looked up and saw one of her women in
+    waiting standing by.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what would you?"&mdash;"My lady, there is one who
+    would speak with you," said the hand-maiden.</p>
+
+    <p>"With me?"&mdash;"Yes, my lady; he named you the Lady Bertha
+    de Cauci."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who and what is he?" she inquired, with something like
+    trepidation, of the maiden.&mdash;"I know not, my lady."</p>
+
+    <p>"But gave he not some token by which I might know who I
+    admit to my chamber?"&mdash;"None," replied the maiden.</p>
+
+    <p>"And what does he bear by way of distinguishing himself?
+    What crest or device doth he bear?"&mdash;"Merely a green
+    shield."</p>
+
+    <p>"The unsuccessful knight in the tournament to-day. Heaven's!
+    what can he desire with me; he is not&mdash;no, no, it cannot
+    be&mdash;it cannot be."&mdash;"Will you admit him, lady?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Lady &mdash;&mdash;" "Oh, Heavens! 'tis he!"
+    exclaimed Bertha, as she sprang to her feet; "it is Sir Arthur
+    Home!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>The first emotion of joy and surprise over, Bertha checked
+    her transports, and chid the knight for his boldness.</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, chide me not, dear Bertha; I am what I was when I left
+    you, and hope to find you the same."</p>
+
+    <p>"Am I not?" said Bertha.&mdash;"Truly I know not, for you
+    seem more beautiful than you were then; I hope that is the only
+    change."</p>
+
+    <p>"If there be a change, it is only such as you see. Sorrow
+    and regret form the principal causes."&mdash;"I understand
+    you."</p>
+
+    <p>"My intended nuptials &mdash;&mdash;" "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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Heavens! and how did you escape such a death from such
+    people, Arthur?"&mdash;"By adopting such a device as that I
+    wear. The Knight of the Green Shield I'm called."</p>
+
+    <p>"I saw you to-day in the tournament."&mdash;"And there my
+    tired and jaded horse gave way; but to-morrow I shall have, I
+    hope, a different fortune."</p>
+
+    <p>"I hope so too."&mdash;"I will try; my arm has been good in
+    battle, and I see not why it should be deficient in peaceful
+    jousts."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not. What fortune have you met with since you
+    left England?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And they did not?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank Heaven!" said Bertha.&mdash;"Bertha, if I be
+    conqueror, may I claim you in the court-yard before all the
+    spectators?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You may," said Bertha, and she hung her
+    head.&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"Never fear for me, Bertha, because I shall
+    have many friends of distinction there too&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you a fresh horse?" inquired Bertha.&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"&mdash;"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will never have any other."&mdash;"But you will be forced
+    to accept this Guthrie de Beaumont, your father's chosen
+    son-in-law."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will seek refuge in a cloister."&mdash;"Will you fly with
+    me, Bertha, to some sequestered spot, where we can live in each
+    others society?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said Bertha, "anything, save marriage with Guthrie de
+    Beaumont."&mdash;"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."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,</p>
+
+    <p>"I am Sir Arthur Home, and claim the Lady Bertha as my
+    bride, by the laws of arms, and by those of love."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Said I not," exclaimed one of the troopers, "that the
+    knight with a green shield was a good knight?"&mdash;"You did,"
+    replied the other.</p>
+
+    <p>"And you knew who he was?" said another of the
+    troopers.&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE FUNERAL OF THE STRANGER OF THE INN.&mdash;THE POPULAR
+    COMMOTION, AND MRS. CHILLINGWORTH'S APPEAL TO THE
+    MOB.&mdash;THE NEW RIOT.&mdash;THE HALL IN DANGER.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/293.png"
+             alt="293.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah!" said one of the visitors, "this is a disagreeable job
+    in your house, landlord."&mdash;"Yes, sir; I'd sooner it had
+    happened elsewhere, I assure you. I know it has done me no
+    good."</p>
+
+    <p>"No; no man could expect any, and yet it is none the less
+    unfortunate for that."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; and, what between Varneys and Bannerworths, we have
+    had but little peace here."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"Oh, dear no."</p>
+
+    <p>"I wonder what has become of Varney, or where he can have
+    gone to."&mdash;"Some thought he must have been burned when
+    they burned his house," replied the landlord.</p>
+
+    <p>"But I believe it generally understood he's escaped, has he
+    not? No traces of his body were found in the
+    ruins."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>The old woman left the inn as soon as she had spoke this
+    Christian speech.</p>
+
+    <p>"Humane!" said a gentleman, with a sporting coat on. "The
+    old woman is no advocate for half measures!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"&mdash;"Ah! I thought as
+    much."</p>
+
+    <p>"How soon will the funeral take place, landlord?" inquired a
+    person, who had at that moment entered the inn.&mdash;"In about
+    an hour's time, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I hope so, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"The time is wearing on, and if they don't make a dust, why
+    then the military will not be troubled."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;they all have done enough."</p>
+
+    <p>"So they have&mdash;so they have."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's uncommonly true," said the landlord. "I shouldn't be
+    surprised if they didn't do something worse than
+    ever."&mdash;"Nothing more likely," said the little old man. "I
+    can believe anything of a mob&mdash;anything&mdash;no matter
+    what."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;they never hesitated; but even these, now the object
+    of their hatred was no more, felt appalled.</p>
+
+    <p>'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.</p>
+
+    <p>The undertakers are men, however, who are used to the
+    presence of death&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Jacobs," said one who was turning a long screw, "Jacobs, my
+    boy, do you take the chair to-night?"&mdash;"Yes," said Jacobs
+    who was a long lugubrious-looking man, "I do take the chair, if
+    I live over this blessed event."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are not croaking, Jacobs, are you? Well, you are a
+    lively customer, you are."&mdash;"Lively&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"True," said Jacobs with a groan; "but death's a melancholy
+    article, at all events."&mdash;"So it is."</p>
+
+    <p>"And then when you come to consider the number of people we
+    have buried&mdash;how many have gone to their last
+    homes&mdash;and how many more will go the same
+    way."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, that is pretty certain; but as I was saying how many
+    more are there&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"&mdash;"Quite," said
+    Jacob.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Any better, Jacobs?"&mdash;"What do you mean?" inquired
+    Jacobs, with a groan. "It's news to me if I have been ill."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, yes, you were doleful up stairs, you know."&mdash;"I've
+    a proper regard for my profession&mdash;that's the difference
+    between you and I, you know."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"So you
+    may&mdash;so you may."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then what do you mean by saying I haven't a proper regard
+    for my profession?"&mdash;"I say you haven't, and there's the
+    thing that shall prove it&mdash;you don't look it, and that's
+    the truth."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't look like an undertaker! indeed I dare say I don't
+    if I ain't dressed like one."&mdash;"Nor when you are,"
+    reiterated Jacob.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why not, pray?"&mdash;"Because you have always a grin on
+    your face as broad as a gridiron&mdash;that's why."</p>
+
+    <p>This ended the dispute, for the employer of the men suddenly
+    put his head in, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Will they be long?" inquired a man at the door of one
+    inside,&mdash;"will they be long before they come?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The man departed, hearing something, and being satisfied
+    that he had got some information.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The people soon removed from the passage and vicinity of the
+    doorway, and then the mournful procession&mdash;as the
+    newspapers have it&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," said the landlord, as he watched them down the
+    street, as they slowly paced their way with funereal, not
+    sorrowful, solemnity&mdash;"well, I am very glad that it is all
+    over."</p>
+
+    <p>"It has been a sad plague to you," said one.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;quite the reverse; but I
+    would not have such another affair on my hands for pounds."</p>
+
+    <p>"I can easily believe you, especially when we come to
+    consider the disagreeables of a mob."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I should think not, indeed; that would alter the scale of
+    your profits, I reckon."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"So I should say. Have many such occurrences as these been
+    usual in this part of the country?" inquired the stranger.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"&mdash;"Yes; and they suspected the unfortunate man
+    who has been lying up-stairs, a corpse, for some days."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, the man they have just taken in the coffin to bury?"
+    said the stranger.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, sir, the same."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I thought perhaps somebody of great consequence had
+    suddenly become defunct."&mdash;"Oh, dear no; it would not have
+    caused half the sensation; people have been really mad."</p>
+
+    <p>"It was a strange occurrence, altogether, I believe, was
+    it?" inquired the stranger.&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who has done so?"&mdash;"The vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed! I never heard of such an animal, save as a fable,
+    before; it seems to me extraordinary."</p>
+
+    <p>"So it would do to any one, sir, as was not on the spot, to
+    see it; I'm sure I wouldn't."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you think," said an old man to another, "that he will
+    come to life again, eh?"&mdash;"Oh, yes, vampyres always do,
+    and lay in the moonlight, and then they come to life again.
+    Moonlight recovers a vampyre to life again."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet the moonlight is cold."&mdash;"Ah, but who's to
+    tell what may happen to a vampyre, or what's hot or what's
+    cold?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not; oh, dear, no."&mdash;"And then they have
+    permission to suck the blood of other people, to live
+    themselves, and to make other people vampyres, too."</p>
+
+    <p>"The lord have mercy upon us!"&mdash;"Ay, but they have
+    driven a stake through this one, and he can't get in moonlight
+    or daylight; it's all over&mdash;he's certainly done for; we
+    may congratulate ourselves on this point."</p>
+
+    <p>"So we may&mdash;so we may."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Who was to lead Israel out to battle? Alas! no one on the
+    present occasion.</p>
+
+    <p>Such a one, however, appeared, at least, one who furnished a
+    ready excuse for a disturbance.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The crowd made way for her, and gathered round her to see
+    what was going to happen.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What the doctor?" exclaimed one.&mdash;"Yes; Mr.
+    Chillingworth, the surgeon. He has not been home two days and a
+    night. I'm distracted!&mdash;what can have become of him I
+    don't know, unless&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>Here Mrs Chillingworth paused, and some person
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Unless what, Mrs Chillingworth? there are none but friends
+    here, who wish the doctor well, and would do anything to serve
+    him&mdash;unless what? speak out."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay; but you must destroy all those who are even suspected
+    of being vampyres, or else one may do all the
+    mischief."&mdash;"So he might."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!" shouted the mob. "Chillingworth for ever! We'll
+    find the doctor somewhere, if we pull down the whole town."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;all
+    honour&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with Bannerworth Hall!" was the cry. "Burn
+    it&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/297.png"
+             alt="297.png">
+    </div>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE STRANGE MEETING AT THE HALL BETWEEN MR. CHILLINGWORTH
+    AND THE MYSTERIOUS FRIEND OF VARNEY.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/299.png"
+             alt="299.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Let us look, then, at the worthy doctor as he keeps his
+    solitary watch.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I am successful&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>Elated with this idea, the doctor listened intently to the
+    advancing footstep, which each moment sounded more clearly upon
+    his ears.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;of
+    that he felt now most positively assured, and could have no
+    doubt whatever upon the subject.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold&mdash;hold!" he cried. "Who are you, and what do you
+    mean by that?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And, my friend, whoever you are," responded the doctor,
+    "you were very spiteful to fire a pistol bullet at me in
+    consequence."&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Not at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"But I say yes; for, probably, I can prove a right to be
+    here, which you cannot."&mdash;"Ah!" said the stranger, "that
+    voice&mdash;why&mdash;you are Dr. Chillingworth?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I do know you, though. How, in the name of Heaven,
+    came you here, and what purpose have you in so coming?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What purpose have you? Since we met at Varney's, I have
+    been making some inquiries about this neighbourhood, and learn
+    strange things."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"&mdash;"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"He is," said the other.&mdash;"You have no manner of doubt
+    of it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Doubt?&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>The doctor shook his head repeatedly, as he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;awfully haunted me; and yet, although I felt
+    certain that I had once seen it under strange circumstances, I
+    could not identify it with&mdash;but no matter, no matter. I am
+    waiting here for him."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then you have an appointment with him?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Can you?" cried the doctor, energetically&mdash;"can you?
+    What is it? Tell me, for that is the very thing I want to
+    discover."&mdash;"You don't say so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have heard all that, and I dare say with many
+    exaggerations."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You think so, and yet know who I am."&mdash;"I do,
+    indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;ay, even the very lowest and vilest; and yet you talk
+    of an act of kindness not being altogether inconsistent with my
+    nature!"&mdash;"I do, because I know something more of you than
+    many."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a silence of some moments' duration, and then the
+    stranger spoke in a tone of voice which looked as it he were
+    struggling with some emotion.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;even you&mdash;do not know what
+    made me take to so terrible a trade."&mdash;"I do not."</p>
+
+    <p>"Would it suit you for me now to tell you?"&mdash;"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will, and you can pursue your watch at the same time,
+    while I beguile its weariness."&mdash;"Be it so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"Yes; but, at last, you found out why it was
+    that I shunned your company."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;the&mdash;&mdash;"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"You did, I must confess, to my most intense surprise."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;soon&mdash;come the
+    first effort&mdash;it was the last!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed! You left the dreadful trade?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I did&mdash;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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE STRANGE STORY.&mdash;THE ARRIVAL OF THE MOB AT THE
+    HALL, AND THEIR DISPERSION.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/303.png"
+             alt="303.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"You will find that the time which elapsed since I last saw
+    you in London, to have been spent in an eventful, varied
+    manner."&mdash;"You were in good circumstances then," said Mr.
+    Chillingworth.&mdash;"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."&mdash;"I recollect: but you were
+    married then, surely?"&mdash;"I was," said the stranger, sadly,
+    "I was married then."&mdash;"And now?"&mdash;"I am a widower."
+    The stranger seemed much moved, but, after a moment or so, he
+    resumed&mdash;"I am a widower now; but how that event came
+    about is partly my purpose to tell you. I had not married
+    long&mdash;that is very long&mdash;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."&mdash;"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."&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;none, I believe&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;two
+    qualities, he thought, never ought to be shown by any man who
+    moved in society."&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"&mdash;"He was a strange man&mdash;a very strange
+    man."&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Did he gamble?"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Was that a fact?" inquired Mr. Chillingworth.&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Your repentance has been sincere and lasting," said Mr.
+    Chillingworth; "the one proves the other."&mdash;"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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'I am desirous of seeing a friend backwards; he is at the
+    hazard-table. Will you go with me?'&mdash;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,&mdash;'No, St.
+    John, I'll wait here for you; it may be as well&mdash;the wine
+    is good, and it will content me?'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Do so,' he said, smiling; 'but remember I seldom or never
+    play myself, nor is there any reason why you
+    should.'&mdash;'I'll go, but I will not play.'&mdash;'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Well,' said St. John, 'what do you think of this
+    place?'&mdash;'Why,' I replied, 'I had no notion of seeing a
+    place fitted up as this is.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'No; isn't it superb?'&mdash;'It is beautifully done. They
+    have many visitors,' said I, 'many more than I could have
+    believed.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Yes, they are all <i>bona fide</i> players; men of stamp
+    and rank&mdash;none of your seedy legs who have only what they
+    can cheat you out of.'&mdash;'Ah!'&mdash;'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.'&mdash;'Exactly.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Do you see your friend?' I inquired.&mdash;'No, I do not;
+    but I will inquire if he has been here&mdash;if not, we will
+    go.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Do you play, sir?'&mdash;'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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Ah!' said the chevalier, who came up at that moment, 'I
+    thought you wouldn't play.'&mdash;'I really don't know how it
+    happened,' said I, 'but I suddenly found myself here without
+    any previous intention.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'You are not a loser, I hope?'&mdash;'Indeed I am not,' I
+    replied; 'but not much a gainer.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Nor need you desire to be. Do you desire to give your
+    adversary his revenge now, or take another
+    opportunity.'&mdash;'At another time,' I replied.</p>
+
+    <p>"'You will find me here the day after to-morrow, when I
+    shall be at your service;' then bowing, he turned away.</p>
+
+    <p>"'He is a very rich man whom you have been playing with,'
+    said the chevalier.&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'&mdash;''Tis well to play with
+    such,' I replied; 'but I suppose you are about to leave.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Yes, it grows late, and I have some business to transact
+    to-morrow, so I must leave.'&mdash;'I will accompany you part
+    of the way home,' said I, 'and then I shall have finished the
+    night.'</p>
+
+    <p>"I did leave with him, and accompanied him home, and then
+    walked to my own home."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/305.png"
+             alt="305.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;a fearful one it was too&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Lizzy,' said I, 'we are ruined.'&mdash;'Ruined!' she
+    exclaimed, and staggered back, until she fell into a seat.
+    'Ruined!'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Ay, ruined. It is a short word, but
+    expressive.'&mdash;'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'You must retrench most wonderfully,' I said, with
+    desperate calmness, 'for the murder must out.'&mdash;'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'No, no, Lizzy, we have no chance of recovering ourselves;
+    house and home&mdash;all gone&mdash;all, all.'&mdash;'My God!'
+    she exclaimed.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Ay, rail on,' said I; 'you have cause enough; but, no
+    matter&mdash;we have lost all.'&mdash;'How&mdash;how?'</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'&mdash;'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'No one,' said I, 'has ruined me; I did it; it was no fault
+    of any one else's; I have not that excuse.'&mdash;'I am sure
+    you can recover.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'I may; some day fortune will shower her favours upon me,
+    and I live on in that expectation.'&mdash;'You cannot mean that
+    you will chance the gaming-table? for I am sure you must have
+    lost all there?'</p>
+
+    <p>"'I have.'&mdash;'God help me,' she said; 'you have done
+    your child a wrong, but you may repair it yet.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Never!'&mdash;''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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'We never can, save by chance.'&mdash;'And by chance we
+    never shall,' she replied; 'if you will exert yourself, we may
+    yet retrieve ourselves.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'And exert myself I will.'&mdash;'And quit the
+    gaming-table?'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Ask me to make no promises,' said I; 'I may not be able to
+    keep them; therefore, ask me to make none.'&mdash;'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Say no more, Lizzy; if I can get a living elsewhere I
+    will, but if not, I must get it there.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;one room,
+    where, indeed, there were a few articles of furniture that I
+    had saved from the general wreck of my own property.</p>
+
+    <p>"She took things much less to heart than I could have
+    anticipated; she seemed cheerful and happy,&mdash;she
+    endeavoured to make my home as comfortable as she could.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'&mdash;'Do not
+    anticipate evil.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'&mdash;'Speak not of
+    it; my chances may turn out favourable yet, and you may be
+    again as you were.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Never.'&mdash;'But fortune is inconstant, and may change
+    in my favour as much as she has done in others.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Fortune is indeed constant, but misfortune is as
+    inconstant.'&mdash;'You are prophetic of evil."</p>
+
+    <p>"'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?'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"Day after day,&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'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&mdash;all for them.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'If I could but once do that, I would never enter a hell
+    again as long as I drew breath.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I seldom did, because
+    her looks were always a reproach to me; I could not help
+    feeling them so.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Well,' said I, 'I have come home to you because I have
+    something to bring you; not what I ought&mdash;but what I
+    can&mdash;you must be satisfied!'&mdash;'I am,' she said.</p>
+
+    <p>"'I know also you want it; how is the child, is she quite
+    well?'&mdash;'Yes, quite.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Where is she?' inquired I, looking round the room, but I
+    didn't see her; she used to be up.&mdash;'She has gone to bed,'
+    she said.</p>
+
+    <p>"'It is very early.'&mdash;'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Poor thing!' I said, 'let her be awakened and partake of
+    what I have brought home.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'This is bad,' I said.&mdash;'Yes, but I hope it may be the
+    worst,' she replied, in a deep and hollow voice.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Lizzy,' I exclaimed, 'what is the matter&mdash;are you
+    ill?'&mdash;'Yes, very ill.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'What is the matter with you? For God's sake tell me,' I
+    said, for I was alarmed.&mdash;'I am very ill,' she said, 'very
+    ill indeed; I feel my strength decreasing every day. I must
+    drink.'</p>
+
+    <p>"You, too, want food?'&mdash;'I have and perhaps do, though
+    the desire to eat seems almost to have left me.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'&mdash;'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Say no more, Lizzy, you know not my feelings when you
+    speak thus; alas, I have no hope&mdash;no aid&mdash;no
+    friend.'&mdash;'No,' she replied, 'your love of gaming drove
+    them from you, because they would not aid a gambler.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'&mdash;'Good bye,' she said, sorrowfully.
+    She shed tears, and wrung her hands bitterly. I hastened
+    away&mdash;my heart was ready to burst, and I could not
+    speak.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I played and won&mdash;played and lost&mdash;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&mdash;then the tide of
+    fortune was going in my favour. I ought to have left off with
+    that&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I was mad&mdash;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&mdash;they must have some, or would procure
+    some.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Lizzy!' said I, 'Lizzy!' There was no answer given, and I
+    paused. Everything was as still as death. I looked on the
+    bed&mdash;there lay my wife with her clothes on.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Lizzy! Lizzy!' said I. But still she did not answer
+    me.</p>
+
+    <p>"'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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'Lizzy! Lizzy! I'm come home.' But still no answer, or
+    signs of awaking.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'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!</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;some hours before I was discovered, and
+    this was by the landlady.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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, &amp;c."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'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&mdash;something, however menial, that would
+    keep me and my child. Yes, yes&mdash;she ought, she must have
+    her charges paid at once."</p>
+
+    <p>"The effect of my wife's death was a very great shock to me,
+    and such a one I could not forget&mdash;one I shall ever
+    remember, and one that at least made a lasting impression upon
+    me."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;anything that
+    was honest.</p>
+
+    <p>"I was reduced low&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE VISIT OF THE VAMPIRE.&mdash;THE GENERAL
+    MEETING.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/309.png"
+             alt="309.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>The mysterious friend of Mr. Chillingworth finished his
+    narrative, and then the doctor said to him,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not mean to say that your self-reproaches are unjust
+    altogether, but&mdash;What noise is that? do you hear
+    anything?"&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you take it to be?"&mdash;"It seemed like the
+    footsteps of a number of persons, and it evidently approaches
+    nearer and nearer. I know not what to think."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I did; can you inform me?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Can that be possible? The Bannerworth family are the
+    sufferers from all that has happened, and not the inflictors of
+    suffering."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"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."&mdash;"I can, indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hark, sir; do you not hear the tramp of horses'
+    feet?"&mdash;"I do."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"They are here. Will you not consult your safety by
+    flight?"&mdash;"No," said Mr. Chillingworth's companion; "we
+    prefer remaining here at the risk even of whatever danger may
+    accrue to us."</p>
+
+    <p>"Fools, would you die in a chance <i>melee</i> between an
+    infuriated populace and soldiery?"&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What shall we do?" said the hangman.&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"They are going to oppose the mob on foot, with their
+    carbines," said the hangman; "there will be sad work here I am
+    afraid."&mdash;"Well, at all events," said Mr. Chillingworth,
+    "I shall decline acting the part of a spy here any longer; so
+    here goes."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa! a friend,&mdash;a friend here, in the
+    summer-house!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Make it two friends," cried the hangman, "if you please,
+    while you are about it."</p>
+
+    <p>A couple of the dragoons immediately appeared, and the
+    doctor, with his companion, were marched, as prisoners, before
+    the officer in command.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"&mdash;"Close at hand sir, and he
+    says he's not well."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, or ill, he must come here, and do something with
+    these people."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"You know me, Mr. Adamson?" said the doctor; "I am Mr.
+    Chillingworth."&mdash;"Oh! yes; Lord bless you! how came you
+    here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Never mind that just now; you can vouch for my having no
+    connection with the rioters."&mdash;"Oh! dear, yes; certainly.
+    This is a respectable gentleman, Captain Richardson, and a
+    personal friend of mine."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! very good."&mdash;"And I," said the doctor's companion,
+    "am likewise a respectable and useful member of society, and a
+    great friend of Mr. Chillingworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, gentlemen," said the captain in command, "you may
+    remain here, if you like, and take the chances, or you may
+    leave."</p>
+
+    <p>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.&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will do the best I can, as Heaven is, my judge," said the
+    magistrate, "to produce a peaceable recall,&mdash;more no man
+    can do."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah! hurrah!"' shouted the mob, "down with the Vampyre!
+    down with the Hall!" and then one, more candid than his
+    fellows, shouted,&mdash;"Down with everything and
+    everybody!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah!" remarked the officer; "that fellow now knows what he
+    came about."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Stand firm, now, stand firm. No anger&mdash;steady."</p>
+
+    <p>"Twenty pounds for the man who threw that stone," said the
+    magistrate.&mdash;"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Make ready&mdash;present," cried the officer. And then he
+    added, in an under tone, "above their heads,
+    now&mdash;fire."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"There," said Dr. Chillingworth, "that this is, at all
+    events, a bloodless victory."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He was no sooner, however, perceived, than a couple of the
+    dismounted soldiers stepped forward and made a prisoner of
+    him.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Blessed by what?" exclaimed the hangman.</p>
+
+    <p>"By a sight of the long lost, deeply regretted Charles
+    Holland. Charles&mdash;Charles, is that indeed you, or some
+    unsubstantial form in your likeness?"</p>
+
+    <p>Charles Holland, for it was, indeed, himself, heard the
+    friendly voice of the doctor, and he called out to him.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"She lives and is well."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank Heaven. Do with me what you please."</p>
+
+    <p>Dr. Chillingworth sprang forward, and addressing the
+    magistrate, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am faint," said Charles; "I&mdash;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&mdash;can
+    you give me water?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I can take Mr. Chillingworth's word for more than that,"
+    said the magistrate.</p>
+
+    <p>Charles Holland was accordingly released, and then the
+    doctor, in hurried accents, told him the principal outlines of
+    what had occurred.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will be most careful, you may depend."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/313.png"
+             alt="313.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, Jack Pringle," said Dr. Chillingworth, stepping before
+    Charles, so that Jack should not see him,&mdash;"why, Jack
+    Pringle, what brings you here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A slight squall, sir, to the nor'west. Brought you
+    something to eat."</p>
+
+    <p>Jack produced a bottle.</p>
+
+    <p>"To drink, you mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How is the admiral?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"How dare you talk in the way you have of my uncle, you
+    drunken, mutinous rascal, and behind his back too!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Avast heavings," he cried, "Who's that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"What, you admit it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll be hanged up at the yard if I understands what you
+    mean," said Jack; "as if I ever drunk anything&mdash;I, of all
+    people in the world. I am ashamed of you. You are drunk."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"As you please."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Drunken fellow," exclaimed Jack, who had now scrambled to
+    his feet, "who do you call a drunken fellow?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why you, unquestionably."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You can accept of him as a guide if you like, of course,"
+    said the doctor; "he may be sober enough to conduct you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He is long past all reformation," remarked Dr.
+    Chillingworth; "it is out of the question."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>But that fate was one altogether undreamt of by Charles
+    Holland, and wholly without his control.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>We mentioned that as Charles left the ruins, the storm,
+    which had been giving various indications of its coming, seemed
+    to be rapidly approaching.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! what a death is this," he groaned. "Here,
+    alone&mdash;all alone&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;not one who
+    will rescue me from the horror that surrounds me, for Heaven
+    will not? I dare not ask mercy there."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles Holland!" he shouted; "oh! release me! Varney!
+    Varney! why do you not come to save me? I have toiled for you
+    most unrequitedly&mdash;I have not had my reward. Let it all
+    consist in my release from this dreadful bondage. Help! help!
+    oh, help!"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;for mercy it would have been&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>What else could he expect but to be engulphed among the
+    fragments&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>But the walls shake again, and this time the vibration is
+    more fearful than before. There is a tremendous uproar above
+    him&mdash;the roof yields to some superincumbent
+    pressure&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>All is over now. That bold, bad man&mdash;that accomplished
+    hypocrite&mdash;that mendacious, would-be murderer was no more.
+    He lies but a mangled, crushed, and festering corpse.</p>
+
+    <p>May his soul find mercy with his God!</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;that
+    dead which mortal eyes were never to look upon.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXIV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXIV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE MEETING OF CHARLES AND FLORA.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/317.png"
+             alt="317.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed, Jack, and what may that be?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed, Jack! taken to drinking has my poor old uncle, from
+    grief, I suppose, Jack, at my disappearance."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, I don't think it's grief," said Jack; "it strikes me
+    it's rum-and-water."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I believe that is a common delusion of intemperate
+    persons," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot say, Jack, that I know so much, for I have
+    certainly heard my uncle accuse you of intoxication."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But tell me of Flora; are you quite certain that she has
+    had no more alarms from Varney?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, you allude to watching the Hall, I presume?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He did come then; Sir Francis Varney came again after the
+    house was presumed to be deserted?"</p>
+
+    <p>"He did, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good, sir; do you see that there little white cottage
+    a-head, there in the offing?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes; is that the place?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, your honour, that's the port to which we are
+    bound."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.'"</p>
+
+    <p>"Very romantic indeed," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I believe you, sir; and that puts me in mind of Miss
+    Flora and you."</p>
+
+    <p>"An extremely flattering comparison. Of course I feel much
+    obliged."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack: and away he walked towards the
+    cottage, leaving Charles some distance behind.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then I honour Jack for doing so."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What's the matter now?" said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>A shriek burst from Flora's lips, and she sprung to the door
+    of the apartment.</p>
+
+    <p>"What!" cried the admiral, "my nephew&mdash;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&mdash;I&mdash;I'm an old fool, that's all."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack; "didn't you know that afore?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles&mdash;Charles!" cried Flora. He heard the voice.
+    Her name escaped his lips, and rang with a pleasant echo
+    through the house.</p>
+
+    <p>In another moment he was in the room, and had clasped her to
+    his breast.</p>
+
+    <p>"My own&mdash;my beautiful&mdash;my true!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles, dear Charles!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Flora, what have I not endured since last we met; but
+    this repays me&mdash;more than repays me for all."</p>
+
+    <p>"What is the past now," cried Flora&mdash;"what are all its
+    miseries placed against this happy, happy moment?"</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;me, nobody thinks of me," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear uncle," said Charles, looking over Flora's
+    shoulder, as he still held her in his arms, "is that you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I'll leave you alone, you dog. Come along,
+    Jack."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack; and away they went out of the
+    apartment.</p>
+
+    <p>And now those two loving hearts were alone&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora&mdash;dear Flora," said Charles, "and you have never
+    doubted me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I've never doubted, Charles, Heaven or you. To doubt one
+    would have been, to doubt both."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you are right, my Flora, right; and is it not a
+    glorious triumph to see that love&mdash;that sentiment of
+    passion&mdash;has enabled you to have so enduring and so noble
+    a confidence in aught human?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, Flora, I have suffered much&mdash;much physically, but
+    more mentally. It was the thought of you that was at once the
+    bane and the antidote of my existence."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed, Charles! Did I present myself in such contradictory
+    colours to you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;a
+    conviction peculiar to a lover&mdash;that none could so
+    effectually stand between you and all evil as myself."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes, Charles; most true."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, Charles; and then I was the bane of your existence,
+    because I filled you with apprehension?"</p>
+
+    <p>"For a time, dearest; and then came the antidote; for when
+    exhausted alike in mind and body&mdash;when lying helpless,
+    with chains upon my limbs&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And then&mdash;and then, Charles?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You were my blessing, as you have ever been&mdash;as you
+    are, and as you will ever be&mdash;my own Flora, my
+    beautiful&mdash;my true!"</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;no, not her chin&mdash;her sweet lips&mdash;he could
+    not get past them. Perhaps it was wrong; but we can't help
+    it&mdash;we are faithful chroniclers. Reader, if you be of the
+    sterner sex, what would you have done?&mdash;if of the gentler,
+    what would you have permitted?</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>MUTUAL EXPLANATIONS, AND THE VISIT TO THE RUINS.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/320.png"
+             alt="320.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have, indeed, uncle."</p>
+
+    <p>"And then there let him remain, and a good place, too, for
+    him."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The worst of it is," said the admiral, "I can't think what
+    to do with him."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/321.png"
+             alt="321.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Something has happened, uncle," he said, "I am certain;
+    tell me at once what it is."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! nothing, nothing," said the admiral, "of any
+    importance."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God!" said Charles, "has such a catastrophe
+    occurred?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Uncle," said Charles, "I'm glad to hear you make that
+    observation."</p>
+
+    <p>"What for?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, to deal candidly with you, uncle, Jack informed me
+    that you had lately taken quite a predilection for
+    drinking."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The rascal! I've done with him from this moment; I have put
+    up with too much from him for years past."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I won't endure it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The young man shook his uncle's hand in a cordial manner,
+    and then repaired to the apartment which had been provided for
+    him.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>But when such a heart trusts not with judgment&mdash;when
+    that pure, exalted, and noble confidence is given to an object
+    unworthy of it&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>On the road to the ruins, he calculated upon taking a
+    different kind of vengeance.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Heaven have mercy upon his soul!" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Amen!" said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Shall we tell this or not?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Tell it at once," said Henry; "let us have no secrets."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXVI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXVI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE SECOND NIGHT-WATCH OF MR. CHILLINGWORTH AT THE
+    HALL.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/323.png"
+             alt="323.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir," he said, to the hangman, "now that you have so
+    obligingly related to me your melancholy history, I will not
+    detain you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, you are not detaining me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, but I shall probably remain here for a considerable
+    time."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have nothing to do; and one place is about the same as
+    another to me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! ah!&mdash;I understand; you want me to go?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Just so."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, Dr. Chillingworth, allow me to tell you, I have
+    come here on a very special errand likewise."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is my fancy."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Possibly."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what is that reason? You may as well be candid with
+    me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I will, and am. I like the picturesque aspect of the
+    place."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How much you are mistaken!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, I mean, candidly, that you are not selfish enough to
+    be entitled to my confidence."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is a strange reason for withholding confidence from
+    any man."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You talk in riddles."</p>
+
+    <p>"To explain which, then, would be to tell my secret."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He could only, therefore, look his vexation, and
+    say,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>They obeyed the injunction with alacrity, and when the
+    doctor had admitted them, the admiral said, eagerly,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You don't mean to tell us that he is here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! creep along close to the house, and then you will not
+    be seen. There! do you hear that noise in the hall?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why it sounds," said the admiral, "like the ship's
+    carpenter at work."</p>
+
+    <p>"It does, indeed, sound like a carpenter; it's only the new
+    tenant making, I dare say, some repairs."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n his impudence!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, it certainly does look like a very cool proceeding, I
+    must admit."</p>
+
+    <p>"Who, and what is he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"To me," said Henry, "all this is as incomprehensible as
+    anything can possibly be. What on earth does it all mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear Henry," said the doctor, "will you be ruled by
+    me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not at all!" said Admiral Bell, producing from his ample
+    pockets various parcels,&mdash;"we came to bring you ample
+    supplies."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; we have been as far as the ruins."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, to release Marchdale. Charles told me how the villain
+    had fallen into the trap he had laid for him."</p>
+
+    <p>"He has, indeed, fallen into the trap, and it's one he won't
+    easily get out of again. He's dead."</p>
+
+    <p>"Dead!&mdash;dead!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; in the storm of last night the ruins have fallen, and
+    he is by this time as flat as a pancake."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Except that he has escaped your friend the hangman," said
+    the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Confound him! he is evidently working on his own account,"
+    said the admiral, "or he would not be half so industrious."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good morning, gentlemen! good morning," he said, and he
+    moved towards the garden gate. "I will not trouble you any
+    longer. Good morning!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>He drew a pistol from his pocket, as he spoke, and pointed
+    it at the hangman, who, thereupon paused and said:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said the admiral, "that's it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well! but,&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"You dare," said he, "stir another inch towards the gate,
+    and you are a dead man!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well; you have certainly stopped him from leaving," said
+    Henry; "but what's to be done now?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! what is that?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>There was a very gentle ring at the bell which hung over the
+    garden gate.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is Varney," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He is,&mdash;he saved Charles."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How sad he looks!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! he comes nearer; it is not safe to talk. Look at
+    him."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXVII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXVII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>VARNEY IN THE GARDEN.&mdash;THE COMMUNICATION OF DR.
+    CHILLINGWORTH TO THE ADMIRAL AND HENRY.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/326.png"
+             alt="326.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is my firm impression of him, I can assure you," said
+    Dr. Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You may depend he is," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I hope not long; but that something will occur to make us
+    have food for action. Hark! what is that?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot stand this," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Refers it to the vampyre?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It does&mdash;it does."</p>
+
+    <p>"Be brief, then; I am in an agony of impatience."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Acquaintance!" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you don't mean to say you are a vampyre?" said the
+    admiral; "or that he has ever visited you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Say on,&mdash;you are agitated."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You awaken, doctor," said Henry, "all my interest."</p>
+
+    <p>"And mine, too," remarked the admiral. "What can it be all
+    about? and where, doctor, did you first see this Varney the
+    vampyre?"</p>
+
+    <p>"In his coffin."</p>
+
+    <p>Both the admiral and Henry gave starts of surprise as, with
+    one accord, they exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you say coffin?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then he is a vampyre, and there can be no mistake," said
+    the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on, I pray you, doctor, go on," said Henry,
+    anxiously.</p>
+
+    <p>"I will. The reason why he became the inhabitant of a coffin
+    was simply this:&mdash;he had been hanged,&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"At length a circumstance occurred which favoured my designs
+    most effectually,&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I flew to my friend the executioner.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Can you,' I said, 'get me that man's body, who is to be
+    hanged for the highway robbery, on Monday?'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Yes,' he said; 'I see nothing to prevent it. Not one soul
+    has offered to claim even common companionship with
+    him,&mdash;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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"I did not hesitate, but, on the morning before the
+    execution, I called upon one of the sheriffs.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'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?'</p>
+
+    <p>"'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."</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/329.png"
+             alt="329.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;Heaven only knows why&mdash;Sir Francis
+    Varney."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God!" said Henry, "are you certain?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Quite."</p>
+
+    <p>"It may have been some other rascal like him," said the
+    admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no; you would not be so positive upon the subject, I
+    well know, if there was the slightest possibility of an
+    error."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed I should not."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let us have the sequel, then."</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'Doctor, have you duly considered what you mean to do with
+    this fellow, in case you should be successful in restoring him
+    to life?'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Not I,' said I.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Well,' he said, 'you can do as you like; but I consider
+    that it is really worth thinking of.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'I am afraid, sir, it is much easier to kill than to
+    restore their patients with doctors.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'Death, death, where is the treasure?'</p>
+
+    <p>"I had fully succeeded&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you never met the man you had so resuscitated?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not till I saw Varney, the vampyre; and, as I tell you, I
+    am now certain that he is the man."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is the strangest yarn that ever I heard," said the
+    admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"A most singular circumstance," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"You may have noticed about his countenance," said Dr.
+    Chillingworth, "a strange distorted look?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And that man who is now in the hall with him, doctor," said
+    Henry, "is the very hangman who executed him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is very strange; but, hark! do you not hear the sound of
+    voices in angry altercation?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes, they have met. Let us approach the windows now.
+    We may chance to hear something of what they say to each
+    other."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXVIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXVIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE ALTERCATION BETWEEN VARNEY AND THE EXECUTIONER IN THE
+    HALL.&mdash;THE MUTUAL AGREEMENT.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/331.png"
+             alt="331.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not deny but that you have kept your word with
+    me&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But what do you here?" said Varney, impatiently.</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you?" cried the other.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Can I not, indeed? What, too, if I have serious and
+    important business here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Impossible."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I may as easily use such a term as regards what you
+    call important business, but here I shall remain."</p>
+
+    <p>"Here you shall not remain."</p>
+
+    <p>"And will you make the somewhat hazardous attempt to force
+    me to leave?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;reasons which concern my continued
+    existence.</p>
+
+    <p>"Your continued existence you talk of.&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; what, in the name of all that's inexplicable, has
+    induced you to enact such a character?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"In sooth, you do not."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Varney was silent; and after a few moments' pause, the other
+    exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"There are people, even now, watching the place, and no
+    doubt you have been seen coming into it."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no, I was satisfied no one was here but you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Upon my word," whispered the admiral, "there is something
+    about that fellow that I like, after all."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush!" said Henry, "listen to them. This would all have
+    been unintelligible to us, if you had not related to us what
+    you have."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have just told you in time," said Chillingworth, "it
+    seems."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you, then," said the hangman, "listen to
+    proposals?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;this way."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What's to be done now?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Wait," said Dr. Chillingworth, "wait, and watch still. I
+    see nothing else that can be done with any degree of
+    safety."</p>
+
+    <p>"But what are we to wait for?" said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"By waiting, we shall, perhaps, find out," was the doctor's
+    reply; "but you may depend that we never shall by
+    interfering."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly, and Jack Pringle."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;let me see&mdash;five strong
+    without him, which ought to be enough to take prisoners two
+    men."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said Henry, "although one of them may be a
+    vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"That makes no difference," said the admiral. "I'd as soon
+    take a ship manned with vampyres as with Frenchmen."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you see that rascal, Jack Pringle?" said the
+    admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said Henry; "he is drunk."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah, to be sure."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well, we can do without him," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Without him! I should think so. Do you hear those fellows
+    in the Hall at work? D&mdash;n me, if I haven't all of a sudden
+    thought what the reason of it all is."</p>
+
+    <p>"What&mdash;what?" said the doctor, anxiously.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, that rascal Varney, you know, had his house burnt
+    down."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; well?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, is that your notion?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, and a very natural one, I think, too, Master Doctor,
+    whatever you may think of it. Come, now, have you a
+    better?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, dear, no, certainly not; but I have a notion that
+    something to eat would comfort the inward man much."</p>
+
+    <p>"And so would something to drink, blow me if it wouldn't,"
+    said Jack Pringle, suddenly making his appearance.</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral made a rush upon him; but he was restrained by
+    the others, and Jack, with a look of triumph, said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God!" said the doctor, "what shall we do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing," said Jack, as he took a bottle from his pocket
+    and applied the neck of it to his
+    lips&mdash;"nothing&mdash;nothing at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"My eye, admiral," he said, "was that done like a British
+    seaman? My eye&mdash;was that the trick of a lubber, or of a
+    thorough-going first-rater? first-rater? My eye&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"ay, ay; but it's a hard case,
+    take it how you will, to have your grog stopped; but, d&mdash;n
+    it, I never had it stopped yet when it was in my mouth."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>When they challenged him upon the subject, all he would say
+    was,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The noise from the house had ceased, and all was profoundly
+    still. But more than once Henry fancied he heard footsteps
+    outside the garden.</p>
+
+    <p>He mentioned his suspicions to Charles Holland, who
+    immediately said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The same thing has come to my ears."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;shall we tell them?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; let us listen, as yet."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;he being
+    the best acquainted with the localities of the place&mdash;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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXIX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXIX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE VAMPYRE'S DANGER.&mdash;THE LAST REFUGE.&mdash;THE RUSE
+    OF HENRY BANNERWORTH.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/334.png"
+             alt="334.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>For a few moments all was still, and then suddenly he heard
+    some one say, in a low voice,</p>
+
+    <p>"Hist! hist! did you hear nothing?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I thought I did," said another; "but I now am
+    doubtful."</p>
+
+    <p>"Listen again."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Most cautiously now he raised himself, so that his eyes
+    could just look over the fence, and then, indeed, he was
+    astonished.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I am resolved upon it," said one; "I am quite determined. I
+    will, please God, rid the country of that dreadful man."</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't call him a man," said the oilier.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well; it is a wrong name to apply to a vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is Varney, after all, then," said Henry. Bannerworth, to
+    himself;&mdash;"it is his life that they seek. What can be done
+    to save him?&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>They were all much surprised, and then the doctor said,</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is there no hiding-place in the house," said Charles,
+    "where you might, after warning him of his danger, conceal
+    him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"There are plenty, but of what avail would that be, if they
+    burn down the Hall, which in all probability they will!"</p>
+
+    <p>"None, certainly."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But how!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will go among them and make the effort."</p>
+
+    <p>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,</p>
+
+    <p>"Stop the vampyre! stop the vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Where, where?" shouted a number of persons at once, turning
+    their eyes eagerly towards the spot where Henry stood.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE DISCOVERY OF THE BODY OF MARCHDALE IN THE RUINS BY THE
+    MOB.&mdash;THE BURNING OF THE CORPSE.&mdash;THE MURDER OF THE
+    HANGMAN.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/335.png"
+             alt="335.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>It was a sad sight to see such a sacrilege
+    committed,&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The mob became quiet for some moments, but was not so long;
+    indeed, a mob of people,&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>After this exhibition of power, they began to run about like
+    mad,&mdash;traverse the grounds from one end to the other, and
+    then the ruins were in progress of being explored.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>There were some shouting and hallooing from one to the other
+    as they hurried about the ruins.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Hilloa! hurrah! here we are, altogether,&mdash;come
+    on,&mdash;I've found him,&mdash;I've found&mdash;recollect it's
+    me, and nobody else has found,&mdash;hurrah!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What's the matter, Bill?" exclaimed one who came up to him,
+    and who had been close at hand.</p>
+
+    <p>"The matter? why, I've found him; that's the matter, old
+    man," replied the first.</p>
+
+    <p>"What, a whale?</p>
+
+    <p>"No, a wampyre; the blessed wampyre! there he
+    is,&mdash;don't you see him under them ere bricks?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, that's not him; he got away."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't care," replied the other, "who got away, or who
+    didn't; I know this much, that he's a wampyre,&mdash;he
+    wouldn't be there if he warn't."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Whose is it?" inquired a dozen voices.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/337.png"
+             alt="337.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"Not Sir Francis Varney's!" said the second speaker; "the
+    clothes are not his&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no; not Sir Francis's"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A what!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"So we shall,&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I tell you what it is; our only plan will be to get him out
+    of the ruins, then, remarked another.</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no you won't," said an old woman.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a pause for a few moments, and then one man more
+    adventurous than the rest, exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now, what's to be done?" inquired one.</p>
+
+    <p>"Burn it," said another.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!" shouted a female voice; "we've got the wampyre!
+    run a stake through his body, and then place him upon some dry
+    wood,&mdash;there's plenty to be had about here, I am
+    sure,&mdash;and then burn him to a cinder."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's right, old woman,&mdash;that's right," said a man;
+    "nothing better: the devil must be in him if he come to life
+    after that, I should say."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;"Another for
+    Hector," until he himself fell as the last of his race.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The next thing to be done was to light the pile&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I reckon," said one, "that he's pretty well done by this
+    time&mdash;he's had a warm berth of it up there."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;why, it would
+    prevent a frost, I do believe it would."</p>
+
+    <p>"So it would, neighbour," answered another.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," replied a third, "but you'd want such a one corner of
+    each field though."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He was a strange, odd looking man, and at the time it was
+    very doubtful among the mob as to whom it was&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who is it?" exclaimed one.</p>
+
+    <p>"Danged if I knows," said another, looking very hard, and
+    very white at the same time;&mdash;"I hope it ain't the chap
+    what we've burned here jist now."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes, she's right&mdash;a vampyre may live upon blood,
+    but cannot do without his inside."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!&mdash;After him&mdash;there's a vampyre&mdash;there
+    he goes!&mdash;after him&mdash;catch him&mdash;burn him!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have mercy on me," said the stranger. "What do you want? I
+    am not rich; but take all I have."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you do here?" inquired twenty voices. "Come, tell
+    us that&mdash;what do you do here, and who are you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A stranger, quite a stranger to these parts."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, yes! he's a stranger; but that's all the worse for
+    him&mdash;he's a vampyre&mdash;there's no doubt about
+    that."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God," said the man, "I am a living and breathing man
+    like yourselves. I have done no wrong, and injured no
+    man&mdash;be merciful unto me; I intend no harm."</p>
+
+    <p>"Of course not; send him to the fire&mdash;take him back to
+    the ruins&mdash;to the fire."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! that's very true; bring him back to the fire, and we'll
+    try the effects of the fire upon his constitution."</p>
+
+    <p>"I tell you what, neighbour, it's my opinion, that as one
+    fool makes many, so one vampyre makes many."</p>
+
+    <p>"So it does, so it does; there's much truth and reason in
+    that neighbour; I am decidedly of that opinion, too."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come along then," cried the mob, cuffing and pulling the
+    unfortunate stranger with them.</p>
+
+    <p>"Mercy, mercy!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with the vampyre!" said the mob.</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;I know nothing of these people of whom
+    you speak."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;there's no help for you."</p>
+
+    <p>"No help,&mdash;we can't help it," shouted the mob; "he must
+    die,&mdash;throw him on the pile."</p>
+
+    <p>"Put a stake through him first, though," exclaimed the
+    humane female; "put a stake through him, and then he's
+    safe."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Throw him upon the burning wood!" shouted one.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Seize him!" exclaimed one.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Seize him&mdash;seize him!" exclaimed all those at a
+    distance.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;he had no
+    chance.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with the vampyre!&mdash;kill him,&mdash;he's one of
+    'em,&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;their infuriated countenances
+    plainly showing the mischief they were intent upon.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have mercy upon me!" he exclaimed, as he lay on the earth;
+    "I have no power to help myself."</p>
+
+    <p>The mob returned no answer, but stood collecting their
+    numbers as they came up.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have mercy on me! it cannot be any pleasure to you to spill
+    my blood. I am unable to resist&mdash;I am one man among
+    many,&mdash;you surely cannot wish to beat me to death?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no; we won't be vampyres," exclaimed the mob, and there
+    arose a great shout from the mob.</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you men&mdash;fathers?&mdash;have you families? if so,
+    I have the same ties as you have; spare me for their
+    sakes,&mdash;do not murder me,&mdash;you will leave one an
+    orphan if you do; besides, what have I done? I have injured no
+    one."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"So we shall, so we shall; down with him!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXXI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXXI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE VAMPYRE'S FLIGHT.&mdash;HIS DANGER, AND THE LAST PLACE
+    OF REFUGE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/341.png"
+             alt="341.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"There comes your patient, doctor," said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't call him my patient," said the doctor, "if you
+    please."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why you know he is; and you are, in a manner of speaking,
+    bound to look after him. Well, what is to be done?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"He shall not leave it then," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold!" cried Henry, "you are my prisoner."</p>
+
+    <p>With the most imperturbable coolness in the world, Sir
+    Francis Varney turned upon him, and replied,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"And pray, Henry Bannerworth, what have I done to provoke
+    your wrath?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What have you done?&mdash;have you not, like a thief,
+    broken into my house? Can you ask what you have done?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay," said the vampyre, "like a thief, perchance, and yet no
+    thief. May I ask you, what there is to steal, in the
+    house?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You are quite mistaken."</p>
+
+    <p>And then the doctor appeared to be insisting upon something,
+    which the vampyre listened to patiently; and, at the end, burst
+    out with,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, doctor, you must be dreaming."</p>
+
+    <p>At this, Dr. Chillingworth at once left him, and advancing
+    to his friends, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, what can you mean?" said Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"Search him," said the doctor; "I will tell you why, very
+    shortly."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That won't do," said the doctor.</p>
+
+    <p>"What won't do, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Varney laughed, and held up his hands,
+    exclaiming,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you deny," said Henry, "then, that you are that
+    man?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Most unequivocally."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Is he dead?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll be hanged," said the admiral, "if I know. He
+    disappeared somewhere."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The brothers gently raised the body of the doctor, and
+    carried it on to the glass plot, which was close at hand.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It was a cold blooded, cowardly murder," said his
+    brother.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It must be so," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not always," said Dr. Chillingworth, suddenly sitting bolt
+    upright&mdash;"not always."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry soonest recovered from the surprise of the moment, and
+    with the most unfeigned satisfaction, he cried,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank God you are unhurt, Dr. Chillingworth! Why he must
+    have missed you by a miracle."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not at all," said the doctor. "Help me up&mdash;thank
+    you&mdash;all right. I'm only a little singed about the
+    whiskers. He hit me safe enough."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then how have you escaped?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"From which you are happily recovered. Thank Heaven that,
+    after all, he is not such a villain as this act would have made
+    him."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then why did you not say so, admiral?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There can be no reason for your hesitating about making a
+    communication to us," said Henry. "It is unfriendly not to do
+    so."</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear boy, you will excuse me for saying that you don't
+    know what you are talking about."</p>
+
+    <p>"Can you give any reason?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; respect for the living. I should have to relate
+    something of the dead which would be hurtful to their
+    feelings."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry was silent for a few moments, and then he
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"What dead? And who are the living?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Another time," whispered the doctor to him; "another time,
+    Henry. Do not press me now. But you shall know all another
+    time."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"And so, after all," said Henry, "we are completely
+    foiled?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then let us go home," said the admiral. "I did not think
+    from the first that any good would be done here."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXXII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXXII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>CHARLES HOLLAND'S PURSUIT OF THE VAMPYRE.&mdash;THE
+    DANGEROUS INTERVIEW.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/344.png"
+             alt="344.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/345.png"
+             alt="345.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I should like to look over it if you will lend me the key,
+    which I will shortly bring back to you."</p>
+
+    <p>There was an evident hesitation about the agent when this
+    proposal was communicated by Charles Holland, and he
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"How long ago were you served that trick?" he said.</p>
+
+    <p>"About two days ago, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I assure you, sir," said Mr. Nash, "that I should not
+    be at all impatient. But if you would rather go
+    alone&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed I would."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, certainly not&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;that being
+    the place of all others in the room which was enveloped in the
+    most shadow.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Closer he went, and closer still. Then, as he clasped his
+    hands, he said, in a voice scarcely above a whisper,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"It is&mdash;it is the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>He then raised his voice, and cried,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Varney, Varney, awake!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is it?" he said; "where&mdash;where
+    hidden?&mdash;Pull the house down!&mdash;Murder! No, no, no! no
+    murder!&mdash;I will not, I dare not. Blood enough is upon my
+    hands.&mdash;The money!&mdash;the money! Down, villains! down!
+    down! down!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"No harm," he said, "no harm,&mdash;Marchdale is a
+    villain!&mdash;Not a hair of his head injured&mdash;no, no. Set
+    him free&mdash;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&mdash;it cannot be
+    there&mdash;no, no, no!&mdash;not there, not there! Load the
+    pistols. There, there! Down, villain, down!&mdash;down,
+    down!"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Varney, awake, awake!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>As he spoke, he advanced close to Sir Francis Varney, and
+    touched him slightly with the toe of his boot.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Rash fool! be you whom you may. Why have you troubled me to
+    rid the world of your intrusive existence?"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I contemplated no danger," said Charles, "because I
+    contemplated no evil. I do not know why you should kill
+    me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Take your hand from off my throat, Varney, and I will then
+    tell you what brought me here."</p>
+
+    <p>Sir Francis Varney did so.</p>
+
+    <p>"Rise," he said&mdash;"rise; I have seen blood enough to be
+    sickened at the prospect of more; but you should not have come
+    here and tempted me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on, go on. What is it you desire?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, proceed," said Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And that, you say, is the modest request that brings you
+    here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Name them."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;for
+    your own sake I have come."</p>
+
+    <p>"But not wholly?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;for not more lovely is the mind that she possesses
+    than the glorious form that enshrines it&mdash;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&mdash;why have you done this?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you said all that you came to say?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on, go on; you have surely much more to say."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I did&mdash;I did."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You use the word <i>seem</i>," 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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go," said Sir Francis Varney, "go: I have no more words for
+    you; I have nothing to relate to you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;must be painful for you;
+    but for the sake of Flora Bannerworth, to whom you owe
+    abundance of reparation."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no."</p>
+
+    <p>"In the name of all that is great, and good, and just, I
+    call upon you for justice."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Peace, peace!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you wish to drive me mad, that you thus, from memory's
+    hidden cells, conjure up images of the past?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Then there are such images to conjure up&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Varney," he cried, "Varney, be calm! you will be listened
+    to by one who will draw no harsh&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you will speak to me?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will."</p>
+
+    <p>"Having your promise, then, I am content, Varney."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you reject my communication," said Varney, "because I
+    will not give you leave to expose it to Flora Bannerworth?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It must be so."</p>
+
+    <p>"And you are most anxious to hear that which I have to
+    relate?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Most anxious, indeed&mdash;indeed, most anxious."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"With leave to tell to Flora that which you shall
+    communicate."</p>
+
+    <p>"You may whisper it to her, but to no one else, without my
+    special leave and licence."</p>
+
+    <p>"I agree to those terms, and will religiously preserve
+    them."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What others are they?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Dr. Chillingworth, and he who once officiated as a London
+    hangman."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have heard something from those quarters."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Two men; and who were they?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I was one. Look upon me! I was of those men; and strong and
+    evil passions were battling in my heart."</p>
+
+    <p>"And the other!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Was Marmaduke Bannerworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"Gracious Heaven! the father of her whom I adore; the
+    suicide."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, the same; that man stained with a thousand
+    vices&mdash;blasted by a thousand crimes&mdash;the father of
+    her who partakes nothing of his nature, who borrows nothing
+    from his memory but his name&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on, go on; believe me, I am deeply interested."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Murder?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;the midday came, and went&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"The night came on; we won, and he won of us; the clock
+    struck twelve&mdash;we were beggars. God knows what was he.</p>
+
+    <p>"We saw him place his winnings about his person&mdash;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&mdash;all human feeling.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"And was that all?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have not heard enough, although I guess the rest."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then Marmaduke Bannerworth spoke, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'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?'</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"The dialogue was brief. I, being foremost, spoke to
+    him.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Your money,' I said; 'your winnings at the gaming-table.
+    We cannot, and we will not lose it.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And this is the father of her whom I adore?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; look&mdash;look&mdash;see how they glare upon
+    me&mdash;with what a fixed and frightful stare the bloodshot
+    pupils keep their place&mdash;there, there! oh! save me from
+    such a visitation again. It is too horrible. I dare not&mdash;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&mdash;who laid you low. You know that not to me
+    are you able to lay the heavy charge of your death!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Varney, you look upon vacancy," said Charles Holland.</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no; vacancy it may be to you, but to me 'tis full of
+    horrible shapes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles Holland," said Varney, "I have already gone too far
+    to retract&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on then, Varney, I will listen to you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;most sad for you to hear
+    told."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are right&mdash;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&mdash;a secret even to whisper to the winds of
+    heaven&mdash;I&mdash;although I did not do the deed, no,
+    no&mdash;I&mdash;I did not strike the blow&mdash;not
+    I&mdash;not I!"</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/353.png"
+             alt="353.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I can understand that feeling, Charles Holland; I can fully
+    understand it. I do not blame you for it&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing&mdash;nothing whatever in his character. He was a
+    bad man; not one of those free, open spirits which are seduced
+    into crime by thoughtlessness&mdash;not one of those whom we
+    pity, perchance, more than we condemn; but a man without a
+    redeeming trait in his disposition&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet the mere thought of the circumstances connected
+    with his death seems almost to drive you to the verge of
+    despair."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are right; the mere thought has that effect."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have aroused all my curiosity to know the causes of
+    such a feeling."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is true, then, as the doctor states, that you were
+    executed in London?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I was."</p>
+
+    <p>"And resuscitated by the galvanic process, put into
+    operation by Dr. Chillingworth?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I cannot assume you to be what you affect."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know that I am wandering from it&mdash;I know well that I
+    am wandering from it, and that the reason I do so is that I
+    dread that continuation."</p>
+
+    <p>"That dread will nor be the less for its postponement."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will freely answer, Varney, any question you may put to
+    me."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know it; tell me then what measure of guilt you attach to
+    me in the transaction I have noticed to you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You think I may be acquitted?"</p>
+
+    <p>"You can acquit yourself, knowing that you did not
+    contemplate the murder."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There is even some excuse as regards the higher crime for
+    Marmaduke Bannerworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"Think you so?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; he thought that you were killed, and impulsively he
+    might have struck the blow that made him a murderer."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;she need dread nothing from me. Avarice and
+    revenge, the two passions which found a home in my heart, are
+    now stifled for ever."</p>
+
+    <p>"Revenge! did you say revenge?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I did; whence the marvel, am I not sufficiently human for
+    that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"But you coupled it with the name of Flora Bannerworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"I did, and that is part of my mystery."</p>
+
+    <p>"A mystery, indeed, to imagine that such a being as Flora
+    could awaken any such feeling in your heart&mdash;a most
+    abundant mystery."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you firm in this determination, Varney&mdash;will you
+    indeed tell me no more to-night?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No more, I have said it. Leave me now. I have need of more
+    repose, for of late sleep has seldom closed my eyelids."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You shall not be disappointed; farewell, farewell!"</p>
+
+    <p>Charles Holland bade him adieu, and left the place.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He stopped a lad, and inquired of him the cause of the
+    seeming tumult.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Bannerworth Hall! you must be mistaken."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I understand. And do you say that all have been
+    destroyed?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXXIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXXIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE MYSTERIOUS ARRIVAL AT THE INN.&mdash;THE HUNGARIAN
+    NOBLEMAN.&mdash;THE LETTER TO VARNEY.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/356.png"
+             alt="356.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly, sir," said the landlord; "any way you please;
+    without wine, sir, I presume?"</p>
+
+    <p>"As you please; make your own arrangements."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+    <p>"You would not, then, think, sir, a matter of four guineas a
+    week will be too much, perhaps."</p>
+
+    <p>"I told you to name your own charge. Let it be four guineas;
+    if you had said eight I should have paid it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;will you have breakfast at once, sir,
+    and then we shall begin regular, you know, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Have what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;anything you like, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"I never take breakfast, so you may spare yourself the
+    trouble of providing anything for me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I live upon drink," said the stranger; "but you have none
+    in the cellar that will suit me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no, I am certain."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, we've got some claret now, sir," said the
+    landlord.</p>
+
+    <p>"Which may look like blood, and yet not be it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Like what, sir?&mdash;damn my rags!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Begone, begone."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>At this moment the ostler came in, and, standing at the bar,
+    he wiped his mouth with his sleeve, as he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I suppose you'll stand a quart for that, master?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said the ostler; "because I've just put up the
+    gentleman's horse."</p>
+
+    <p>"What gentleman's horse?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, the big-looking fellow with the white face, now in the
+    parlour."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," said the publican, as he drew the ostler half a pint
+    instead of a quart, "you're always drinking; take that."</p>
+
+    <p>"Blow me," said the ostler, "half a pint, master!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Plague take you, I can't stand parleying with you, there's
+    the parlour bell; perhaps, after all, he will have some
+    breakfast."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>In the meantime, the landlord had made his way to his
+    strange guest, who said to him, when he came into the room,</p>
+
+    <p>"Is there not one Sir Francis Varney residing in this
+    town?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;a sort of vampyre,
+    sir, if you know what that is."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have, certainly, heard of such things; but can you not
+    tell me Varney's address? I wish to see him."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And cannot you tell me where he was seen last?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed; and can you tell me the address of the former
+    individual?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A what, sir?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A nobleman from Hungary," was the reply.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Meanwhile, the unconscious object of this soliloquy passed
+    down the High-street, until he came to Dr. Chillingworth's, at
+    whose door he knocked.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Now you've caught it!"</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n!" said the Hungarian nobleman, and then Mrs.
+    Chillingworth uttered a scream, for she feared she had made a
+    mistake.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, sir! I'm very sorry: but I thought it was my
+    husband."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! Sir Francis Varney, you mean."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do; and I'd Varney him if I caught hold of him."</p>
+
+    <p>"Can you give me the least idea of where he can be
+    found?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Of course I can."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed! where?" said the stranger, eagerly.</p>
+
+    <p>"In some churchyard, to be sure, gobbling up the dead
+    bodies."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I can tell you where he is, but what are you going to
+    give?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What sum do you require?" said the stranger.</p>
+
+    <p>"A whole half-crown."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A goodly collection. Go on."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You followed him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Peace&mdash;peace!&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What, ten half-crowns?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I will keep my word with you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXXIV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXXIV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE EXCITED POPULACE.&mdash;VARNEY HUNTED.&mdash;THE PLACE
+    OF REFUGE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/359.png"
+             alt="359.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;-"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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&mdash;you're off the ship's books, and there's an
+    end of you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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&mdash;oh ah! echo you call
+    it&mdash;echo'll say, it's d&mdash;&mdash;d if it knows."</p>
+
+    <p>Jack turned upon his heel, and, before the admiral could
+    make any reply he left the place.</p>
+
+    <p>"What's the rascal up to now?" said the admiral. "I really
+    didn't think he'd have taken me at my word."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, then, after all, you didn't mean it, uncle?" said
+    Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"But, my dear uncle, you sent him away yourself."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But his drunkenness, uncle?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But his insolence, uncle; his gross insolence towards
+    you&mdash;his inventions, his exaggerations of the truth?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Avast, there&mdash;avast, there&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Tip us your fin, then," said Jack, darting into the room;
+    "do you think I'd leave you, you d&mdash;&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack, you villain!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! go on and call me a villain as much as you like. Don't
+    you remember when the bullets were scuttling our nobs?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do, I do, Jack; tip us your fin, old fellow. You've saved
+    my life more than once."</p>
+
+    <p>"It's a lie."</p>
+
+    <p>"It ain't. You did, I say."</p>
+
+    <p>"You bed&mdash;&mdash;d!"</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;what shall we say?
+    forswearing him. Jack himself could not have taken a stronger
+    oath.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXXV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXXV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE HUNGARIAN NOBLEMAN GETS INTO DANGER.&mdash;HE IS FIRED
+    AT, AND SHOWS SOME OF HIS QUALITY.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/360.png"
+             alt="360.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Understood what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/361.png"
+             alt="361.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you an almanack in the house?" was the question of the
+    mysterious guest.</p>
+
+    <p>"An almanack, sir? well, I really don't know. Let me see, an
+    almanack."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, perhaps, you can tell me. I was to know the moon's
+    age."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;leave the room."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you mean to say, sir, you don't want anything to eat
+    now?"</p>
+
+    <p>"What I want I'll order."</p>
+
+    <p>"But you have ordered nothing."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then presume that I want nothing."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"You may depend," he said, "as sure as eggs is eggs, that he
+    is a vampyre. Hilloa! he's going off,&mdash;after
+    him&mdash;after him; he thinks we suspect him. There he
+    goes&mdash;down the High-street."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>His pursuers&mdash;for they assumed that
+    character&mdash;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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Jack Burdon, here is another vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is he going?" said the blacksmith. "He seems to be
+    making his way towards the mill-stream."</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said another; "don't you see he is striking higher up
+    towards the old ford, where the stepping-stones are!"</p>
+
+    <p>"He is&mdash;he is," cried the blacksmith. "Run on&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"The exciseman, the devil! Do you think I want to shoot the
+    exciseman?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good&mdash;then here goes," exclaimed the Smith.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Below, the stream widened, and ran foaming over a hard,
+    stony bottom, and near the middle is a heap of stones&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>'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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Such a moment&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>'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.</p>
+
+    <p>But what is that yonder, on the stones, partially out of the
+    water&mdash;what can it be? The more it is looked at, the more
+    it resembles the human form&mdash;and yet it is still and
+    motionless on the hard stones&mdash;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&mdash;so slightly, indeed, that
+    it might well be questioned if it moved at all.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>But the moon rises&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The time is approaching&mdash;the moon each moment
+    approaches her meridian, and each moment do the rays increase
+    in number and in strength, while the shadows shorten.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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."</p>
+
+    <p>The moment is one of awe&mdash;the presence of that
+    mysterious and dreadful-looking object, even while its identity
+    remains doubt, chills the heart&mdash;it contracts the
+    expanding thoughts to that one object&mdash;all interest in the
+    scene lies centered in that one point.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>But this did not last long&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The moonbeams had scarcely settled upon it&mdash;scarce a
+    few minutes&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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?</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXXVI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXXVI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE DISCOVERY OF THE POCKET BOOK OF MARMADUKE
+    BANNERWORTH.&mdash;ITS MYSTERIOUS CONTENTS.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/366.png"
+             alt="366.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; but, Charles, that is not the question."</p>
+
+    <p>"I think it is, though I know not what other question you
+    can make of it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well, we will talk of that another time."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no; indeed, you do not view the matter rightly."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But which you must not part with."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, be it so&mdash;I will come and look at them; but you
+    must think better of what you say concerning my uncle, for I
+    happen to know&mdash;which you ought likewise by this
+    time&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well; be it so for a time."</p>
+
+    <p>"The fact is, his attachment to Flora is so
+    great&mdash;which is a most fortunate circumstance for
+    me&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It seems a half-mask," said Henry, "made of silk; and here
+    are initial letters within it&mdash;M. B."</p>
+
+    <p>"To what do they apply?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Marmaduke Bannerworth, my father."</p>
+
+    <p>"I regret I asked you."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>He laid down the mask, and proceeded further in his search
+    in the old box.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"There, Henry, who knows but you may find a fortune when you
+    least expect it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Those who expect nothing," said Henry, "will not be
+    disappointed. At all events, as regards this pocket-book, you
+    see it is empty."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not quite. A card has fallen from it."</p>
+
+    <p>Charles took up the card, and read upon it the name of Count
+    Barrare.</p>
+
+    <p>"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
+    <i>roue</i> of the first water&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Is there nothing further in the pocket-book&mdash;no
+    memoranda?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will look. Stay! here is something upon one of the
+    leaves&mdash;let me see&mdash;'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&mdash;my brain seems on fire&mdash;the remotest
+    hiding-place in the house is behind the picture."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you think of that?" said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"I know not what to think. There is one thing though, that I
+    do know."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what is that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is my father's handwriting. I have many scraps of his,
+    and his peculiar hand is familiar to me."</p>
+
+    <p>"It's very strange, then, what it can refer to."</p>
+
+    <p>"Charles&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It does, indeed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I can understand the feeling; but here comes the worthy
+    doctor."</p>
+
+    <p>"Show him the memorandum."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Look at that, doctor, and give us your candid opinion upon
+    it."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! oh! oh! oh! hum!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, doctor," said Henry; "we are waiting for your
+    opinion."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;good evening."</p>
+
+    <p>Away bustled the doctor.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," said Charles, "what do you think of that, Mr.
+    Henry?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I think he knows what he's about."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let him have it, Charles&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nay, do not do so, Charles&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are right; I will keep my appointment with him,
+    entertaining the most sanguine hope that our troubles and
+    disasters&mdash;I say our, because I consider myself quite
+    associated in thought, interest, and feelings with your
+    family&mdash;may soon be over."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/369.png"
+             alt="369.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>All that he thought of was a general idea that he should
+    like to create some mischief, if possible&mdash;what it was he
+    cared not, so long as it made a disturbance.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have a good mind," said the boy, "to go to old Philpots,
+    and tell him all about it, that I have."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Hence the thing looked to him like a piece of sheer neglect
+    and contemptuous indifference, which he felt bound to
+    resent.</p>
+
+    <p>He did not pause long at the door of the saddler's, but,
+    after a few moments, he walked boldly in, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Master Philpots, I have got something extraordinary to tell
+    you, and you may give me what you like for telling you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Go on, then," said the saddler, "that's just the price I
+    always likes to pay for everything."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you keep it secret?" said the boy.</p>
+
+    <p>"Of course I will. When did you ever hear of me telling
+    anything to a single individual?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Never to a single individual, but I have heard you tell
+    things to the whole town."</p>
+
+    <p>"Confound your impudence. Get out of my shop directly."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! very good. I can go and tell old Mitchell, the
+    pork-butcher."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, I say&mdash;stop; don't tell him. If anybody is to
+    know, let it be me, and I'll promise you I'll keep it
+    secret."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you don't mean to say that?" he exclaimed. "Are you
+    sure it was he?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I am quite certain. I have seen I him more than once.
+    It was Sir Francis Varney, without any mistake."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I shouldn't wonder."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, my dear," he said to Mrs. Philpots, when she came down
+    stairs equipped for the streets, "why, my dear, where are you
+    going?"</p>
+
+    <p>"And pray, sir, what are you shutting up the shop for at
+    this time of the evening!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, Mr. Philpots, and in that case there can be no harm
+    in my calling upon some of my acquaintance and mentioning it
+    likewise."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, I don't suppose there would be much harm; only
+    remember, Mrs. Philpots, remember if you please&mdash;-"</p>
+
+    <p>"Remember what?"</p>
+
+    <p>"To tell everybody to keep it secret."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, of course I will; and mind you do it likewise."</p>
+
+    <p>"Most decidedly."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXXVII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXXVII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE HUNT FOR VARNEY.&mdash;THE HOUSE-TOPS.&mdash;THE
+    MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.&mdash;THE LAST PLACE OF REFUGE.&mdash;THE
+    COTTAGE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/372.png"
+             alt="372.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;nature seemed at
+    rest.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;a mere memento of the past.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly," he muttered, "things might have been worse, but
+    not much worse; however, they might have been much better; the
+    ignorant are away&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>What could people in such a quiet, retired place require out
+    at such an hour at night? It must be something very
+    unusual&mdash;something that must excite them to a great
+    degree; and Sir Francis began to feel very uneasy.</p>
+
+    <p>"They surely," he muttered to himself&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>How they could have found him out was a matter he could not
+    imagine. The Bannerworths could not have betrayed him&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;to be
+    upon some false scent; or, if they saw no signs of life, they
+    might leave the place, and go elsewhere.</p>
+
+    <p>Hark! they stop at the house&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>The knock which came so loud and so hard upon the door
+    caused Sir</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Then a loud voice shouted from below, as if to be heard by
+    any one who might be within,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>There was a pause, and then a loud shout.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"He will not come out," said one.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"How shall we get in?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Knock in the door&mdash;break open the door! the front
+    door&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!" shouted several men in the crowd.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!" again shouted the crowd.</p>
+
+    <p>These shouts announced the fall of the door, and then, and
+    not until then, did Sir Francis Varney stir.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>He got up, and crept towards the trap that led into the
+    house, or out of it, as the occasion might require.</p>
+
+    <p>"The vampyre! the vampyre!" shouted a man who stood on a
+    garden wall, holding on by the arm of an apple-tree.</p>
+
+    <p>"Varney, the vampyre!" shouted a second.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah! boys, we are on the right scent; now for a hunt;
+    hurrah! we shall have him now."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Sir Francis Varney had met them; he stood there with a
+    staff&mdash;something he had found about the house&mdash;not
+    quite so long as a broom-handle, but somewhat thicker and
+    heavier, being made of stout ash.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>This continued for some minutes, till they gave way before
+    such a vigorous defence, and paused.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;push him hard, and he must give way."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;&mdash;d pole on your head, you
+    wouldn't be in such a blessed hurry."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with the vampyre!" shouted the first, who rushed up
+    heedless of the staff.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>A bitter groan and execration arose from them below, and
+    again they shouted, and rushed up headlong.</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with the vampyre!" was again shouted, and met by a
+    corresponding, but deep guttural sound of&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with a fool!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah! down with the vampyre!" sounded from all sides, and
+    the shout was answered by a corresponding rush.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!" shouted the assailants; "another such a blow, and
+    all will be over with the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"He's got&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Up! up! we have him now; he cannot get away; he's hurt; we
+    have him&mdash;we have him."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!" shouted the mob below.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!" answered the mob on the tiles.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>They, however, could keep up the same speed, and not improve
+    upon it, while he kept the advantage he first obtained in the
+    start.</p>
+
+    <p>Then suddenly he disappeared.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah, boys! I have him."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The rails, at that moment, were crowded with men who leaned
+    over to ascertain the effect of the leap.</p>
+
+    <p>"He'll be killed," said one.</p>
+
+    <p>"He's sure to be smashed," said another.</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll lay any wager he'll break a limb!" said a third.</p>
+
+    <p>Varney came to the earth&mdash;for a moment he lay stunned,
+    and not able to move hand or foot.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!" shouted the mob.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>There was now a hunt through all the adjoining
+    fields&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,</p>
+
+    <p>"Murder! murder!&mdash;the wampyre!&mdash;the wampyre!" with
+    all her strength, and in the way of screaming that was no
+    little, and then she went off into a fit.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"There he is&mdash;there he is," said the girl, who came to
+    as soon as other people came up.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where?&mdash;where?"</p>
+
+    <p>"In that closet," she said, pointing to it with her finger.
+    "I see'd him go in the way above."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! murder&mdash;the wampyre! what shall I
+    do&mdash;fire&mdash;fire!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"After him&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"On to him boys! He can hardly stand. See how he pants. On
+    to him, I say&mdash;push him hard."</p>
+
+    <p>"He pushes hard, I tell you," said another. "I felt the
+    point of his sword, as it came through Giles's back.".</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/377.png"
+             alt="377.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>But they were quickly after him, and before he, wearied as
+    he was, could gain the roof, they were up the ladder after
+    him.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Saved&mdash;saved!" he exclaimed.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Easy, boys, easy," was the cry. "The bird is our own; he
+    can't get away, that's very certain."</p>
+
+    <p>They, however, came on, and took no time about it hardly;
+    but what was their amazement and rage at finding he had
+    disappeared.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is he?" was the universal inquiry, and "I don't
+    know," an almost universal answer.</p>
+
+    <p>There was a long pause, while they searched around; but they
+    saw no vestige of the object of their search.</p>
+
+    <p>"There's no trap door open," remarked one; "and I don't
+    think he could have got in at any one."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Probably he has; but then we can run a stake through him
+    and burn him all the same."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"We are beaten after all, neighbours."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I think not either."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; it may be possible," said one; "and yet it is very
+    dangerous, if not certain destruction to get over."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you see him?" inquired one.</p>
+
+    <p>"No," was the answer.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;a great deal more likely."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hold still a moment," said the man, who was looking over
+    the edge of the house.</p>
+
+    <p>"What's the matter now? A gnat flew into your eye?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; but I see him&mdash;by Jove, I see him!"</p>
+
+    <p>"See who&mdash;see who?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah! after him then, boys!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not the same way, if you please. Go yourself, and welcome;
+    but I won't go that way."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"So it may be; but cuss me if you ain't a fool if you
+    attempt that!"</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;a dreadful fall!</p>
+
+    <p>There was a pause&mdash;no one spoke. The man lay motionless
+    and dead&mdash;he had dislocated his neck!</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Some of these struck him, and he was cut about in various
+    places, so that he could hardly stand.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Down with the vampyre!&mdash;seize him&mdash;hold
+    him&mdash;burn him! he must be down presently, he can't
+    stand!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Keep up! keep up! he's making for the wood."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;he must seek concealment.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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;&mdash;curses on the hounds that run yelping over the
+    fields!"</p>
+
+    <p>He heard the shouts of his pursuers, and prepared to quit
+    the wood when he thought the first had entered it.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;through a passage&mdash;into a front parlour, and
+    there fell, faint, and utterly spent and speechless, at the
+    feet of Flora Bannerworth.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXXVIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXXVIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE RECEPTION OF THE VAMPYRE BY FLORA.&mdash;VARNEY
+    SUBDUED.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/380.png"
+             alt="380.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Her astonishment was far greater yet, when she recognised
+    that man to be Sir Francis Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"Save me!&mdash;save me! Miss Bannerworth, save
+    me!&mdash;only you can save me from the ruthless multitude
+    which follows, crying aloud for my blood."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Save me! Miss Flora Bannerworth, save me!" he again said,
+    raising himself on his hands. "I am beset, hunted like a wild
+    beast&mdash;they seek my life&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;this is now
+    my last and only hope."</p>
+
+    <p>"Rise, Sir Francis."</p>
+
+    <p>"You will not let me be torn out and slaughtered like an ox.
+    I am sure you will not."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And your brother&mdash;and&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;yes&mdash;all who are here will do the same; but
+    here they come to speak for themselves."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank you," said Sir Francis, faintly. "I thank you; your
+    conduct is noble, and Miss Bannerworth's especially so."</p>
+
+    <p>"Are you much hurt, Sir Francis?" inquired Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"I am much hurt, but not seriously or dangerously; but I am
+    weak and exhausted."</p>
+
+    <p>"Let me assist you to rise," said Charles Holland.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"We will not say anything about that," said Charles Holland;
+    "under the circumstances, it could not be otherwise."</p>
+
+    <p>"It could not," said Sir Francis, as he took the chair Miss
+    Flora Bannerworth placed for him.</p>
+
+    <p>"I will not ask you for any explanation as to how this came
+    about; but you need some restorative and rest."</p>
+
+    <p>"I think I suffer more from exhaustion than anything else.
+    The bruises I have, of course, are not dangerous."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank you, madam&mdash;thank you. It will be most welcome
+    to me, I assure you."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;my place of
+    concealment&mdash;I know not; but they found me out."</p>
+
+    <p>"I need hardly say, Sir Francis, that it could not have
+    occurred through me," said Charles Holland.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I may say extremely
+    so&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"True enough," said Sir Francis.</p>
+
+    <p>"If you have done, will you again step this way?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I owe you a relation," he said, "of what occurred to drive
+    me from my place of concealment."</p>
+
+    <p>"We should like to hear it, if you are not too far fatigued
+    to relate it," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The deuce," said Charles; "the sound, suppose, serves to
+    express their feelings, and to encourage each other."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"How did you escape?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good heavens! what a dreadful situation," exclaimed Flora;
+    "it is really horrible!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I could not do it again, under, I think, any
+    circumstances."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not the same?" said Mrs. Bannerworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did they see you come?" inquired Charles Holland.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You did? How far from here were you when you heard the
+    shouts?" inquired Mrs. Bannerworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is very likely," said Mrs. Bannerworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"In that case," said Charles Holland, "you are safe here;
+    for none will suspect your being concealed here."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Flora Bannerworth was already there; indeed, breakfast was
+    waiting the appearance of Sir Francis Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am glad to hear it."</p>
+
+    <p>"I think yet I shall escape the search of these people who
+    have hunted me from so many places."</p>
+
+    <p>"I hope you may, indeed, Sir Francis."</p>
+
+    <p>"You, Miss Bannerworth! and do you hope I may escape the
+    vengeance of these people&mdash;the populace?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I do, Sir Francis, most sincerely hope so. Why should I
+    wish evil to you, especially at their hands?"</p>
+
+    <p>Sir Francis did not speak for a minute or two, and then he
+    said, turning full upon Flora&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have done so, Miss Bannerworth&mdash;the greatest that
+    can be performed. You have saved my life."</p>
+
+    <p>At that moment Charles Holland entered, and Sir Francis
+    bowed, as he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"I hope you, Mr. Holland, have slept as well, and passed as
+    good a night as I have passed?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Time is the magician," said Flora, "whose wand changes all
+    things&mdash;the young to the aged, and the aged to
+    nothing."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>* * * *</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>At supper time he spoke to Flora and to Charles Holland,
+    saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"There are certain matters connected with myself&mdash;I may
+    say with you now&mdash;sure all that has happened will make it
+    so&mdash;of which you would be glad to hear some thing."</p>
+
+    <p>"You mean upon the same subject upon which I had some
+    conversation with you a day or two back?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;one week, and all shall be told."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am aware of all that; grant me but one week, and then you
+    shall be made acquainted with all."</p>
+
+    <p>"I am satisfied, Sir Francis," said Flora; "but while here
+    under our roof, we should never have asked you a question."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I am under so deep an obligation to you all,
+    that I can never repay it."</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>Sir Francis Varney retired to rest that night&mdash;his
+    promise to the Bannerworths filled his mind with many
+    reflections&mdash;the insecurity of his own position, and the
+    frail tenure which he even held in the hands of those whom he
+    had most injured.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!&mdash;hurrah!&mdash;hurrah!" shouted the mob, which
+    had silently collected around the cottage of the
+    Bannerworths.</p>
+
+    <p>"Curses!" muttered Sir Francis, as he again sank in his
+    chair, and struck his head with his hand. "I am hunted to
+    death&mdash;they will not leave me until my body has graced a
+    cross-road."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah!&mdash;down with the vampyre&mdash;pull him
+    out!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>There was a cessation for about a minute, when one of the
+    family hastened to the door, and inquired what was wanted.</p>
+
+    <p>"Varney, the vampyre," was the reply.</p>
+
+    <p>"You must seek him elsewhere."</p>
+
+    <p>"We will search this place before we go further," replied a
+    man.</p>
+
+    <p>"But he is not here."</p>
+
+    <p>"We have reason to believe otherwise. Open the door, and let
+    us in&mdash;no one shall be hurt, or one single object in the
+    house; but we must come in, and search for the vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come to-morrow, then."</p>
+
+    <p>"That will not do," said the voice; "open, or we force our
+    way in without more notice."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And which is that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Flora's own room."</p>
+
+    <p>All started at the thought that Flora's chamber could in any
+    way be profaned by any such presence as Sir Francis
+    Varney's.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Miss Bannerworth&mdash;" began Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir Francis!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, it is indeed I, Miss Bannerworth; hear me, for one
+    moment."</p>
+
+    <p>"What is the matter?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am again in peril&mdash;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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Death to the vampyre! death to Varney! burn him! run a
+    stake through his body!"</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/385.png"
+             alt="385.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"What can I do, Sir Francis?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Admit me to your chamber."</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir Francis, are you aware of what you are saying?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am well. It is a request which you would justly scorn to
+    reply to, but now my life&mdash;recollect you have saved me
+    once&mdash;my life,&mdash;do not now throw away the boon you
+    have so kindly bestowed. Save me, Miss Bannerworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is not possible. I&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is Varney? Where is the vampyre? He ain't far
+    off."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hear&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hurrah! upstairs! He's not below. Upstairs, neighbours, we
+    shall have him yet!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The door was scarcely shut ere some tried to force it, and
+    then a loud knocking came at the door.</p>
+
+    <p>"Open! open! we want Varney, the vampyre. Open! or we will
+    burst it open."</p>
+
+    <p>Flora did open it, but stood resolutely in the opening, and
+    held up her hand to impose silence.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"But, ma'am&mdash;miss&mdash;we only want Varney, the
+    vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>With this they all turned away, and Flora shut the door and
+    locked it upon them, and Varney was safe.</p>
+
+    <p>"You have saved me," said Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush!" said Flora. "Speak not; there maybe some one
+    listening."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"It beats now laboriously, but it will soon cease its
+    pulsations for ever."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Varney appeared to be considering for a few moments, and
+    then he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;tell all."</p>
+
+    <p>Thus empowered by the mysterious being, Charles Holland
+    related briefly what Varney had already told him, and then
+    concluded by saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I did," said Varney, with a shudder; "but why did I?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, you know best."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>She let her beautiful face be hidden by her hands, and she
+    wept as she listened to the sad detail.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Charles Holland answered the appealing look by
+    saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>What Charles Holland was going to say was abruptly stopped
+    short by the admiral, who interposed, exclaiming,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"And then came the loathsome task of dragging him into
+    it&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; it was mortgaged for a small sum&mdash;a sum not a
+    fourth part of its value&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I was not aware of that," returned Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Doubtless you were not, for of late&mdash;I mean for the
+    twelve months or so preceding your father's death&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'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?'</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Answer me a question," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"I will; ask me what you please, I will answer it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Was it you that called at Bannerworth Hall, after my
+    father's melancholy death, and inquired for him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"The result of this was, as might have been expected, our
+    complete dispersion, and the arrest of some our members, and
+    among them myself.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"It seemed as if my fate had then reached its climax, and I
+    have really but a dim recollection of the terrible scene.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Some one&mdash;I think it was one of the
+    sheriffs&mdash;must have noticed that I was labouring under the
+    impression that the cry from the mob was levelled at me, for he
+    spoke, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then suddenly there was a loud shout&mdash;I felt the
+    platform give way beneath my feet&mdash;I tried to utter a yell
+    of agony, but could not&mdash;it seemed to me as if I was
+    encompassed by fire, and then sensation left me, and I knew no
+    more.</p>
+    <hr />
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Do you not remember,' he said, 'that you were hanged?'</p>
+
+    <p>"'I do&mdash;I do,' was my reply. 'Is this the region of
+    damned souls?'</p>
+
+    <p>"'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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I listened to this with the most profound attention, and
+    then he concluded, by saying to me,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I believe," cried Henry, "that he has fallen a victim to
+    the blind fury of the populace."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What did you do next?" said the admiral.&mdash;"Let's know
+    all while you are about it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But you don't mean to say that you believe you are a
+    vampyre now?" said the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But how do you account," said Charles Holland, "for your
+    extraordinary likeness to the portrait?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That you did."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And have you succeeded," said Henry, "in your object
+    now?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then it is supposed that the money is still concealed?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But ought we rightly to hold it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Who ought more rightly to hold it?" said Varney; "answer me
+    that."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I presume, Sir Francis Varney," said Charles Holland, "that
+    you have now completed your narrative?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You may depend, Varney, that, as long as you have an asylum
+    with us," said the admiral&mdash;"and that you may have as long
+    as you like,&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There you go again," said Jack, "calling the house a
+    ship."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Moreover, he had been concealed, when to do so was both
+    dangerous and difficult; and then it was done by Flora
+    Bannerworth herself.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/393.png"
+             alt="393.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is so, sir," said Charles. "I wish we could make you a
+    partaker in our walks."</p>
+
+    <p>"I wish you could with all my heart," said Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"Sir Francis," said Flora, "must be a prisoner for some
+    short time longer yet."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I hope it may prove so; but how do you find yourself this
+    evening, Sir Francis Varney?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Really, it is difficult to say&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I am much beholden to you&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not at all&mdash;not at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have you heard any news abroad to-day?" inquired
+    Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"None, Sir Francis&mdash;none; there is nothing apparently
+    stirring; and now, go out when you would, you would find
+    nothing but what was old, quiet, and familiar."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The hubbub and excitement must subside."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It might be otherwise."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;it is very
+    beautiful&mdash;and yet there is not a cloud about to give it
+    the colour and appearance it now wears."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What sounds are those?" inquired Sir Francis Varney, as he
+    listened attentively.</p>
+
+    <p>"Sounds! What sounds?" returned Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"The sounds of wheels and horses' feet," said Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"I cannot even hear them, much less can I tell what they
+    are," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Then listen. Now they come along the road. Cannot you hear
+    them now?" said Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly, certainly," said Varney. "I am somewhat
+    apprehensive of the approach of strange sounds."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are not likely to be disturbed here," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you not hear them coming?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I did."</p>
+
+    <p>"And yet you did not attempt to escape from them?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;besides, I could hardly persuade myself
+    there could be any necessity for so doing."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What can they want, I wonder?" inquired Henry; "I never saw
+    them before."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nor I," said Charles Holland.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you not know them at all?" inquired Varney.</p>
+
+    <p>"No," replied Flora; "I never saw them, neither can I
+    imagine what is their object in coming here."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I dare say not," said Charles Holland. "They certainly are
+    not gentlemen; but here they come; there is some mistake, I
+    daresay&mdash;they don't want to come here."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The door was opened by the old woman, when the two men
+    entered.</p>
+
+    <p>"Does Francis Beauchamp live here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Eh?" said the old woman, who was a little deaf, and she put
+    her hand behind her ear to catch the sounds more
+    distinctly&mdash;"eh?&mdash;who did you say?"</p>
+
+    <p>Sir Francis Varney started as the sounds came upon his ear,
+    but he sat still an attentive listener.</p>
+
+    <p>"Are there any strangers in the house?" inquired the other
+    officer, impatiently. "Who is here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Strangers!" said the old woman; "you are the only strangers
+    that I have seen here."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You shall hear from me again soon," said Sir Francis, in an
+    almost imperceptible whisper.</p>
+
+    <p>"What is the object of this intrusion?" demanded Henry
+    Bannerworth, rising and confronting the stranger. "This is a
+    strange introduction."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, but not an unusual one," said the stranger, "in these
+    cases&mdash;being unavoidable, at the least."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Softly, sir. I mean no offence&mdash;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&mdash;excuse me, therefore."</p>
+
+    <p>"Whom do you want?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Francis Beauchamp; and, from the peculiarity of the
+    appearance of this individual here, I think I may safely
+    request the pleasure of his company."</p>
+
+    <p>Varney now rose, and the officer made a rush at him, when he
+    saw him do so, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Surrender in the king's name."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"In heaven's name," said Henry, "explain all about this; we
+    cannot understand one word of it&mdash;I am at a loss to
+    understand one word of it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Curse his infernal impudence, and d&mdash;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&mdash;it was vexing.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;fumbles and hard knocks against
+    impediments which the light and the rapid flight they were
+    taking did not admit of their avoiding very well.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well?" said the other officer coming up&mdash;"well?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, indeed!" said the one who came first; "it's anything
+    but well. D&mdash;n all country excursions say I."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, Bob, you don't mean to say as how you are caught in a
+    rat-trap?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, you be d&mdash;&mdash;d! I am, ain't I?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; but are you going to stop there, or coming out, eh?
+    You'll catch cold."</p>
+
+    <p>"I have sprained my ankle."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"I tumbled down over the chair, and he got out of the
+    window, and I come out of the door."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A regular sky scraper!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, or something of that sort; he looked like a patent
+    flying shadow."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, get up and lead the way; we'll follow you."</p>
+
+    <p>"I dare say you will&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what has that to do with it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I think so too," said the third.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, let's go back; we needn't run, though it might
+    be as well to do so."</p>
+
+    <p>"It would be anything but well. I don't gallop back, depend
+    upon it."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What a dreadful bump I came against that pole standing
+    there," said one.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do as you will. I will wait with the horse, else, perhaps,
+    that Beauchamp will again return and steal him."</p>
+
+    <p>The officer who had first entered the house now returned to
+    the Bannerworths, saying,</p>
+
+    <p>"I promised you I would give you some explanation as to what
+    you have witnessed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will tell you. The person whom you have had here, and
+    goes by the name of Varney, is named Francis Beauchamp."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed! Are you assured of this?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, perfectly assured of it; I have it in my warrant to
+    apprehend him by either name."</p>
+
+    <p>"What crime had he been guilty of?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will tell you: he has been <i>hanged</i>."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hanged!" exclaimed all present.</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you mean by that?" added Henry; "I am at a loss to
+    understand what you can mean by saying he was hanged."</p>
+
+    <p>"What I say is literally true."</p>
+
+    <p>"Pray tell us all about it. We are much interested in the
+    fact; go on, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, sir, then I believe it was for murder that Francis
+    Beauchamp was hanged&mdash;yes, hanged; a common execution,
+    before a multitude of people, collected to witness such an
+    exhibition."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God!" exclaimed Henry Bannerworth. "And was&mdash;but
+    that is impossible. A dead man come to life again! You must be
+    amusing yourself at our expense."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not I," replied the officer. "Here is my warrant; they
+    don't make these out in a joke."</p>
+
+    <p>And, as he spoke, he produced the warrant, when it was
+    evident the officer spoke the truth.</p>
+
+    <p>"How was this?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But I always thought they broke the neck when they were
+    hanged; the weight of the body would alone do that."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But how came you to know all this?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I dare say not."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I see," said Holland.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, this man, Montgomery, had always some kind of
+    suspicion that Varney would murder him."</p>
+
+    <p>"Murder him! and be the means of saving his life; surely he
+    could not be so bad as that."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I see, now."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is most extraordinary, and that is the reason why his
+    complexion is so singular."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very likely."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Then the curtains were opened, and the visage of Sir Francis
+    Varney appeared, much altered; in fact, completely worn and
+    exhausted.</p>
+
+    <p>It was useless to deny it, but he looked
+    ghastly&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+
+    <p>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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And rain," said the doctor.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, most certainly. We must have some tools."</p>
+
+    <p>"Those may be had from the garden," said Henry. "Tools for
+    the exhumation, you mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is not the fact," said Henry; "you know, doctor, you
+    improved your own talents and knowledge."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes; I did."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, but you profited by such improvements?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, granted, I did. How much more did the public not
+    benefit then," said the doctor, with a smile.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Can we have a conveyance?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what are they?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You may say that," said Charles.</p>
+
+    <p>"Besides which, you must go a greater distance, and that,
+    too, along the main road, which is objectionable."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It will serve our purpose the better," said Chillingworth.
+    "What we do, we may as well do now."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>After having duly inspected the state of their efficiency,
+    they started away on their expedition.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"I think we are fairly away now," said Henry, "from all fear
+    of being recognized."</p>
+
+    <p>"To be sure you are. Who would recognize us now, if we were
+    met?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No one."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Exactly," said Chillingworth; "and, if you'll follow my
+    guidance, you shall meet nobody."</p>
+
+    <p>"We will trust you, most worthy doctor. What have you to say
+    for our confidence?"</p>
+
+    <p>"That you will find it is not misplaced."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What is that?" inquired Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"Some one laughing, I think," said Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No doubt of it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Hush! Follow me silently," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;sheep-stealers, or horse-stealers, in fact,
+    anything, even to beggars.</p>
+
+    <p>"I say, Jack," said one; "it's no bottle to-night."</p>
+
+    <p>"No; there's nobody about these parts to-night. We are safe,
+    and so are they."</p>
+
+    <p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+    <p>"Besides, you see, those who do happen to be out are not
+    worth talking to."</p>
+
+    <p>"No cash."</p>
+
+    <p>"None, not enough to pay turnpike for a walking-slick, at
+    the most."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is very true. Has anything been done to-night?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Nothing," said one.</p>
+
+    <p>"Only three half crowns," said the other; "that is the
+    extent of the common purse to-night."</p>
+
+    <p>"And I," said the third, "I have got a bottle of bad gin
+    from the Cat and Cabbage-stump."</p>
+
+    <p>"How did you manage it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, and so do we. I expect the gin will help to digest the
+    beef, so we mustn't complain of the goods."</p>
+
+    <p>"No; give us another glass, Jim."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come along," said the doctor.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>In a few minutes they were better than half a mile away from
+    the spot.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/401.png"
+             alt="401.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well said, doctor; how far have we to go?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Not more than a quarter of a mile."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, all."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Exactly," said Henry, "else the body will be
+    discovered."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I think so; just show a light upon the subject, doctor, and
+    then we can see what we are about&mdash;do you mind,
+    doctor&mdash;you have the management of the lantern, you
+    know?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes," said Chillingworth; "I see you have
+    it&mdash;don't be in a hurry, but do things deliberately and
+    coolly whatever you do&mdash;you will not be so liable to make
+    mistakes, or to leave anything undone."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"It is; but hasten the search."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I must; though, to confess the truth, I'd sooner
+    handle anything than this."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is not the most pleasant thing in the world, for there
+    is no knowing what may be the result&mdash;what creeping thing
+    has made a home of it."</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't mention anything about it."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>They now tore open the packet and pulled out the papers,
+    which appeared to have been secreted upon his person.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The advice is good," said Henry, who made a second search,
+    but found nothing.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;it
+    is all a matter of taste&mdash;the fashion of the class, or the
+    particular custom of the country."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, there he is now&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"This will do, I think," said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Are they all right?" inquired the doctor.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," replied Henry, "yes. The Dearbrook estate. Oh! yes;
+    they are the papers I am in want of."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;we had better
+    step out."</p>
+
+    <p>They did, for the three walked as fast as the nature of the
+    soil would permit them, and the darkness of the night.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_LXXXIX'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER LXXXIX.</h2>
+
+    <h3>TELLS WHAT BECAME OF THE SECOND VAMPYRE WHO SOUGHT
+    VARNEY.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/403.png"
+             alt="403.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The stream carried him onwards, and he aided himself so far
+    that he kept the middle of the stream, and floated along.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>It was strange thus to see a man going down slowly, and
+    without any effort whatever, passing through shade and through
+    moonlight&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>There was a small cottage&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Good God!" he muttered to himself, as he saw the struggle
+    continued; "good God! he will sink and drown."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Come, come&mdash;he tries to swim; life is not gone
+    yet&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are safe now," muttered the ferryman.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The ferryman put back to the shore, when he paused, and
+    secured his boat, and then pulled the stranger out,
+    saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you feel any better now?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said the stranger; "I feel I am living&mdash;thanks
+    to you, my good friend; I owe you my life."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have behaved very well&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! you have been robbed?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Aye, truly, I have, and have been thrown into the water,
+    and thus I have been nearly murdered."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank you; your hospitality is great, and, at this moment,
+    of the greatest importance to me."</p>
+
+    <p>"Such as we have," said the honest ferryman, "you shall be
+    welcome to. Come in&mdash;come in."</p>
+
+    <p>He turned round and led the way to the house, which he
+    entered, saying&mdash;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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Wife, we have a stranger to sleep with us to-night, and for
+    whom we must prepare a bed."</p>
+
+    <p>"A stranger!" echoed the wife&mdash;"a stranger, and we so
+    poor!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The wife looked at the stranger as he entered the room, and
+    sat down by the fire.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You are lonely about here," said the stranger, as he
+    shivered by the fire.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, rather; but we are used to it."</p>
+
+    <p>"You have a family, too; that must help to lighten the hours
+    away, and help you over the long evenings."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;though I cannot say we ought&mdash;but I am
+    merely relating the fact, whether it be right or wrong."</p>
+
+    <p>"Exactly. How old is your daughter?"</p>
+
+    <p>"She is seventeen come Allhallow's eve."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is not far hence," said the stranger. "I hope I may be
+    in this part of the country&mdash;and I think I shall&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>From this they were suddenly aroused by loud cries and
+    piercing screams from one of the family.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Help&mdash;help, father!&mdash;help!" shrieked the voice of
+    the young girl whom we have before noticed.</p>
+
+    <p>The ferryman jumped up, and rushed to the spot where his
+    daughter lay.</p>
+
+    <p>"Fanny," he said&mdash;"Fanny, what ails thee&mdash;what
+    ails thee? Tell me, my dear child."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh!" she exclaimed, almost choked&mdash;"oh, father! are we
+    all alone? I am terrified."</p>
+
+    <p>"What ails thee&mdash;what ails thee? Tell me what caused
+    you to scream out in such a manner?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I&mdash;I&mdash;that is I, father, thought&mdash;but no, I
+    am sure it was reality. Where is the stranger?"</p>
+
+    <p>"A light&mdash;a light!" shouted the fisherman.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What has happened?" he said&mdash;"what has happened?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, father&mdash;the vampyre!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Great God! what do you mean, Fanny, by that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I awoke, and found
+    the vampyre at his repast. Oh, God! oh, God! what shall I
+    do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>Then turning to the stranger, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; who else could?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I!&mdash;As Heaven's my judge&mdash;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.&mdash;It is impossible."</p>
+
+    <p>"Get out of your bed, and let me feel," said the ferryman,
+    peremptorily&mdash;"get out, and I will soon tell."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;so cold that he started upon his legs
+    in an instant, exclaiming with vehemence,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Scoundrel!&mdash;liar!&mdash;base wretch! you shall not
+    remain alive to injure those who have but one life to
+    lose."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Here, then, you shall go."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Then in deep water sank the body.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;now whirled around and
+    around, and then carried forward with the utmost velocity.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XC'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XC.</h2>
+
+    <h3>DR. CHILLINGWORTH AT THE HALL.&mdash;THE ENCOUNTER OF
+    MYSTERY.&mdash;THE CONFLICT.&mdash;THE RESCUE, AND THE
+    PICTURE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/405.png"
+             alt="405.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>In fact, one in such a case could act the part of a
+    spy&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Even the knowledge of that much&mdash;that some inexplicable
+    action was still going on&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;that must remain until some facts were
+    ascertained, and to obtain them Mr. Chillingworth now
+    determined to try.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"So you haven't long come from sea?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; I have just landed."</p>
+
+    <p>"How is it you have thrown aside your seaman's clothes and
+    taken to these?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Just to escape being found out."</p>
+
+    <p>"Found out! what do you mean by that? Have you been up to
+    anything?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I have, Jack. I have been up to something, worse luck
+    to me; but I'm not to be blamed either."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Nor would there have been, but for one simple
+    circumstance."</p>
+
+    <p>"What was that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I will tell you, Jack&mdash;I will tell you; you will never
+    betray me, I am sure."</p>
+
+    <p>"Never, by heavens!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, listen&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, you would have a house then?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"However, I learned the cause of all this afterwards. It was
+    told me by one of the crew.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Bill,' said my mate, 'look out for yourself.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'What's in the wind?' said I.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Only the captain has made a dead set at you, and you'll be
+    a lucky man if you escape.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'It's all about your girl, Bill.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Indeed!' said I. 'What can that have to do with the
+    captain? he knows nothing of her.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Oh, yes, he does,' he said. 'If it were not for you he
+    would have the girl himself.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'I see now,' said I.</p>
+
+    <p>"'Ay, and so can a blind man if you open his eyes; but he
+    wants to make you do wrong&mdash;to goad you on to do something
+    that will give him the power of disgracing you, and, perhaps,
+    of punishing you.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'He won't do that,' said I.</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'I dare say he does,' said I; 'but I will take care I will
+    live to exact a reckoning when he comes ashore.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'You are right, Bill,' he said&mdash;'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Then there's no danger, you know.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'He ought to have it smart,' said my messmate; 'and I know
+    where he is to be found.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Do you?&mdash;at what hour?'</p>
+
+    <p>"'Late at night, when he may be met with as he comes from a
+    house where he spends his evenings."</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"'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.'</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"To get married?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Ay, and to get into business."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then, things are not quite so bad as I thought for at
+    first."</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You needn't regret that."</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't know."</p>
+
+    <p>"Why not know? Are you not going to be married?&mdash;ain't
+    that much better?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Come on, then, at once," said his companion; "it's getting
+    dark now; and you have no time to lose."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Well&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>As he spoke, he arose and walked into the house, and entered
+    the same apartment which has been so often mentioned to the
+    reader.</p>
+
+    <p>Here he took a chair, and sat down full before the picture,
+    and began to contemplate it.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"However, I will have an inspection of the picture, and see
+    if I can make anything of it."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>While they were struggling, the doctor borne partially to
+    the earth&mdash;but yet struggling, suddenly his antagonist
+    released his hold, and staggered back a few paces.</p>
+
+    <p>"There, you swab&mdash;take that; I am yard-arm and yard-arm
+    with you, you piratical-looking craft&mdash;you lubberly,
+    buccaneering son of a fish-fag."</p>
+
+    <p>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 <i>hors de combat</i>.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/409.png"
+             alt="409.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XCI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XCI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE GRAND CONSULTATION BROKEN UP BY MRS. CHILLINGWORTH, AND
+    THE DISAPPEARANCE OF VARNEY.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/410.png"
+             alt="410.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p><i>The acquisition of the title deeds of the estate</i>,
+    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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"No," he said to himself frequently; "no&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You don't contemplate," said the admiral, "letting him
+    remain with you, do you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; that would be objectionable for a variety of reasons;
+    and I could not think of it for a moment."</p>
+
+    <p>"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!"</p>
+
+    <p>"Really, admiral, you do not really still cling to the idea
+    that Sir Francis Varney is a vampyre."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Really, uncle," said Charles Holland, "I did think that you
+    had discarded the notion."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you doubt his sincerity?" said Henry.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Bravo! Huzza!" cried the admiral. "I tell you what it is,
+    Master Charley&mdash;you horse marine,&mdash;I have a great
+    mind to cut you out, and have Miss Flora myself."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The one servant who they had to wait upon them looked into
+    the room, and said,&mdash;"If you please, here is Mrs.
+    Chillingworth."</p>
+
+    <p>"Mistress? you mean Mr."</p>
+
+    <p>"No; it is Mrs. Chillingworth and her baby."</p>
+
+    <p>"The devil!" said the admiral; "what can she want?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then you are mistaken; for, indeed, we don't. We want him
+    ourselves, ma'am, and can't find him&mdash;that's the
+    fact."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'm d&mdash;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You would, you brute? It's quite clear to me you never had
+    a child of your own."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;and bad taste it most certainly is, of talking of
+    your private affairs to other people."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, dear!" said Mrs. Chillingworth; "that's your idea, is
+    it, you no-whiskered puppy?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I will speak," said Flora, "to the doctor, when I see
+    him."</p>
+
+    <p>"Will you, Miss Doll's-eyes? Oh, dear me! you'll speak to
+    the doctor, will you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, it's a row," said the admiral; "that's what she
+    wants&mdash;woman like. D&mdash;&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"After all," said Flora, "Mrs. Chillingworth, although she
+    is not the most refined person in the world, is to be
+    pitied."</p>
+
+    <p>"What!" cried the admiral; "Miss Doll's-eyes, are you taking
+    her part?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, that's nothing. She may call me what she likes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Agreed&mdash;agreed. It's the best thing that can be done,
+    and it will be something gained to get his consent at
+    once."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"There, what think you of that?"</p>
+
+    <p>Henry, upon taking up the paper, saw written upon it the
+    words,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"<i>The Farewell of Varney the Vampyre</i>."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"What can you fear?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;Heaven knows which&mdash;but can
+    have nothing to do with actual information, because it is quite
+    evident he could not get it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XCII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XCII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE MISADVENTURE OF THE DOCTOR WITH THE PICTURE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/413.png"
+             alt="413.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But we have got the picture, Jack&mdash;we have got the
+    picture, you see, and that is something. I am sure we saved
+    that."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, that may be; and a pretty d&mdash;&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well," said the doctor, "I would sooner see it burned than
+    in the hands of that&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"What?" exclaimed Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"A pirate&mdash;a regular land shark."</p>
+
+    <p>"Something that is not the same as an honest man, Jack; but,
+    at all events, we have beaten him back this time."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said Jack, "the ship's cleared; no company is better
+    than bad company, doctor."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, he was a large, ugly fellow, sure enough, and looked
+    like an old tree."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you see him?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, to be sure I did."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, so he was."</p>
+
+    <p>"And, besides that, he almost carried away the
+    picture&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Where did he come from?" inquired Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"Come from, Jack?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, doctor, where did he came from?&mdash;the window, I
+    suppose&mdash;the same way he went out, I dare say&mdash;it's
+    most likely."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; one would think," said Jack, "there was more in it than
+    we can see&mdash;that it is worth more than we can believe;
+    perhaps somebody sets particular store by it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;that is very certain."</p>
+
+    <p>"It was; he was endeavouring to carry it off," said Jack;
+    "it would be a very good ornament to the black hole at
+    Calcutta."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not, Jack," said Mr. Chillingworth; "I think we
+    have scared them away&mdash;the picture is safe."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes&mdash;so long as we are here."</p>
+
+    <p>"And longer, too, I hope."</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;much as he disliked it, and as poor an opinion as he
+    had of it.</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't you think it will be safe?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, he might do so," said Mr. Chillingworth, after some
+    thought; "he even endangered his own escape for the purpose of
+    carrying it off."</p>
+
+    <p>"He wants it," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"What, the picture?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, there is much truth in that; but what to do I don't
+    know."</p>
+
+    <p>"Take it to the cottage," suggested Jack. "The picture must
+    be more than we think for; suppose we carry it along."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;but&mdash;what will they say,
+    when they see this frightful face in that quiet, yet contented
+    house?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, yes," said Chillingworth; "and, as the picture now
+    seems to be the incomprehensible object of attack, I will
+    secure that, at all events."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll help you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Thank you, Jack; your aid will be welcome; at least, it was
+    so just now."</p>
+
+    <p>"All right, doctor," said Jack. "I may be under your hands
+    some day."</p>
+
+    <p>"I'll physic you for nothing," said Mr. Chillingworth. "You
+    saved my life. One good turn deserves another; I'll not
+    forget."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Exactly. The sooner the better; we can take it the more
+    leisurely as we go."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>There seemed scarce a breath of air stirring; everything was
+    quiet and still; no motion&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't know," said Jack, very composedly, squinting up at
+    the window. "Can't see anything."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, but it must be something," persisted Mr.
+    Chillingworth; "it must be something."</p>
+
+    <p>"I dare say it is; but I don't see anything. I can't think
+    what it can be, unless&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Unless what? Speak out," said the doctor, impatiently.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It may be, and is, I dare say, a do of some sort or other,"
+    said Jack; "but what' can it be?"</p>
+
+    <p>"There it is again," said the doctor; "don't you hear it? I
+    can, as plain as I can hear myself."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Where is it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you see that twig of ivy, or something of the sort?"
+    inquired Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, I do."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very well, watch that; and when the wind catches
+    it&mdash;and there is but very little&mdash;it lifts it up, and
+    then, falling down again, it taps the glass."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There is none about that," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"We can divide the weight from the first, and then neither
+    of us will be tired at all."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good, Jack," said Mr. Chillingworth; "very good: let us
+    begin to beat our retreat at once."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;with less trouble and more safety.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>There was nothing to be seen, and so, shouldering the
+    ominous portrait, they proceeded along the garden till they
+    conveyed it into the roadway.</p>
+
+    <p>"Now," said Jack, "we are off; we can scud along under press
+    of sail, you know."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is not heavy," said Jack, giving it a hitch up, that
+    first pulled the doctor back, and then pushed him forward
+    again.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Very sorry," said Jack; "hope it didn't inconvenience you;
+    but I could carry this by myself."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"So we should," said Jack.</p>
+
+    <p>They proceeded along with much care and caution. It was
+    growing late now, and no one was about&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/417.png"
+             alt="417.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Their walk was uninterrupted by any one, and they had got
+    through half the distance without any disturbance or
+    interruption whatever.</p>
+
+    <p>When they arrived at the precincts of the village, Jack
+    Pringle said to Dr. Chillingworth, "Do you intend going through
+    the village, doctor?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"We are nearly there," said Jack, putting down his end of
+    the picture, which brought Doctor Chillingworth to a
+    standstill.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, we are; but what made you stop?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, you see," said Jack, giving his trowsers a hitch, "as
+    I said before, we are nearly there."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, what of that? we intended to go there, did we not?"
+    inquired Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, exactly; that is, you intended to do so, I know, but I
+    didn't."</p>
+
+    <p>"What do you mean by that?" inquired Chillingworth; "you are
+    a complete riddle to-night, Jack; what is the matter with
+    you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, then, you object to go in?" said Chillingworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Good bye, Jack," said Doctor Chillingworth, who stood
+    wiping his forehead, whilst the picture was standing up against
+    the poles.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you want a hand up first?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, thank you; I can get it up very well without any
+    trouble&mdash;it's not so heavy."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>There was a plantation of young trees that overhung the
+    path, and cast a deep shadow below&mdash;a pleasant spot in hot
+    weather.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"There," he muttered, "that will do for the present, and
+    last until I reach the cottage garden."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>In a short time, he received such a blow, that he was laid
+    senseless on the earth in an instant.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The moon had scarcely moved, and the shadows, such as they
+    were, were falling in the same direction as before.</p>
+
+    <p>"I have not been long here," he muttered, after a few
+    moments' reflection; "but&mdash;but&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Gone!" he said, in a low, disconsolate tone; "and after all
+    I have done!"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What, doctor!" exclaimed Henry Bannerworth; "what is the
+    matter?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I am almost dead, I think," said Chillingworth. "Lend me
+    your arm, Henry."</p>
+
+    <p>Henry and Charles Holland immediately stepped out, and took
+    him between them into the parlour, and placed him upon a
+    couch.</p>
+
+    <p>"What on earth has happened, doctor?&mdash;have you got into
+    disgrace with the populace?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no; give me some drink&mdash;some water, I am very
+    faint&mdash;very faint."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"There!" said the admiral, "that will do you good. How did
+    all this damage to your upper works come about, eh?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Let him wash his face and hands first; he will be better
+    able to talk afterwards."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, thank you," said Chillingworth. "I am much better; but
+    I have had some hard bruises."</p>
+
+    <p>"How did it happen?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I went by myself to watch in the room where the picture was
+    in Bannerworth Hall."</p>
+
+    <p>"Where the picture was!" said Henry; "where it is, you mean,
+    do you not, doctor?"</p>
+
+    <p>"No; where it was, and where it is not now."</p>
+
+    <p>"Gone!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The dog!" muttered the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, Jack is a good man," said the admiral; "there may be
+    worse, at least."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, we had a desperate encounter for some minutes, during
+    which this fellow wanted to carry off the picture."</p>
+
+    <p>"Carry off the picture?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"With the picture?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, well&mdash;where is the picture?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The lubber!" said the admiral, interjectionally.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And&mdash;and&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said the doctor, "it was&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"Was what?" inquired the admiral.</p>
+
+    <p>"Just what you all seemed to anticipate; you are all before
+    me, but that was it."</p>
+
+    <p>"A man?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And what became of the picture?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Do you think it was the same man who attacked you in the
+    house that obtained the picture?" at last inquired Henry
+    Bannerworth.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is very true," said Henry Bannerworth&mdash;"very
+    true; and I think it more than probable myself. But come,
+    doctor, you will require rest and nursing after your
+    dangers."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XCIII'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XCIII.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE ALARM AT ANDERBURY.&mdash;THE SUSPICIONS OF THE
+    BANNERWORTH FAMILY, AND THE MYSTERIOUS COMMUNICATION.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/420.png"
+             alt="420.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>There was not a chamber but which reminded him of the
+    past&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>So, therefore, it remained unlet, and wearing that gloomy
+    aspect which a large house, untenanted, so very quickly
+    assumes.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Who is he?" asked the landlord.</p>
+
+    <p>"It's the Baron Stolmuyer Saltsburgh."</p>
+
+    <p>"Bless my heart, I never heard of him before; where did he
+    come from&mdash;somewhere abroad I suppose?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, there is one; and it is called
+    Anderbury-on-the-Mount."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, he will very likely speak to you about it himself,
+    for here he comes."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"You are the landlord of this inn, I presume," said the
+    baron, "and, consequently, no doubt well acquainted with the
+    neighbourhood?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"'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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Anderbury-on-the-Mount," said the baron, "was the name of
+    the place mentioned to me; but I understood it was a little
+    place."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"How can I tell that, idiot, until the dinner time
+    arrives?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, but, sir, in that case, you know, we scarcely know
+    what to do, because you see, sir, you understand&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Peace! begone! what is the use of all this bellowing to
+    me&mdash;I want it not&mdash;I care not for it."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;all its
+    outbuildings, and its three hundred acres of ground, a
+    cottage.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;a repast sufficient for
+    twenty people, and certainly which was a monstrous thing to set
+    before one individual.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;indeed, the most
+    extraordinary that I ever came near."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The commission on letting and receiving the rentals of such
+    a property is no joke to me."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XCIV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XCIV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE VISITOR, AND THE DEATH IN THE SUBTERRANEAN
+    PASSAGE.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/424.png"
+             alt="424.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Tell the Baron Stolmuyer, of Saltzburgh, that there is one
+    here who wants to see him."</p>
+
+    <p>"I beg your pardon, sir," said the waiter, "but the baron is
+    gone to bed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The stranger hesitated for a time, and then he
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Then the baron shrunk back, and the stranger, folding his
+    arms, said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I thought that you were dead."</p>
+
+    <p>"I know you did; but you behold me here, and, consequently,
+    that delusion vanishes."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/425.png"
+             alt="425.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"You look no older than you did when last we parted, and
+    that was years ago."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Five thousand! the man raves&mdash;five thousand pounds!
+    Say one thousand, and it is yours."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;much
+    prefer it; and therefore most willingly embrace your
+    proposition. Come out."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Another marriage?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"This, between us, is idle talk indeed&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"What place is that?" said his companion.</p>
+
+    <p>"It is a private entrance to the grounds of a mansion in
+    this neighbourhood."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not understand you; you talk ambiguously."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed; do you think you bear such a charmed life that
+    nothing can shake it?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I think nothing of the sort; but I know what I can
+    do&mdash;I am armed."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Have mercy upon me. I meant not to take your life; and,
+    therefore, why should you take mine?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No&mdash;no! you cannot&mdash;will not. You will have
+    mercy."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ask the famished tiger for mercy, when you intrude upon his
+    den."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Then he spoke in his ordinary accents, and evidently caring
+    nothing for the fact that he had done such a deed.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"'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&mdash;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&mdash;but no
+    matter, her fate is an after consideration."</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XCV'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XCV.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE MARRIAGE IN THE BANNERWORTH FAMILY ARRANGED.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <div class="floatl">
+        <img src="images/429.png"
+             alt="429.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's true enough, doctor," said Henry; "but you know the
+    old proverb,&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But as you cannot, doctor, there can be no good possibly
+    done by regretting it."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Had you any special reason for supposing such was the
+    case?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It is rather provoking."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But what can we do?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," chimed in the admiral; "bother the money! what do we
+    care about it; and, besides, Charley Holland is going to be
+    very busy."</p>
+
+    <p>"Busy!" said the doctor, "how do you mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I can't say I do&mdash;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&mdash;I
+    have a better idea than that&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"My wife!&mdash;you don't mean to say she has been
+    here?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! that's not my style of practice, admiral; but I am
+    sorry to hear that Mrs. Chillingworth has annoyed you so
+    much."</p>
+
+    <p>"Pho, pho, man!&mdash;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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No, no," said Flora; "the week after next, you mean,"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>From his first arrival in the market town&mdash;in the
+    neighbourhood of which was Bannerworth Hall&mdash;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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes," said Jack Pringle, who had overheard the admiral read
+    the letter.</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, we will honour him; and I only hope he will have
+    plenty of grog; because, you see, if he don't&mdash;D&mdash;n
+    it! what's that? Can't you keep things to yourself?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Family, you thief!" said the admiral. "What do you mean?
+    What family do you think would own you? D&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I mean my own house? What does the infernal
+    rascal mean by it?"</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;which, however, involved a disclosure of the fact
+    which he had intended to keep to himself, that he had sought
+    the lawyer's advice&mdash;she succeeded in soothing him
+    completely, so that he forgot his anger in a very short
+    time.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral soon forgot this little dispute, and then
+    pleased himself with the idea that he should pass a pleasant
+    day with the attorney.</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah! well," he said; "who would have thought that ever I
+    should have gone and taken dinner with a lawyer&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/433.png"
+             alt="433.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, of course&mdash;of course. Never mind that; and, if any
+    disagreeable fellow comes, we will smother him in some
+    way."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"All in your power to make him comfortable! What do you
+    mean?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>The admiral looked at the lawyer with amazement, for a few
+    moments, in silence, and then he said,</p>
+
+    <p>"D&mdash;n it! why, you don't mean to tell me, that that
+    rascal is here."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Stop a bit. Do you happen to have any loaded fire arms in
+    the house?"</p>
+
+    <p>"We have got an old bunderbuss; but what for, admiral?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"My dear sir, calm yourself, and think nothing of it; it's
+    of no consequence whatever."</p>
+
+    <p>"No consequence; where is that blunderbuss of yours? Do you
+    mean to tell me that mutiny is of no consequence? Give me the
+    blunderbuss."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, my clear sir, we only keep it <i>in terrorem</i>, and
+    have no bullets."</p>
+
+    <p>"Never mind that, we can cram in a handful of nails, or
+    brass buttons, or hammer up a few halfpence&mdash;anything of
+    that sort will do to settle his business with."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+    <a name='CHAPTER_XCVI'></a>
+
+    <h2>CHAPTER XCVI.</h2>
+
+    <h3>THE BARON TAKES ANDERBURY HOUSE, AND DECIDES UPON GIVING A
+    GRAND ENTERTAINMENT.</h3><br>
+
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;a crime
+    which few men could have committed in so entirely unmoved and
+    passionless a manner as he had done it.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Ah!" said the baron; "very likely."</p>
+
+    <p>"It's lively, too," continued Mr. Leek; "very lively; and
+    there are two chapels of ease, besides the church."</p>
+
+    <p>"That's a drawback," said the baron.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Not the slightest; but do not, sir, run away with any
+    assumption concerning my religious opinions, for I am not a
+    Roman Catholic."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The landlord of the inn mentioned it."</p>
+
+    <p>"We consider it a great curiosity, sir, I can assure you, in
+    these parts&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"That is an advantage."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"The Baron Stoltmayor, of Saltsomething, has come to look at
+    the premises."</p>
+
+    <p>This announcement was received with all due deference and
+    respect, and the task of showing the baron the premises at once
+    fairly commenced.</p>
+
+    <p>"Here you have," said Mr. Leek, assuming an oratorical
+    attitude&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Enough&mdash;enough," said the baron.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"There, there&mdash;that will do."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;ample
+    dormitories and halls of ancient grandeur; here you
+    have&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;show me the house at once, and let me judge
+    for myself."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;I really beg your pardon, sir&mdash;I
+    had not the slightest intention of saying here you have, I
+    assure you; but the words came out quite unawares, I assure
+    you."</p>
+
+    <p>"Peace&mdash;peace!" cried again the baron; "you disturb me
+    by this incessant clatter."</p>
+
+    <p>Thus admonished, Mr. Leek was now quiet, and allowed the
+    baron in his own way to make what investigation he pleased
+    concerning Anderbury House.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"And now," said Mr. Leek, "I will do myself the pleasure,
+    sir, of showing your grace the subterranean passage."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>At this moment the stranger advanced, and when he saw the
+    baron, he bowed courteously, upon which Mr. Leek
+    said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>Even the baron allowed Mr. Leek to make a speech upon the
+    occasion, and that gentleman said,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"And are there more of these excavations?" said the
+    baron.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh, I don't mind, sir," said Davis. "I have been down one
+    of them before to-day, I can tell you, sir."</p>
+
+    <p>"I do not see the necessity," said Sir John Westlake,
+    "exactly, of such a thing; but still if you please, and this
+    gentleman wishes&mdash;"</p>
+
+    <p>"I have no wish upon the occasion," said the baron; "and,
+    like yourself, cannot see the necessity."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Murder! murder! Lift me out. There is a dead man down here,
+    and I have jumped upon him."</p>
+
+    <p>"A dead man!" cried Mr. Leek and Sir John Westlake in a
+    breath.</p>
+
+    <p>"How very strange!" said the baron.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! the fellow is only joking," said the baron, "and
+    amusing himself at our expense."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"You certainly did call out."</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes, and so would anybody, I think, under such
+    circumstances. I suppose I shall be hung now, because I had
+    charge of the house?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But what's to be done?" said Mr. Leek. "I suppose it's our
+    duty to do something, under such circumstances."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Don't call upon me on any account," said Sir John
+    Westlake.</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! no, no," cried Mr. Leek; "there is no occasion. I
+    won't, you may depend, if it can be helped."</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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.'"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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:&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"A coffin was to have been brought down to take the body
+    in."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <div class="figcenter">
+        <img src="images/441.png"
+             alt="441.png">
+    </div>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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&mdash;"What suppose it is the gentleman who left
+    his horse here?"</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"The deuce you did! But you don't suppose the baron murdered
+    him, do you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It's a mystery to me altogether&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; but I have got him, and possession, you know, is nine
+    points of the law."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"In what way?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"It was running a risk."</p>
+
+    <p>"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&mdash;dest old
+    screw I could, and let them have that."</p>
+
+    <p>"You would?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I believe ye, it is."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Well, I am glad you have. What do you think now the dead
+    man's horse is worth?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Oh! fifty or sixty guineas value."</p>
+
+    <p>"Then very good. Then, when the affair is all settled, I
+    will trouble you for twenty pounds.</p>
+
+    <p>"You?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Very good. You need not; only mind, if you do, I am down
+    upon you like a shot."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Why, sir, that is what we hoped you would be able to tell
+    us."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Indeed, sir!"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"But, I tell you, I consider the man out of his senses, and
+    perhaps that may account for the whole affair."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Unquestionably, sir; our coroner is a very clever man, and
+    you will be glad to know him&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>"No doubt of that; but I will be punctual."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"Is that gentleman in attendance?" said the coroner.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>He was listened to with breathless attention, and, when he
+    had concluded, the coroner, with a preparatory hem! said to
+    him,</p>
+
+    <p>"And you have reason to suppose, sir, that this person was
+    out of his senses?"</p>
+
+    <p>"It seemed to me so; he talked wildly and incoherently, and
+    in such a manner as to fully induce such a belief."</p>
+
+    <p>"You left him on the beach?"</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"Did you see him after that?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Certainly not, until to-day, when I recognised in the body
+    that has been exhibited to me the same individual."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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?"</p>
+
+    <p>"Yes; but how do you account, sir, for there being no weapon
+    found by which the man could have done the deed himself?"</p>
+
+    <p>"I don't account for it at all&mdash;how do you?"</p>
+
+    <p>"This is irregular," said the coroner; "call the next
+    witness."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>This, then, seemed to conclude the case, and the coroner
+    remarked,&mdash;</p>
+
+    <p>"Gentlemen of the jury,&mdash;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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>"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."</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+
+    <p>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.</p>
+    <hr>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14833 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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author	pgww <pgww@lists.pglaf.org>	2025-09-12 14:38:33 -0700
committer	pgww <pgww@lists.pglaf.org>	2025-09-12 14:38:33 -0700
commit	fc542a1c5a98c830c2c6901c4790ef25a84a9ce5 (patch)
tree	b9c853edc6d1f74c433f1705bc7c9a6367027e53 /14833-h