Chapter 41 of Varney, the Vampire—Varney's Danger and his Rescue. The Prisoner Again and the Subterranean Vault. 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 subterranean abode was so constructed that let the sun be at what point it might during its diurnal course, but a few reflected beams of light could ever find their way into that abode of sorrow. The prisoner, the same prisoner of whom we before spoke, is there. Despair is in his looks, and his temples are still bound with those cloths, which seemed now for many days to have been sopt in blood which has become encrusted in their folds. He still lives, apparently incapable of movement. How he has lived so long seems to be a mystery, for one would think him scarcely in a state, even were his nourishment placed to his lips, to enable him to swallow it. It may be, however, that the mind has as much to do with that apparent absolute prostration of all sort of physical energy as those bodily wounds which he has received at the hands of the enemies who have reduced him to his present painful and hopeless situation. Occasionally a low groan burst from his lips. It seems to come from the very bottom of his heart, and it sounds as if it would carry with it every remnant of vitality that was yet remaining to him. Then he moves restlessly and repeats in hurried accents the names of some who are dear to him and far away, some who may per chance be mourning him, but who know not, guess not, ought of his present sufferings. As he thus moves, the rustle of a chain among the straw in 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 throldom in which he is held. The sound reaches his own ears, and for a few moments in the deep impatience of his wounded spirit he heaps malediction on the heads of those who have reduced him to his present state. But soon a better nature seems to come over him, and gentler words fall from his lips. He preaches patience to himself. He talks not of revenge, but of justice, and in accents of more hopelessness than he had before spoken he calls upon heaven to succour him in his deep distress. Then all is still, and the prisoner appears to have resigned himself once more to the calmness of expectation or of despair. But Hark, his senses hearing, rendered doubly acute by lying so long alone in nearly darkness and in positive silence, detects sounds which, to ordinary mortal powers of perception, would have been by far too indistinct to produce any tangible effect upon the senses. It is the sound of feet. On, on they come. Far overhead he hears them. They beat the green earth, that sweet verdant sod, which he may never see again, with an impatient tread. Nearer and nearer still, and now they pause. He listens with all the intensity of one who listens for existence. Someone comes. There is a lumbering noise, a hasty footstep. He hears someone laboring for breath, panting like a hunted hare. His door is opened, and there totters in a man, tall and gaunt. He reels like one intoxicated. Fatigue has done more than the work of inebriation. He cannot save himself, and he sinks exhausted by the side of that lonely prisoner. The captive raises himself as far as his chains will allow him. He clutches the throat of his enervated visitor. Villain, monster, vampire, he shrieks, I have thee now, and locked in a deadly embrace they roll upon the damp earth struggling for life together. It is midday 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 neighborhood had been in a state of commotion, but little did she guess the cause of so much tumult, or that it in any way concerned her. She had seen the peasantry forsaking their work in the fields and the gardens, and apparently intent upon some object of absorbing interest, but she feared to leave the house, for she had promised Henry that she would not do so, lest the former Pacific conduct of the vampire should have been but a new snare for the purpose of drawing her so far from her home as to lead her into some danger when she should be far from assistance. And yet, more than once, she was tempted to forget her promise, and to seek the open country, for fear that those she loved should be encountering some danger for her sake, which she would willingly either share with them or spare them. The solicitation, however, of her brother kept her comparatively quiet, and, moreover, since her last interview with Varney, in which, at all events, he had shown some feeling for the melancholy situation to which he had reduced her, she had been more able to reason calmly and to meet the suggestions of passion and of impulse with a sober judgment. About midday, then, she saw the domestic party returning. That party which now consisted of her two brothers, the Admiral, Jack Pringle, and Mr. Chillingworth. As for Mr. Marchdale, he had given them a polite adieu on the confines of the grounds of Bannerworth Hall, stating that although he had felt it to be his duty to come forward and second Henry Bannerworth in the duel with the vampire, yet that circumstance by no means obliterated from his memory the insults he had received from Admiral Bell, and therefore he declined going to Bannerworth Hall and bade them a very good morning. To all this Admiral Bell replied that he might go and be damned 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. Aye, aye, says Jack. This answer, of course, produced the usual contention, which lasted them until they got fairly in the house, where they swore at each other to an extent that was enough to make any one's hair stand on end, until Henry and Mr. Chillingworth interfered, and really begged that they would postpone the discussion until some more fitting opportunity. The whole of the circumstances were then related to Flora, who, while she blamed her brother much for fighting the duel with the vampire, found in the conduct of that mysterious individual, as regarded the encounter, yet another reason for believing him to be strictly sincere in his desire to save her from the consequences of his future visits. Her desire to leave Bannerworth Hall consequently became more and more intense, and as the Admiral really now considered himself the master of the house, they offered no amount of opposition to the subject, but merely said, My dear Flora, Admiral Bell shall decide all these matters now. We know that he is our sincere friend, and that whatever he says we ought to do will be dictated by the best possible feelings towards us. Then I appeal to you, sir, said Flora, turning to the Admiral. Very good, replied the old man. Then I say, Hey, Admiral, interrupted Mr. Chillingworth, you promised me but a short time since that you would come to no decision whatever upon this question until you had heard some particulars which I have to relate to you, which, in my humble opinion, will sway your judgment. And so I did, cried the Admiral, but I had forgotten all about it. Flora, my dear, I'll be with you in an hour or two. My friend, the doctor here, has got some sow by the ear and fancies it's the right one. However, I'll hear what he has got to say first before we come to a conclusion. So come along, Mr. Chillingworth, and let's have it out at once. Flora, said Henry when the Admiral had left the room, I can see that you wish to leave the hall. I do, brother, but not to go far. I wish rather to hide from Varney than to make myself inaccessible by distance. You still cling to this neighborhood? I do, I do, and you know with what hope I cling to it. Perfectly. You still think it possible that Charles Holland may be united to you? I do, I do. You believe his faith? Oh, yes, as I believe in heaven's mercy. And I, Flora, I would not doubt him now for worlds, something even now seems to whisper to me that a brighter son of happiness will yet dawn upon us, and that when the mists which at present enshroud ourselves and our fortunes pass away, they will disclose a landscape full of beauty, the future of which shall know no pangs. Yes, brother, exclaimed Flora enthusiastically, this after all may be but some trial, grievous while it lasts, but yet tending eventually only to make the future look more bright and beautiful. Heaven may yet have in store for us all some great happiness which shall spring clearly and decidedly from out these misfortunes. Be it so, and may we ever thus banish despair by such hopeful propositions. Lean on my arm, Flora, you're safe with me. Come, dearest, and taste the sweetness of the morning air. There was indeed now a hopefulness about the manner in which Henry Bannerworth spoke, such as Flora had not for some weary months had the pleasure of listening to, and she eagerly rose to accompany him into the garden, which was glowing with all the beauty of sunshine, for the day had turned out to be much finer than the early morning had it all promised it would be. Flora, he said, when they had taken some turns to and fro in the garden, notwithstanding all that has happened, there is no convincing Mr. Chillingworth that Sir Francis Varney is really what to us he appears. Indeed! It is so. In the face of all evidence he neither will believe in vampires at all, nor that Varney is anything but some mortal man, like ourselves, in his thoughts, talents, feelings, and modes of life, and with no more power to do any one an injury than we have. Oh, would that I could think so! And I! But unhappily we have by far too many and too conclusive evidences to the contrary. We have indeed, brother! And though, while we respect the strength of mind in our friend which not allow him, even almost at the last extremity, to yield to what appear to be stern facts, we may not ourselves be so obdurate, but may feel that we know enough to be convinced. You have no doubt, brother? Most reluctantly I must confess that I feel compelled to consider Varney as something more than mortal. He must be so. And now, sister, before we leave the place which has been a home to us from earliest life, let us for a few moments consider if there be any possible excuse for the notion of Mr. Chillingworth to the effect that Sir Francis Varney wants possession of the house for some purpose more inimical to our peace and prosperity than any he has yet attempted. Has he such an opinion? He has. Tis very strange. Yes, Flora, he seems to gather from all the circumstances nothing but an overwhelming desire in the part of Sir Francis Varney to become the tenant of Bannerworth Hall. He certainly wishes to possess it. Yes, but can you, sister, in the exercise of any possible amount of fancy, imagine any motive for such an anxiety beyond what he alleges? Which in merely that he is fond of old houses? Precisely so. That is the reason and the only one that can be got from him. Heaven only knows if it is the true one. It may be, brother. As you say it may, but there is a doubt nevertheless, Flora. I much rejoice that you have had an interview with this mysterious being, for you have certainly, since that time, been happier and more composed than I ever hoped to see you again. I have indeed. It is sufficiently perceivable. Somehow, brother, since that interview I have not had the same sort of dread of Sir Francis Varney which before made the very sound of his name a note of terror to me. His words and all he said to me during that interview which took place so strangely between us, indeed I know not, tended together rather to make him to a certain extent an object of my sympathies rather than my abhorrence. That is very strange. I own that it is strange, Henry, but when we come for but a brief moment to reflect upon the circumstances which have occurred we shall, I think, be able to find cause even to pity Varney the vampire. How? Thus, brother, it is said, and well may I who have been subject to an attack of such a nature tremble to repeat the saying, that those who have been once subject to the visitations of a vampire are themselves in a way to become one of the dreadful and maddening fraternity. I have heard so much, sister," replied Henry. Yes, and therefore who knows but that Sir Francis Varney may at one time have been as innocent as we are ourselves of the terrible and fiendish propensity which now makes him a terror and a reproach to all who know him, or are in any way obnoxious to his attacks. That is true. There may have been a time, who shall say there was not, when he, like me, would have shrunk with a dread as great as any one could have experienced from the contamination of the touch even of a vampire. I cannot, sister, deny the soundness of your reasoning, said Henry, with a sigh. But still I do not see anything, even from a full conviction that Varney is unfortunate which should induce us to tolerate him. Nay, brother, I said not tolerate. What I mean is that even with the horror and dread we must naturally feel at such a being we may afford to mingle some amount of pity which shall make us rather seek to shun him than to cross his path with a resolution of doing him an injury. I perceive well, sister, what you mean. Rather than remain here and make an attempt to defy Sir Francis Varney, you would fly from him and leave him undisputed master of the field. I would! I would! Heaven forbid that I or any one would 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 of which has assumed the most important of shapes as regarded our general domestic policy. It is not, therefore, likely now, dear sister, that we should thwart you in your wish to remove from here. I know, Henry, all you would say, remarked Flora, as a tear started to arise. 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 pleasant associations. But listen to me further, Henry. I do not wish to wander far. Not far, Flora? No. Do I not still cling to a hope that Charles may yet appear? And if he do so, it will assuredly be in this neighborhood which he knows is native and most dear to us all. True? Then do I wish to make some sort of parade in the way of publicity of our leaving the hall? Yes, yes. And yet not go far. In the neighboring town, for example, surely we might find some means of living entirely free from remark or observation as to who or what we were. That, sister, I doubt. If you seek for that species of solitude which you contemplate, it is only to be found in a desert. A desert? Yes. Or in a large city. Indeed. Aye, 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 buy any possibility assume. Then there is no resource. We must go far. Nay, I will consider for you, Flora, and although as a general principal 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 neighborhood, yet will procure to us all the secrecy we may desire. Dear, dear brother, said Flora, as she flung herself upon Henry's neck, you speak cheeringly to me, and what is more, you believe in Charles's faithfulness and truth. As heaven is my judge, I do. A thousand, thousand thanks for such an assurance. I know him too well to doubt, for one moment his faith. O brother, could Charles Holland the soul of honour, the abode of every noble impulse that can adorn humanity, could he have written those letters? No. No. Parish the thought. It has perished. Thank God! I only, upon reflection, wonder how, misled for the moment by the concurrence of a number of circumstances, I could ever have suspected him. It is like your generous nature, brother, to say so. But you know as well as I, that there has been one here who has, far from feeling any sort of anxiety to think as well as possible of poor Charles Holland, has done all that in him late have taken the worst view of his mysterious disappearance, and induce us to do the like. You allude to Mr. Marchdale? I do. Well, Flora, at the same time that I must admit you have caused for speaking of Mr. Marchdale as you do, yet when we come to consider all things there may be found for him excuses. May there?  It may be so, but yet he, knowing as he did very little of Charles Holland, judged him hastily and harshly. You rather ought to say, Flora, that he did not judge him generously. Well, be it so. And you must recollect, when you say so, that Marchdale did not love Charles Holland. Why, now, said Flora, while there flashed across her cheek for a moment of heightened color, you are commencing to jest with me, and therefore we will say no more. You know, dear Henry, all my hopes, my wishes, and my feelings, and I shall therefore leave my future destiny in your hands to dispose of as you please. Look yonder! Where? There! Do you see the admiral and Mr. Chillingworth walking among the trees? Yes, yes, I do now. How very serious and intent they are upon the subject of their discourse! They seem quite lost to all surrounding objects. I could not have imagined any subject that would so completely have absorbed the attention of Admiral Bell. Mr. Chillingworth had something to relate to him, or to propose, of a nature which, perchance, has had the effect of enchaining all his attention. He called him from the room. Yes, I saw that he did. But see, they come towards us, and now we shall probably hear what is the subject matter of their discourse and consultation. We shall! Admiral Bell had evidently seen Henry and his sister, for now, suddenly, as if not from having for the first moment observed them, and, in consequence, broken off their private discourse, but as if they arrived at some point in it which enabled them to come to a conclusion to be communicative. The admiral came towards the brother and sister. Well, said the bluff old admiral, when they were sufficiently near to exchange words, well, Miss Flora, you are looking a thousand times better than you were. I thank you, Admiral, I am much better. Oh, to be sure you are, and you will be much better still, and no sort of mistake. Now here's the doctor and I have both been agreeing upon what is best for you. Indeed. Yes, to be sure. Have we not, doctor? We have, Admiral. Good, and what now, Miss Flora, do you suppose it is? I really cannot say. Why, it's a change of air, to be sure. You must get away from here as quickly as you can, or there will be no peace for you. Yes, added Mr. Chillingworth, advancing, I am quite convinced that change of scene and change of place and habits and people will tend more to your 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 celebrity be much greater than the place to which he may be removed. Good, said the admiral. Then we are to understand, said Henry with a smile, that we are no longer to be your guests, Admiral Bell. Be lay there, cried the admiral. Who told you to understand any such thing, I should like to know? Well, but we shall look upon this house as yours now, and that being the case, if we remove from it, of course we cease to be your guests any longer. That's all you know about it. Now, Harkie, 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'm concerned. It is an honorable mode. Of course it is. Well, I'm going to... What the deuce do you call it? What? That's just what I want to know. Oh, I have it now. I am going to what the lawyers call invest it. A prudent step, Admiral, and one which it is to be hoped before now has occurred to you. Perhaps it has, and perhaps it hasn't. However, that's my business and no one 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 guest there just the same as you are here. Admiral, said Henry, it would be imposing upon a generosity as rare as it is noble, were we to allow you to do so much for us as you contemplate. Very good. We cannot. We dare not. But I say you shall. So you have had your say, and I have had mine, after which, if you please, Master Henry Bannerworth, I shall take upon myself to consider the affair as altogether settled. You can commence operations as soon as you like. I know that Miss Flora here, bless her, sweet eyes, don't want to stay at Bannerworth Hall any longer than she can help it. Indeed, I was urging upon Henry to remove, said Flora, but yet I cannot help feeling with him, Admiral, that we are imposing upon your goodness. Go on imposing, then. But, cha, can't a man be imposed upon if he likes? Damn it, that's a poor privilege for an Englishman to be forced to make a row about.  I will be imposed upon, so there's an end of that. And now let's come in and see what Mrs. Bannerworth has got ready for luncheon. It can hardly be supposed that such a popular ferment as had been created in the country town by the singular reports concerning Varney the Vampire should readily and without abundant satisfaction subside. An idea like that which had lent so powerful an impulse to the popular mind was one far easier to set going than to deprecate or extinguish. The very circumstances which had occurred to toil the excited mob in the 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 colors. 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 vampire-like existence. Then again, had he not disappeared in the most mysterious manner? Had he not sought refuge where no human being would think of seeking refuge, namely, in that old, dilapidated ruin, where, when his pursuers were so close upon his track, he had succeeded in eluding their grasp with a facility which looked as if he had vanished into thin air or as if the very earth had opened to receive him bodily within its cold embraces? It is now 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 neighbors 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 midday and about the time when Henry Bannerworth was conversing so quietly in the gardens of the hall with his beautiful sister, there was an amount of popular ferment in the town of which they had no conception. All business was suspended and many persons, now that once the idea had been started concerning the possibility that a vampire might have been visiting some of the houses in the place, told how in the dead of the night they had heard strange noises, how children had shrieked from no apparent cause, doors opened and shut without human agency, and windows rattled that never had been known to rattle before. Some too went so far as to declare that they had been awakened out of their sleep by noises incidental to an effort made to enter their chambers, and others had seen dusky forms of gigantic proportions outside their windows, tampering with their fastenings and only disappearing when the light of day mocked all attempts at concealment. These tales flew from mouth to mouth and all listened to them with such an eager interest that none thought it worthwhile to challenge their inconsistencies or to express a doubt of their truth because they had not been mentioned before. The only individual, and he was a remarkably clever man, who made the slightest remark upon the subject of a practical character, hazarded a suggestion that made confusion worse confounded. He knew something of vampires. He had traveled abroad and had heard of them in Germany as well as in the East, and to a crowd of wandering and aghast listeners he said, "'You may depend upon it, my friends. This has been going on for some time. There have been several mysterious and sudden deaths in the town lately. People have wasted away and died. Nobody knew how or wherefore.' "'Yes, yes,' said everybody. There was Miles the Butcher.  A general assent was given to the proposition, and then, elevating one arm in an oratical manner, the clever man continued, "'I have not a doubt that Miles, the Butcher, and everyone else who has died suddenly lately, have been victims of the vampire.  There is but one plan. Sir Francis Varney must be found, and put out of the world in such a manner that he can't come back to it again. And all those who are dead that we have any suspicion of should be taken up out of their graves and looked at to see if they're rotting or not. If they are, it's all right. But if they look fresh and much as usual, you may depend their vampires, and no mistake.' This was a terrific suggestion thrown amongst a mob. To have caught Sir Francis Varney and immolated him at the shrine of popular fury they would not have shrunk from. But a desecration of the graves of those whom they had known in life was a matter which, however much it had to recommend it, even the boldest stood aghast at and felt some qualms of irresolution. There are many ideas, however, which, like the first plunge into a cold bath, are rather uncomfortable for the moment, but which in a little time we become so familiarized with that they become stripped of their disagreeable concomitance and appear quite pleasing and natural. So it was with this notion of exhuming the dead bodies of those townspeople who had recently died from what was called a decay of nature and such other failures of vitality as bore not the tangible name of any understood disease. From mouth to mouth the awful suggestions spread like wildfire, until at last it grew into such a shape that it almost seemed to become a duty at all events to have up miles the butcher and see how he looked. There is, too, about human nature a natural crave and 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 someone famous in his time, whether for his vices, his virtues, his knowledge, his talents, or his heroism. And if this feeling exists 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 groveling and base.  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 time fearful in suggestion, they assumed to themselves a great virtue in so doing, told each other what an absolute necessity there was for the public good that it should be done. And then with loud shouts and cries concerning the vampire they proceeded in a body to the village churchyard where had been lain with the hope of reposing in peace the bones of their ancestors. A species of savage ferocity now appeared to have seized upon the crowd and the people in making up their minds to do something which was strikingly at variance with all their preconceived notions of right and wrong appeared to feel that it was necessary in order that they might be consistent to cast off many of the decencies of life and to become riotous and reckless. As they proceeded toward the graveyard they amused themselves by breaking the windows of the tax-gatherers and doing what passing mischief they could to the inhabitants of all who held any official situation or authority.  A public house or two likewise en route was sacked of some of its inebriating contents so that what with the madness of intoxication and the general excitement consequent upon that very nature of the business which took them to the churchyard a more wild and infuriated multitude than that which paused at two iron gates which led into the sanctuary of that church could not be imagined. Those who have never seen a mob placed in such a situation as to have cast off all moral restraint whatever at the same time that it finds 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 civilized country like this with a generally well-educated population nothing but a well-organized physical force keeps down from the commission of the most outrageous offenses hundreds and thousands of persons. We have said that the mob paused at the iron gates of the churchyard, but it was more a pause of surprise than one of vacillation because they saw that those iron gates were closed which had not been the case within the memory of the oldest among them. At the first building of the church and the enclosure of its graveyard two pairs of these massive gates had been presented by some munificent patron, but after a time they hung idly upon their hinges, ornamental certainly, but useless, while a couple of turn-styles to keep cattle from straying within its sacred precincts did duty instead and established without trouble the regular thoroughfare which long habit had dictated as necessary through the place of sepulcher. But now those gates were closed and for once were doing duty. Heaven only knows how they had been moved upon their rusty and time-worn hinges. The mob, however, was checked for the moment, and it was clear that the ecclesiastical authorities were resolved to attempt something to prevent the desecration of the tombs. Those gates were sufficiently strong to resist the first vigorous shake which was given to them by some of the foremost among the crowd, and then one fellow started the idea that they might be opened from the inside and volunteered to clamber over the wall to do so. Hoisted up upon the shoulders of several he grasped the top of the wall and raised his head above its level, and then something of a mysterious nature rose up from the inside and dealt him such a whack between the eyes that down he went sprawling among his co-agitors. 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 beetle with the guilt-knob at the end of it just over the paparate of the wall in token of victory. It's waggles! It's waggles! cried everybody. It's waggles! The beetle! Yes! said a voice from within. It's waggles! The beetle! And he thinks as he had your there, rather. Try it again. The church isn't in danger. Oh, no! What do you think of this? The staff was flourished more vigorously than ever, and in the secure position that waggles occupied it seemed not only impossible to attack him, but that he possessed wonderful powers of resistance, for the staff was long and the knob was heavy. It was a boy who hit upon the ingenious expedient of throwing up a great stone so that it fell just inside the wall and hit waggles a great blow on the head. The staff was flourished more vigorously than ever, and the mob, in the ecstasy at the fun which was going on, almost forgot the errand which had brought them. Perhaps after all the affair might have passed off jestingly, had not there been some really mischievous persons among the throng who were determined that such should not be the case, and they incited the multitude to commence an attack upon the gates, which in a few moments must have produced the entire demolition. Finally, however, the boldest drew back, and there was a pause, as the well-known form of the clergyman appeared advancing from the church door, attired in full canonicals. "'There's Mr. Lee,' said several, how unlucky he should be here. "'What is this?' said the clergyman, approaching the gates. "'Can I believe my eyes when I see before me those who compose the worshipers at this church armed, and attempting to enter for the purpose of violence to this sacred place?' "'Oh, let me beseech you, lose not a moment, but return to your homes and repent of that which you have already done. It is not yet too late. Listen, I pray you, to the voice of one with whom you have so often joined in prayer to the throne of the Almighty, who is now looking upon your actions.' This appeal was heard respectfully, but it was evidently very far from suiting the feelings and the wishes of those to whom it was addressed. The presence of the clergyman was evidently in unexpected circumstance, and the more especially, too, as he appeared in that costume which they had been accustomed to regard with the reverence almost amounting to veneration. He saw the favorable effect he had produced, and anxious to follow it up, he added, "'Let this little ebullation 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 exertion shall be made to restore peace and tranquility to all of you.'" "'It's all about the vampire,' cried one fellow. "'Mr. Lee, how should you like a vampire in the pulpit?' "'Hush, hush! Can it be possible that you know so little of the works of that great being whom you all pretend to adore as to believe that he would create any class of beings of a nature such as those you ascribe to that terrific word?' "'Oh, let me pray of you to get rid of these superstitions. A like disgraceful to yourselves and afflicting to me!' The clergyman had the satisfaction of seeing the crowd rapidly thinning from before the gates, and he believed his exhortations were having all the effect he wished. It was not until he heard a loud shout behind him, and upon hastily turning, saw that the churchyard had been scaled at another place by some fifty or sixty persons, that his heart sank within him, and he began to feel that what he had dreaded would surely come to pass. Even when he might have done something in the way of Pacific exertion, but for the interference of waggles, the beetle who spoiled everything. End of Chapter 41, Recording by Roger Maline Chapter 42 of Varney the Vampire This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Roger Maline Varney the Vampire Volume 1 by Thomas Prescott Prest Chapter 42 The Open Graves The Dead Bodies, A Scene of Terror We have said waggles spoiled everything, and so he did. For before Mr. Lee could utter a word more or advance a few steps towards the rioters, waggles charged them staff in hand, and they soon ensued a riot of a most formidable description. A kind of desperation seemed to have seized the beetle, 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 a parochial staff was, lifted him bodily from the ground, and canted him over the wall, without much regard to whether he fell in a hard or a soft place on the other side. This feat accomplished no further attention was paid to Mr. Lee, who, finding that his exhortations were quite unheeded, retired into the church with an appearance of deep affliction about him, and locked himself in the vestry. The crowd now had entire possession without even the sort of control that an exhortation assumed over them of the burying ground. And soon in a dense mass were these desperate and excited people collected round the well-known spot where lay the mortal remains of Miles, the butcher. Silence cried a loud voice, and everyone obeyed the mandate looking towards the speaker, who was a tall, gaunt looking man attired in a suit of faded black, and who now pressed forward to the front of the throng. Oh, cried one is Fletcher, the renter. What does he do here? Hear him, hear him, cried others. He won't stop us. Yes, hear him, cried the tall man, waving his arms about like the sails of a windmill.  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 often 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 the pretended piety that is in itself most damnable, you shall find an evidence of the true light, and the proof that those who will follow me the true path to glory shall be found here within this grave. Dig up, Miles, the butcher. Hear, hear, hear, hurrah, said everybody. Mr. Fletcher's not such a fool after all. He means well. Yes, you sinners, said the ranter. And if you find, Miles, the butcher, decaying, even as men are expected to decay, whose mortal tabernacles are placed within the bowels of the earth, you shall gather from that a great omen and assign that if you follow me, you seek the Lord. But if 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 boozle hum, you shall achieve great salvation. Very good, said a brownie fellow advancing with a spade in his hand.  Here goes like blue blazes. The first shovelful of earth he took up. He cast over his head into the air so that it fell in a shower among the mob, which of course raised a shout of indignation, and as he continued to so 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 mold of a clay consistency fell into it, and got so wedged among his teeth that in the process of extracting it, he nearly brought some of those essential portions of his anatomy with it. This was a state of things that could not last long, and he who has been so liberal with his spades full of mold was speedily disarmed, and yet he was a popular favorite and had done the things so good humorably that nobody touched him. Six or eight others who had brought spades and pickaxes now pushed forward to the work. And in an incredibly short space of time, the grave of Miles the Butcher seemed to be very nearly excavated. Work of any kind or nature, whatever, is speedily executed when done with a wish to get through it, and never, perhaps within the memory of man, was a grave opened in that churchyard with such a wonderful celerity. The excitement of the crowd grew intense. Every available spot from which a view of the grave could be got was occupied. For the last few minutes, scarcely a remark had been uttered, and when at last the spade of one of those who was digging struck upon something that sounded like wood, you might have heard a pin drop, and each one there present drew his breath more shortly than before. There he is, said the man whose spades struck upon the coffin. Those few words broke the spell, and there was a general murmur, while every individual present seemed to shift his position in his anxiety to obtain a better view of what was about to ensue. The coffin, now having been once found, there seemed to be an increased impetus given to the work. The earth was thrown out with a rapidity that seemed almost the quick result of the working of some machine, and those closest to the grave's brink crouched down, and intent as they were upon the progress of events, he did not the damp earth that fell upon them, nor the frail, brittle, and humid remains of humanity that occasionally rolled to their feet. It was, indeed, a scene of intense excitement, a scene which only wanted a few prominent features in its foreground of a more intellectual and higher cast than composed the mob, to make it a fit theme for a painter of the highest talent. And now, the last few shovelfuls of earth that hid the top of the coffin were cast from the grave, and that narrow house which contained the mortal remains of him who was so well known, while in life, to almost everyone then present, was brought to the gaze of eyes which never had seemed likely to have looked upon him again. The cry was now for ropes with which to raise the cumbersome mass, but these were not to be had, no one thought of providing himself with such appliances, so that by main strength only could the coffin be raised to the brink. The difficulty of doing this was immense, for there was nothing tangible to stand upon. And even when the mold from the sides was sufficiently cleared away that the handles of the coffin could be laid hold of, they came away immediately in the grasp of those who did so. But the more trouble that presented itself to the accomplishment of the designs of the mob, the more intent that body seemed upon carrying out to the full extent their original designs. Finding it quite impossible by bodily strength to raise the coffin of the butcher from the position in which it had got embedded by excessive rains, a boy was hastily dispatched to the village for ropes and never did boy run with such speed before, for all his own curiosity was excited in the issue of an adventure, that to his young imagination was appallingly interesting. As impatient as mobs usually are, they had not time in this case for the exercise of that quality of mind before the boy came back with the necessary means of exerting quite a different species of power against the butcher's coffin. Strong ropes were slid under the inert mass and twenty hands at once plied the task of raising that receptacle of the dead from what had been presumed to be its last resting place. The ropes strained and creaked and many thought that they would burst asunder sooner than raise the coffin of the defunct butcher. It is singular what reasons people find for backing their opinion. You may depend he's a vampire, said one, or it wouldn't be so difficult to get him out of the grave. Oh, there can be no mistake about that, said one. When did a natural Christian's coffin stick in the mud in that way? Ah, to be sure, said another. I knew no good would come of his goings on. He never was a decent sort of man like his neighbors, and many queer things have been said of him that I have no doubt are true enough, if we did but know the rights of them. Ah, but, said a young lad, thrusting his head between the two who were talking, if he is a vampire, how does he get out of his coffin of a night with all that weight of mold atop of him? One of the men considered for a moment, and then finding no rational answer occurred to him. He gave the boy a box on the ear, saying, I should like to know what business that is of yours.  They think nothing now of putting their spoken, grown-up people's wheels, just as if their opinions were of any consequence. Now, by a vigorous effort, those who were tugging at the rope succeeded in moving the coffin a little, and that first step was all the difficulty, for it was loosened from that adhesive soil in which it lay, and now came up with considerable facility. There was a half-shout of satisfaction at this result, while some of the congregation turned pale, and trembled at the prospect of the sight which was about to present itself. The coffin was dragged from the gravesbrink 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 to do so. Each man looked anxiously in his neighbor's face, and several audibly wondered why somebody else didn't open the coffin. There's no harm in it, said one. If he's a vampire, we ought to know it, and if he ain't, we can't do any hurt to a dead man. "'Aughtin' way to have the service for the dead?' said one. "'Yes,' said the impertinent boy, who had before received a knock in the head. "'I think we ought to have that read backwards.' This ingenious idea was recompensed by a great many kicks and cuffs, which ought to have been sufficient to have warned him of the great danger of being a little before his age in wit. "'Where's the use of shirking the job?' cried he who had been so active in shoveling the mud upon the multitude. "'Why, you cowardly, sneaking set of humbugs, you're half-afraid now.' "'Afraid? Afraid?' cried everybody. "'Who's afraid?' "'Ah, who's afraid?' said a little man, advancing and assuming a heroic attitude. "'I always notice if anybody's afraid, it's some big fellow with more bones than brains "'At this moment, the man to whom this reproach was more particularly leveled, raised a horrible shout of terror and cried out in frantic accents, "'He's a coming! He's a coming!' "'The little man fell at once into the grave, while the mob, with one accord, turned tail and fled in all directions, leaving him alone with the coffin. "'Such a fighting and kicking and scrambling and sued to get over the wall of the graveyard that this great fellow who had caused all the mischief burst into such peals of laughter that the majority of the people became aware that it was a joke, and came creeping back, looking as sheepish as possible. Some got up very faint sorts of laugh and said, "'Very good,' and swore they saw what Big Dick meant from the first, and only ran to make the others run. "'Very good,' said Dick. "'I'm glad you enjoyed it, that's all. "'My eye, what a scampering there was among you! Where's my little friend, who was so infernally cunning about bones and brains?' With some difficulty the little man was extricated from the grave, and then, oh, for the consistency of a mob, they all laughed at him. Those very people, who, heedless of all the amenities of existence, had been trampling upon each other and roaring with terror, actually had the impudence to laugh at him and call him a cowardly little rascal and say it served him right. But such his popularity. "'Well, if nobody won't open the coffin,' said Big Dick, "'I will, so here goes. I know the old fellow when he was alive, and many a time he's damned me and I'd damn him, so I ain't going to be afraid of him now he's dead. We was very intimate, you see, because we was the two heaviest men in the parish. There's a reason for everything.' "'Ah, Dick's the fellow to do it,' cried a number of persons. "'There's nobody like Dick for opening a coffin.  If it weren't for my own satisfaction and all for to prove why my old friend the butcher has weighed seventeen stone and stood six feet two and a half on his own soul, I'd see you all jolly well.' "'Damn first,' said the boy. "'Open the lid, Dick.  "'After my own heart.' "'I sometimes think that you must be a nevi, or some sort of relation to mine.' "'House him to ever.' "'Here goes.' "'Who'd thought that I should ever had a look at old fat and thunder again? "'That's what I used to call him.' "'And then he used to request me to go down below.' "'Where I needn't turn around to light my blessed pipe.' "'Hell, we know,' said the boy. "'Why don't you open the lid, Dick?' "'I'm a-going,' said Dick. "'Come up.' "'He introduced the corner of a shovel between the lid and the coffin, and giving it a sudden wrench, he loosened it all down one side. A shutter pervaded the multitude, and popularly speaking, you might have heard a pin drop in that crowded churchyard at that eventful moment. Dick then proceeded to the other side and executed the same maneuver. "'Now for it,' he said. "'We shall see him in a moment, and we'll think we see'd him still.' "'What a lark,' said the boy. "'You hold your jaw, Willier. "'Who asked you for a remark, Bloyer?   "'As is enough to send nobody to blazes in a minute? "'Get out of the way of the cold meat, Willier.' "'Ah, what do you say, Dick?' "'Request information from the extreme point of my elbow.' "'Dick threw down the spade, and laying hold of the coffin lid "'with both hands, he lifted it off and flung it on one side. "'There was a visible movement and an exclamation "'among the multitude. "'Some were pushed down in the eager desire "'of those behind to obtain a sight "'of the ghastly remains of the butcher. "'Those at a distance were frantic, "'and the excitement was momentarily increasing. "'They might all have spared themselves the trouble, "'for the coffin was empty. "'There was no dead butcher, "'nor any evidence of one ever having been there, "'not even the grave clothes.  "'He then took up the brick and looked at it curiously "'and turned it over and over, "'examined the ends and the sides with a critical eye. "'And at length, he said, "'Well, I'm blowed. "'Here's a transmogrification. "'He's consolidated himself into a blessed brick. "'My eye, here's a curiosity.' "'But you don't mean to say that's the butcher, Dick,' said the boy. "'Dick reached over and gave him a tap on the head "'with the brick. "'There,' he said, "'that's what I call ocular demonstration.  "'What's more natural? "'He was an out-and-out brick while he was alive, "'and he's turned to a brick now he's dead.' "'Give it to me, Dick,' said the boy. "'I should like to have that brick, "'just for the fun of the thing. "'I'll see you turned into a pantile first. "'I shan't part with this here. "'It looks too blessed sensible. "'It's gaining on me every minute "'is the most remarkable likeness. "'Dann, if it ain't.' "'By this time the bewilderment of the mob had subsided. "'Now that there was no dead butcher to look upon, "'they fancied themselves most grievously injured, "'and, somehow or another, "'Dick, notwithstanding all his exertions in their service, "'was looked upon in the light of a showman "'who had promised some startling exhibition "'and then had disappointed his auditors. "'The first intimations he had of popular vengeance "'was a stone thrown at him. "'But Dick's eye happened to be upon the fellow who threw it, "'and collaring him in a moment. "'He dealt him a cuff on the side of the head, "'which confused his faculties for a week.' "'Hark ye,' he then cried with a loud voice. "'Don't interfere with me. 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 business. "'Our old friend, the butcher, you see, is not in his grave. "'Where is he then?' "'The mob looked at each other, "'and none attempted to answer the question. "'Why, of course, he's the vampire,' said Dick. "'And you may all of you expect to see him, in turn, "'come into your bedroom windows with a burst, "'and lay holds of you like a million and a half "'of leeches rolled into one.' "'There was a general expression of horror, "'and then Dick continued, "'You'd better all of you go home. "'I shall have no hand in pulling up any more of the coffins. "'This is a dose for me. "'Of course, you can do what you like.' "'Pull them all up,' cried a voice. "'Pull them all up. "'Let's see how many vampires there are in the churchyard.' "'Well, it's no business of mine,' said Dick. "'But I wouldn't, if I was you. "'You may depend,' said one, "'that Dick knows something about it, "'or he wouldn't take it so easy.' "'Ah, down with him,' said the man "'who had received the box on the ears. "'He's perhaps a vampire himself.' "'The mob made a demonstration towards him, "'but Dick stood his ground, and they paused again.  "'Because you're disappointed, you want to come upon me.  "'So you shan't say you didn't know it, "'and were taken by surprise.' "'The mob looked at him, wondering what he was going to do. "'Once, twice, thrice,' he said, "'and then he flung the brick up into the air "'and a man's height and shouted, "'Heads!' in a loud tone. "'A general dispersion of the crowd ensued, "'and the brick fell in the center "'of a very large circle indeed. "'There you are again,' said Dick.  "'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.  "'You're such an inquiring genius, you is.  "'What shall I do?' "'Give us sort of a howl and a squeak "'when they all come back again.' "'Won't I,' said the boy. "'A pop on the lid.' "'There you we,' said Dick. "'Damn, if I don't adopt you "'and bring you up to the science of nothing.' "'Now listen to me, good people all,' added Dick. "'I have really got something to say to you.' "'At this intimation, "'the people slowly gathered again around the grave.' "'Listen,' said Dick solemnly. "'It strikes me there's some tremendous dew goin' on.' "'Yes, there is,' said several who were foremost. "'It won't be long before you'll all of you "'be most dandably astonished.  We won't. We won't.' "'Good, then listen. I don't know anything, "'but I'll tell you what I think, and that's as good. "'I don't think that this brick is the butcher, "'but I think that when you least expect it, "'hush, come at a little closer.' "'Yes, yes, we are closer.' "'Well, then, I say, when you least expect it, "'and when you ain't dreamin' of such a thing, "'you'll hear something of my old friend "'as it's dead and gone. "'That will astonish you all.' "'Dick paused, and he gave the coffin a slight kick "'as intimation to the boy "'that he might as well be doing his part in the drama, "'upon which that ingenious young gentleman "'set up such a howl that even Dick jumped. "'Someone earthly did it sound "'within the confines of that receptacle of the dead. "'But if the effect upon him was great, "'what must it have been upon those "'whom took it completely unaware? "'For a moment or two they seemed completely paralyzed, "'and then they frightened the boy "'for the shout of terror that rose "'from so many throats at once was positively alarming. "'This jest of Dick's was final, "'for before three minutes had elapsed, "'the churchyard was clear of all human occupants "'save himself and the boy "'who had played his part so well in the coffin. "'Get out,' said Dick. "'It's all right. "'We've done them 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, "'and you'll have the satisfaction of hearing "'what's said about this affair "'in every pothouse in the village, "'and no mistake.' End of Chapter 42. Recording by Roger Moline. Chapter 43 of Varney, The Vampire. This is a library box recording. All library box recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit librarybox.org. Recording by Roger Moline. Varney, The Vampire. Volume 1 by Thomas Prescott Prest. Chapter 43. The Preparations for Leaving Bannerworth Hall and the Mysterious Conduct of the Admiral and Mr. Chillingworth. It seemed now that, by the concurrence of all parties, Bannerworth Hall was to be abandoned, and notwithstanding Henry was loathed, as he had indeed from the first shown himself, to leave the ancient abode of his race, yet as not only Flora, but the Admiral and his friend Mr. Chillingworth seemed to be of opinion that it would be a prudent course to adopt. He felt that it would not become him to oppose the measure. He, however, now made his consent to depend wholly upon the full and free acquiescence of every member of the family. "'If,' he said, "'there be any among us who will say to me, "'continue to keep open the house in which we have passed so many happy hours and let the ancient home of our race still afford a shelter to us, I shall feel myself bound to do so. But if both my mother and my brother agree to a departure from it, and that its hearth shall be left cold and desolate, be it so. I will not stand in the way of any unanimous wish or arrangement.' "'We may consider that, then, as settled,' said the Admiral, for I have spoken to your brother, and he is of our opinion. Therefore, my boy, we may all be off, as soon as we can conveniently get under way.' "'But my mother?' "'Oh, there, I don't know. You must speak to her yourself. I never, if I can help it, interfere with the women folks. "'If she consent, then I am willing. "'Will you ask her?' "'I will not ask her to leave, because I know, then, what answer she would at once give. But she shall hear the proposition, and I will leave her to decide upon it, unbiased in her judgment by any stated opinion of mine upon the matter.' "'Good. That'll do. And the proper way to put it, too. There's no mistake about that, I can tell you.' Henry, although he went through the ceremony of consulting his mother, had no sort of doubt before he did so that she was sufficiently aware of the feelings and wishes of Flora to be prepared to yield a ready assent to the proposition of leaving the hall. Moreover, Mr. Marchdale had, from the first, been an advocate of such a course of proceeding, and Henry well knew how strong an influence he had over Mrs. Bannerworth's mind, in consequence of the respect in which she held him as an old and valued friend. He was, therefore, prepared for what his mother said, which was, "'My dear Henry, you know that the wishes of my children, since they have been grown up and capable of coming to a judgment for themselves, have ever been laws to me. If you, among you all, agree to leave this place, do so. But will you leave it freely, mother? Most freely I go with you all. What is it that has made this house and all its appurtenance as pleasant in my eyes, but the presence in it of those who are so dear to me? If you all leave it, you take with you the only charms it ever possessed, so it becomes in itself as nothing. I am quite ready to accompany you all anywhere, so that we do but keep together. Then, mother, we may consider that as settled. As you please, it is scarcely as I please. I must confess that I would feign have clung with a kind of superstitious reverence to this ancient, dividing place of my race, but it may not be so. Those perchance who are more practically able to come to correct conclusions and consequence of their feelings, not being sufficiently interested to lead them astray, have decided otherwise, and therefore I am content to leave. Do not grieve at it, Henry. There has hung a cloud of misfortune over us all since the garden of this house became the scene of an event which we can none of us remember but with terror and shuddering. Two generations of our family must live and die before the remembrance of that circumstance can be obliterated, but we will think of it no more. There can be no doubt, but that the dreadful circumstance to which both Mrs. Manowarth and Henry alluded was the suicide of the father of the family in the gardens which before has been hinted at in the course of this narration, as being a circumstance which had created a great sensation at the time and cast a great gloom for many months over the family. The reader will doubtless, too, recollect that at his last moments this unhappy individual was said to have uttered some incoherent words about some hidden money and that the rapid hand of death alone seemed to prevent him from being explicit upon that subject and left it merely a matter of conjecture. As years had rolled on, this affair, even as a subject of speculation, had seized to occupy the minds of any of the Manowarth family and several of their friends, among whom was Mr. Marchdale, were decidedly of the opinion that the apparently pointed and mysterious words uttered were but the disordered wanderings of an intellect already hovering on the confines of eternity. Indeed, far from any money, of any amount, being a disturbance of the last moments of a dissolute man whose vices and extravagances had brought his family to such ruin, it was pretty generally believed that he had committed suicide simply from a conviction of the impossibility of raising any more supplies of cash to enable him to carry on the career which he had pursued for so long. But, to resume, Henry at once communicated to the admiral what his mother had said and then the whole question regarding the removal being settled in the affirmative, nothing remained to be done but to set about it as quickly as possible. The Manowarths 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 Vampire had given rise to. It was not until the following morning that Mr. Chillingworth, who had been home in the meantime, brought word of what had taken place and that great commotion was still in the town and that the civil authorities, finding themselves by far too weak to contend against the popular will, had sent for assistance to a garrison town some twenty miles distant. It was a great grief to the Manowarths family to hear these tidings, not that they were in any way, except as victims, accessory to creating a disturbance about the Vampire, but it seemed to promise a kind of notoriety which they might well shrink from and which they were just the people to view with dislike. View the matter how we like, however, it is not to be considered as at all probably that the Bannerworth family would remain long in ignorance of what a great sensation they had created unwittingly in the neighborhood. 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 omen to house were sure to be brooded abroad far and wide. And that perhaps, when they came to consider of it, would suffice to form another good and substantial reason for leaving the hall and seeking a refuge in obscurity from the extremely troublesome sort of popularity incidental to their peculiar situation. Mr. Chillingworth felt uncommonly cherry 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 Vampire, but to lose him so singularly when he got there. No doubt he possessed the admiral with the uproar that was going on in the town, for the latter did hint a little a bit to Henry Bannerworth. Helloa, he said to Henry as he saw him walking in the gardens. It strikes me if you or your ship's crew continue in these latitudes, you'll get as notorious as the flying Dutchman in the Southern Ocean. How do you mean, said Henry, why it's a sure going proverb to say that a nod's as good as a wink. But the fact is, it's getting rather too well known to be pleasant, that a vampire has struck up a rather close acquaintance with your family. I understand there's a precious row in the town. Indeed. Yes, bother the particulars, for I don't know them, but Harkie, by tomorrow, I'll have found a place for you to go to. So pack up the sticks, get all your stores ready to clear out, and make yourself scarce from this place. I understand you, said Henry. We have become the subject of popular rumor. 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 affliction of thinking that her name is made familiar to every pothouse in this town. Leave me alone for that, said the Admiral.  I, I, said Jack Pringle, who came in at that moment, and thought the question was addressed to him.  Me, you horse marine? Didn't you ask a plain question of a fellow and get a plain answer?  I tell you what it is, Jack.  I, poking fun, said Jack, couldn't think of such a thing.  Now I tell you what it is.  I've done with you. Go and tell that to the Marines, if you like, said Jack. I ain't done with you yet, for a jolly long watch. Why, what do you suppose would become of you, you great babby, without me? Ain't I always a conveying you from place to place and steering you through all sorts of difficulties?  Well then, damn yours. Shiver my timbers. Aye, you may do what you like with your own timbers. And you won't leave me? Startingly not. Come here, then. Jack might have expected a gratuity for you advanced with alacrity.  Don't spend it all at once. Well, I'm damned, said Jack. Who'd have thought of that? He's turning rumbumptious, and no mistake. House and ever, I must turn it over in my mind and be ever with him, somehow. I owes him one for that, I say, admiral. What now, you lover? Nothing. Turn that over in your mind, and away Jack walked. Not quite satisfied, but feeling at least that he had made a demonstration of attack. As for the admiral, he considered that the thump he had given Jack with the stick, and it was no gentle one as it decided balancing of accounts up to that period. And as he remained likewise, master of the field, he was upon the whole very well satisfied. These last few words, which had been spoken to Henry by admiral Bell, more than any others, induced him to hasten his departure from Bannerworth Hall. He had walked away when the altercation between Jack Pringle and the admiral began, for he had seen sufficient of those wordy conflicts between those originals to be quite satisfied, that neither of them meant what he said of a discouraging character towards the other, and that far from there being any unfriendly feeling contingent upon those little affairs, they were only a species of friendly sparring, which both parties enjoyed extremely. Henry went direct to Flora, and he said to her, Since we are all agreed upon the necessity, or at all events, upon the expediency of a departure from the hall, I think, sister, the sooner we carry out that determination, the better and the pleasanter for us all it will be. Do you think you could remove so hastily as tomorrow? Tomorrow? That is soon indeed.  Would it be possible to remove from a house like this so very quickly? Yes, sister, if you look around you, you will see that a great portion of the comforts you enjoy in this mansion belong to it as a part of its very structure, and are not removable at pleasure. What we really have to take away is very little. The urgent want of money during our father's lifetime induced him, as you may recollect even, at various times to part with much that was ornamental, as well as useful, which was in the hall. You will recollect that we seldom returned from those little continental tours which to us were so delightful, without finding some old familiar objects gone, which upon inquiry we found had been turned into money to meet some more than usually pressing demand. That is true, brother. I recollect well. So that, upon the whole, sister, there is little to remove. Well, well, be it so, I will prepare our mother for this sudden step. Believe me, my heart goes with it, and as a force of vengeful circumstances have induced us to remove from this home, which was once so full of pleasant recollections, it is certainly better, as you say, that the act should be at once consummated, than left hanging in terror over our minds. Then I'll consider that as settled, said Henry. Mrs. Bannerworth's consent, having been already given to the removal, she said at once, when appealed to, that she was quite ready to go at any time her children thought expedient. Upon this, Henry sought the admiral and told him as much, at the same time adding, my sister feared that we should have considerable trouble in the removal, but I have convinced her that such will not be the case, as we are by no means overburdened with cumbers property. Cumbers 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. Damn it, what good do you suppose an empty house is to me? The tables and chairs? Yes, I took the house just as it stands. Don't try and bamboozle me out of it. I tell you, you've nothing to move but yourselves and immediate personal effects. I was not aware, admiral, that that was your plan. Well then, now you are. Listen to me, I've circumvented the enemy too often not to know how to get up a plot. Jack and I have managed it all.  There's plenty of furniture where you're going, and so you'll get off free without anybody knowing anything about it. Well, admiral, I've said it before, and it is the unanimous opinion of us all, that everything should be left to you. You have proved yourself too good a friend to us for us to hesitate at all in obeying your commands. Arrange everything, I pray you, according to your wishes and feelings, and you will find there shall be no cavilling on our parts. That's right, there's nothing like giving a command to some one person. There's no good done without. Now I'll manage it all. Mind you, seven o'clock tomorrow evening, everything is to be ready, and you will all be prepared to leave the hall. It shall be so. Who's that giving such a thundering ring at the gate? Nay, I know not. We have few visitors and no servants, so I must even be my own gate porter. Henry walked to the gate, and, having opened it, a servant in a handsome livery stepped a pace or two into the garden. Well, said Henry. Is Mr. Henry Bannerworth within, or Admiral Bell? Both, cried the Admiral. I'm Admiral Bell, and this is Mr. Henry Bannerworth.  Sir, my master desires his compliments, his very best compliments, and he wants to know how you are after your flurry. What? After your flurry and excitement. Who is your master? said Henry. Sir Francis Varney. The devil, said the Admiral. If that don't beat all the impudence I ever came near, our flurry. Ah, I like that fellow. Just go and tell him. No, no, said Henry, interposing. Send back no message. Say to your master, fellow, that Mr. Henry Bannerworth feels that not only has he no claim to Sir Francis Varney's courtesy, but that he should rather be without it. Oh, ah, said the footman, adjusting his collar. Very good. This seems a damned old-fashioned outlandish place of yours. Any ale? Now, shiver my hulks, said the Admiral. Hush, hush, said Henry. Who knows, but there may be a design in this. We have no ale. Oh, I am dry as dust by God. What does old Commodore say? Any message, my ancient Greek? No, thank you, said the Admiral. Bless you, nothing.   Ah, the old gentleman's ill. However, I'll take back his compliments, and that he's much obliged at Sir Francis' condescension.  Ha, adieu, adieu. Bravo, said the Admiral. That's it. Go it. Go now for it.  The Admiral's calmness during the latter part of the dialogue arose from the fact that over the flunky shoulder and at some distance off, he saw Jack Pringle taking off his jacket and rolling up his sleeves in that deliberate sort of way that seemed to imply a determination of setting about some species of work that combined the pleasant with the useful. Jack executed many nods to and winks at the livery servant, and jerked his thumb likewise in the direction of a pump near at hand, in a manner that spoke as plainly as possible that John was to be pumped upon. And now the conference was ended and Sir Francis' messenger turned to go.  Jack, said the Admiral. Aye, aye, sir, don't pump on that fellow now. Aye, aye, sir, give us a hand. Jack laid hold of him by the two ears, and holding him under the pump, kicked his shims until he completely gathered himself beneath the spout. It was in vain that he shouted, Murder! Help! Fire! Thieves! Jack was inexorable and the Admiral pumped. Jack turned the fellow's head about in a very scientific manner, so as to give him a fair dose of hydropathic treatment, and in a few minutes, never was human being more thoroughly saturated with moisture than was Sir Francis Varney's servant. He had left off hallowing for aid, for he found that whenever he did so, Jack held his mouth under the spout, which was decidedly unpleasant. So, with the patience that looked like heroic fortitude, he was compelled to wait until the Admiral was tired of pumping. Very good, at length, he said. Now, Jack, for fear this fellow catches cold, be so good as to get a horse whip and see him off the premises with it. Aye, aye, sir, said Jack. And I say, old fellow, you can take back all our blessed compliments now, and say you've been flurry to little yourself. And if so be, as you came here as dry as dust, you go back as wet as a mop. Want to do to kick him out, sir? Very well, as you please, Jack. Then here goes, and Jack proceeded to kick the shivering animal from the garden with a vehemence that soon convinced him of the necessity of getting out of it as quickly as possible. How it was that Sir Francis Varney, after that fearful race he had had, got home again across the fields, free from all danger, and back to his own house, from whence he sent so cool and insolent a message they could not conceive. But such must certainly be the fact, somehow or another, he had escaped all danger, and with a calm insolence peculiar to the man, he had no doubt adopted the present mode of signifying as much to the Bannerworths. The insolence of his servant was, no doubt, a matter of pre-arrangement with that individual. However, he might have said 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 masters. 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 footmen. So that, with the suffering he endured at the Bannerworths, and the want of sympathy he was likely to find at home, that individual had certainly nothing to congratulate himself upon, but the melancholy reminiscence of his own cleverness. But were the mobs satisfied with what had occurred in the churchyard? They were not, and that night was to witness the perpetration of a melancholy outrage, such as the history of the time presents no parallel to. The finding of a brick in the coffin of the butcher, instead of the body of that individual, soon spread as a piece of startling intelligence all over the place, and the obvious deduction that was drawn from the circumstance seemed to be that the deceased butcher was unquestionably a vampire, and out upon some expedition at the very time when his coffin was searched. How he had originally got out of that receptacle for the dead was certainly a mystery, but the story was none the worse for that. Indeed, an ingenious individual found a solution for that part of the business, for, as he said, nothing was more natural when anybody died who was capable of becoming a vampire, than for other vampires who knew it to dig him up and lay him out in the cold beams of the moonlight until he acquired the same sort of vitality they themselves possessed and joined their horrible fraternity. In lieu of a better explanation, and after all, it was no bad one, this theory was generally received, and with the shuttering 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 the simple-minded people to inhabit them. The presence, however, of a body of dragoons towards evening effectually prevented any renewed attack upon the sacred precincts of the churchyard, and it was a strange and startling thing to see that country town under military surveillance and sentinels posted at its principal buildings. This measure smothered the vengeance of the crowd and ensured for a time the safety of Sir Francis Varney, for no considerable body of persons could assemble for the purpose of attacking his house again without being followed, so such a step was not attempted. It had so happened, however, that on that very day the funeral of a young man was to have taken place, who had put up for a time at the same inn where Admiral Bell was first introduced to the reader. He had become seriously ill, and after a few days of indisposition, which had puzzled the country practitioners, breathed his last. He was to have been buried in the village churchyard on the very day of the riot and confusion incidental to the exhumation of the coffin of the butcher. Probably from that circumstance we may deduce the presence of the clergymen and canonicals at the period of the riot. When it was found that so disorderly a mob possessed the churchyard, the idea of burying the stranger 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 chambermaids at the tavern. This woman, with all the love of gossip incidental to her class, had, from the first, entered so fully into all the particulars concerning vampires that she fairly might be considered to be a little deranged on that head. Her imagination had been so worked out 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 dreadful effects, it was upon this woman. The town was tolerably quiet, the presence of the soldiery had frightened some and amused others, and no doubt the night would have passed off serenely. Had she not suddenly rushed into the streets and with bewildered accents and frantic gestures shouted, a vampire, a vampire, a vampire. These words soon collected a crowd around her, and then with screaming accents, which would have been quite enough to convince any reflecting person that she had actually gone distracted upon that point, she cried, come into the house, come into the house, come into the house, look upon the dead body. That should have been in its grave. It's fresher now than on the day on which it died, and there's a color in its cheeks.  The strange, infuriated, maniacal manner in which these words were uttered produced an astonishingly excited effect among the mob. Several women screamed, and some few fainted. The torch was laid again to the altar of popular feeling, and the fierce flame of superstition burnt brightly and fiercely. Some twenty or thirty persons, with shouts and exclamations, rushed into the inn, while the woman who had created the disturbance still continued to rave, tearing her hair, and shrieking at intervals until she fell exhausted upon the pavement. Soon from a hundred throats rose that dreadful cry of, a vampire, a vampire. The alarm was given throughout the whole town. The bugles of the military sounded. There was a clash of arms. The shrieks of women, although the premonitory symptoms of such a riot was not likely to be quelled without bloodshed and considerable disaster. It is truly astonishing the effect which one weak or vicious-minded person can produce upon a multitude. Here was a woman whose opinion would have been accounted valueless upon the most commonplace subject, and whose word would not have passed for two pence, setting a whole town by the ears by force of nothing but her sheer, brutal ignorance. It is a notorious physiological fact that, after four or five days, or even a week, the bodies of many persons assume an appearance of freshness, such as might have been looked for in vain immediately after death. It is one of the most insidious processes of that decay which appears to regret its offensive fingers to mar the lines where beauty lingers. But what did the chamber maid know of physiology? Probably she would have asked if it was anything good to eat, and so, of course, having her head full of vampires, she must needs produce so lamentable a scene of confusion, the results of which we almost sicken at detailing. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The mobs seemed from the first to have an impression that, as regarded the military force, no very serious results would arise from that quarter. For it was not to be supposed that, on an occasion which could not possibly arouse any ill blood on the part of the soldiery, or on which they could have the least personal feeling they would like to get a bad name, which would stick to them for years to come. It was no political riot on which men might be supposed, in consequence of differing 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 be confined more to a demonstration of power than anything else. Besides, some of the men had got talking to the townspeople, and had heard all about the vampire story, and not being of the most refined or educated class themselves, they felt rather interested than otherwise in the affair. Under these circumstances, then, we are inclined to think that the disorderly mob of that inn had not so wholesome a fear as it was most certainly intended they should have of the red coats. 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 in as much 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. Consequently, this churchyard was the main point of defense, and it was zealously looked to when it need not have been so, while the public house, where there really reigned mischief, was half unguarded. There are always, in all communities, rather 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 has violated, so long as there is a row, and something like an excuse for running into other people's houses they are satisfied. To get into a public house under such circumstances is an unexpected treat, and thus, when the mob rushed into the inn with such symptoms of fury and excitement, there went with the leaders of the disturbance a number of persons who never thought of getting further than the bar where they attacked the spirit taps with an alacrity which showed how great was their love for ardent compounds. Leaving these persons behind, however, we will follow those who, with a real superstition and a furious interest in the affair of the vampire, made their way towards the upper chamber determining to satisfy themselves if there were truth to the statement so alarmingly made by the woman who had created such an emotion. It is astonishing what people will do in crowds, in comparison with the acts that they would be able to commit individually. There is usually a calmness, a sanctity, a sublimnity 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 with a halo of respect, that in life the individual could never aspire to, probably. Let us proceed these furious rioters for a few moments and look upon the chamber of the dead. That chamber, which for a whole week had been looked upon with a kind of shuttering terror, that chamber which had been darkened by having its sources of light closed as if it were a kind of disrespect to the dead to allow the pleasant sunshine to fall upon the faded form. And every inhabitant of that house, upon ascending and descending its intricate and ancient staircases, had walked with a quiet and subdued step past that one particular door. Even the tones of voice in which they spoke to each other, while they knew that that sad remnant of mortality was in the house, was quiet and subdued, as if the repose of death was but a mortal sleep, and could be broken by rude sounds. I, even some of these very persons who now with loud and boisterous clamor had rushed into the place, had visited the house and talked in whispers, but then they were alone, and men will do enthrongs, acts which individually they would shrink from with compunction or cowardice, call it which we will. The chamber of death is upon the second story of the house. It is a back room, the windows of which command a view of that half garden, half farmyard, which we find generally belonging to country ends. 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 somber shades of evening had wrapped everything in gloom, the room appeared in total darkness, so that the most of those adventurers who had ventured into the place shrunk back until lights were procured from the lower part of the house with which to enter the room. A dim oil lamp in a niche sufficiently lighted the staircase, and, by the friendly aid of its glimmering beams, they had found their way up to the landing tolerably well, and had not thought of the necessity of having lights with which to enter the apartments until they found them in utter darkness. These requisites, however, were speedily procured from the kitchen of the inn. Indeed, anything that was wanted was laid hold of without the least word of remark to the people of the place as if might, from that evening forthwith, was understood to constitute right in that town. Up to this point no one had taken a very prominent part in the attack upon the inn, if attack it could be called, but now the man whom Chance, or his own nimbleness, made the first Vythrong, assumed to himself a sort of control over his companions, and turning to them, he said, Hark ye, my friends, we'll do everything quietly and properly, so I think we'd better three or four of us go in at once, arm in arm. Pshaw! cried one, who had just arrived with light. It's your cowardice that speaks. I'll go in first, let those follow me who like, and those who are afraid may remain where they are. He at once dashed into the room, and this immediately broke the spell of fear which was beginning to creep over the others in consequence of the timid suggestion of the man who, up till that moment, had been first and foremost in the enterprise. In an instant the chamber was half filled with persons, four or five of whom carried lights, so that, as it was not of very large dimensions, it was sufficiently illuminated for every object in it to be clearly visible. There was the bed, smooth and unruffled, as if waiting for some expected guest, while close by its side a coffin supported upon trestles, over which a sheet was partially thrown, contained the sad remains of him who little expected in life that after death he should be stigmatized as an example of one of the ghastliest superstitions that ever found a home in human imagination. It was evident that someone had been in the room, and that this was the woman whose excited fancy had led her to look upon the face of the corpse there could be no doubt, for the sheet was drawn aside just sufficiently to discover the countenance. The fact was that the stranger was unknown at the end, 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 someone would come forward to identify and claim him. Such, however, had not been the case, and so his funeral had been determined upon. The presence of so many persons at once effectually prevented any individual from exhibiting, even if he felt, any superstitious fears about approaching the coffin, and so with one accord they surrounded it and looked upon the face of the dead. There was nothing repulsive in that countenance. The fact was that decomposition had sufficiently advanced to induce a relaxation of the muscles and a softening of the fibers so that an appearance of calmness and repose had crept over the face which it did not wear immediately after death. It happened, too, that the face was full of flesh, for the death had been sudden and there had not been that wasting away of muscles and integuments which makes the skin clean as it were to the bone when the ravages of long disease have exhausted the physical frame. There was, unquestionably, a plumpness, a freshness, and a sort of vitality about the countenance that was remarkable. For a few moments there was a death-like stillness in the apartment, and then one voice broke the silence by exclaiming, He's a vampire, and has come here to die. Well, he knows he'd be taken up by Sir Francis Varney and become one of the crew. Yes, yes, cried several voices at once, a vampire, a vampire. 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 is any difference in his looks. This suggestion was agreed to, and a couple of stout men ran downstairs and returned in a few moments with a trembling waiter whom they had caught in the passage and forced to accompany them. This man seemed to think that he was to be made a dreadful example of some sort of way, and as he was dragged into the room he trembled and looked pale as death. What have I done, gentlemen? he said. I ain't a vampire. Don't be driving a stake through me. I assure you, gentlemen, I'm only a waiter, and have been here for a matter of five and twenty years. You'll be done no harm to, said one of his captors. You've only got to answer a question that we would put to you. Oh, well, certainly, gentlemen, anything you please. Coming, coming, as I always say, give your orders, the waiters in the room.  Certainly, certainly, directly. Have you ever seen it before? Seen it before? Lord bless you, yes, a dozen of times. I see'd him before he died, and I see'd him after. And when the undertaker's men came, I came up with them, and I see'd him put him in his coffin. You see, I kept an eye on him, gentlemen, because I knows well enough what they is. A cousin of mine was in the trade, and he assures me as one of them always brings a tooth-drawing concern in his pocket, and looks in the mouth of a blessed corpse to see if there's a blessed tooth worth pulling out. Hold your tongue, said one.  Do you see any difference now in the face of the corpse to what it was some day since? Well, I don't know. Somehow it don't look so rum. Does it look fresher? Well, somehow or another, now you mention it. It's very odd, but it does. Enough, cried the man, who had questioned him with considerable excitement of manner. Neighbors, are we to have our wives and children scared to death by vampires? No, no, cried everybody. Is not this, then, one of the dreadful order of beings? Yes, yes, what's to be done? Drive a stake through the body, and so prevent the possibility of anything in the shape of a restoration. This was a terrific proposition, and even those who felt most strongly upon the subject, and had their fears most awakened, shrank from carrying it into effect. Others, again, applauded it, although they determined, in their own minds, to keep far enough off from the execution of the job which they hoped would devolve upon others so that they might have all the security of feeling that such a process had been gone through with the supposed vampire without being, in any way, committed by the dreadful act. Nothing was easier than to procure a stake from the garden in the rear of the premises, but it was one thing to have the means at hand of carrying into effect so dreadful a proposition, and another, actually, to do it. For the credit of human nature we regret that even then, when civilization and proper 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 soldiery had reached the inn, and had taken possession of the doorway with the determination to arrest the rioters, a strong hedge-stake had been procured, and everything was in readiness for the perpetration of the horrible deed. Even then those in the room, for they were tolerably sober, would have revolted, probably, from the execution of so fearful an act, but the entrance of a party of military into the lower portions of the tavern induced those who had been making free with the strong liquors below to make a rush upstairs to their companions with the hope of escaping detection of the petty larceny if they got into trouble on account of the riot. These persons, infuriated by drink, were capable of anything, and to them, accordingly, the more sober parties gladly surrendered the disagreeable job of rendering the supposed vampire perfectly inoxious by driving a hedge-stake through his body. A proceeding which, it was currently believed, inflicted so much physical injury to the frame as to render his resuscitation out of the question. The cries of alarm from below joined now to the shouts of those mad rioters produced a scene of dreadful confusion. We cannot, for we revolt at the office, describe particularly the dreadful outrage which was committed upon the corpse, suffice it that two or three maddened by drink and incited by others, plunged the hedge-stake through the body, and there left it, a sickening and a horrible spectacle to any one who might cast his eyes upon it. With such violence had the frightful and human deed been committed that the bottom of the coffin was perforated by the stake, so that the corpse was actually nailed to its last earthly tenement. Some asserted that at that moment an audible groan came from the dead man, and that this arose from the extinguishment of that remnant of life which remained in him on account of his being a vampire, 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 the subject. Others, again, were quite ready to swear that at the moment the stake was used there was a visible convulsion of all the limbs, and that the countenance before so placid and so calm became immediately distorted as if with agony. But we have done these horrible surmises, the dreadful deed has been committed, and wild, ungovernable superstition has