by Bram Stoker
“We are indeed.”
“I had a strange presentiment, now,” added Charles, “that we should make some discovery that would repay us for our trouble. It appears, however, that such is not to be the case; for you see nothing presents itself to us but the most ordinary appearances.”
“I perceive as much; and the panel itself, although of more than ordinary thickness, is, after all, but a bit of planed oak, and apparently fashioned for no other object than to paint the portrait on.”
“True. Shall we replace it?”
Charles reluctantly assented, and the picture was replaced in its original position. We say Charles reluctantly assented, because, although he had now had ocular demonstration that there was really nothing behind the panel but the ordinary woodwork which might have been expected from the construction of the old house, yet he could not, even with such a fact staring him in the face, get rid entirely of the feeling that had come across him, to the effect that the picture had some mystery or another.
“You are not yet satisfied,” said Henry, as he observed the doubtful look of Charles Holland’s face.
“My dear friend,” said Charles, “I will not deceive you. I am much disappointed that we have made no discovery behind that picture.”
“Heaven knows we have mysteries enough in our family,” said Henry.
Even as he spoke they were both startled by a strange clattering noise at the window, which was accompanied by a shrill, odd kind of shriek, which sounded fearful and preternatural on the night air.
“What is that?” said Charles.
“God only knows,” said Henry.
The two young men naturally turned their earnest gaze in the direction of the window, which we have before remarked was one unprovided with shutters, and there, to their intense surprise, they saw, slowly rising up from the lower part of it, what appeared to be a human form. Henry would have dashed forward, but Charles restrained him, and drawing quickly from its case a large holster pistol, he levelled it carefully at the figure, saying in a whisper, —
“Henry, if I don’t hit it, I will consent to forfeit my head.”
He pulled the trigger — a loud report followed — the room was filled with smoke, and then all was still. A circumstance, however, had occurred, as a consequence of the concussion of air produced by the discharge of the pistol, which neither of the young men had for the moment calculated upon, and that was the putting out of the only light they there had.
In spite of this circumstance, Charles, the moment he had discharged the pistol, dropped it and sprung forward to the window. But here he was perplexed, for he could not find the old fashioned, intricate fastening which held it shut, and he had to call to Henry, —
“Henry! For God’s sake open the window for me, Henry! The fastening of the window is known to you, but not to me. Open it for me.”
Thus called upon, Henry sprung forward, and by this time the report of the pistol had effectually alarmed the whole household. The flashing of lights from the corridor came into the room, and in another minute, just as Henry succeeded in getting the window wide open, and Charles Holland had made his way on to the balcony, both George Bannerworth and Mr. Marchdale entered the chamber, eager to know what had occurred. To their eager questions Henry replied, —
“Ask me not now;” and then calling to Charles, he said, — ”Remain where you are, Charles, while I run down to the garden immediately beneath the balcony.”
“Yes — yes,” said Charles.
Henry made prodigious haste, and was in the garden immediately below the bay window in a wonderfully short space of time. He spoke to Charles, saying, —
“Will you now descend? I can see nothing here; but we will both make a search.”
George and Mr. Marchdale were both now in the balcony, and they would have descended likewise, but Henry said, —
“Do not all leave the house. God only knows, now, situated as we are, what might happen.”
“I will remain, then,” said George. “I have been sitting up to-night as the guard, and, therefore, may as well continue to do so.”
Marchdale and Charles Holland clambered over the balcony, and easily, from its insignificant height, dropped into the garden. The night was beautiful, and profoundly still. There was not a breath of air sufficient to stir a leaf on a tree, and the very flame of the candle which Charles had left burning in the balcony burnt clearly and steadily, being perfectly unruffled by any wind.
It cast a sufficient light close to the window to make everything very plainly visible, and it was evident at a glance that no object was there, although had that figure, which Charles shot at, and no doubt hit, been flesh and blood, it must have dropped immediately below.
As they looked up for a moment after a cursory examination of the ground, Charles exclaimed, —
“Look at the window! As the light is now situated, you can see the hole made in one of the panes of glass by the passage of the bullet from my pistol.”
They did look, and there the clear, round hole, without any starring, which a bullet discharged close to a pane of glass will make in it, was clearly and plainly discernible.
“You must have hit him,” said Henry.
“One would think so,” said Charles; “for that was the exact place where the figure was.”
“And there is nothing here,” added Marchdale. “What can we think of these events — what resource has the mind against the most dreadful suppositions concerning them?”
Charles and Henry were both silent; in truth, they knew not what to think, and the words uttered by Marchdale were too strikingly true to dispute for a moment. They were lost in wonder.
“Human means against such an appearance as we saw to-night,” said Charles, “are evidently useless.”
“My dear young friend,” said Marchdale, with much emotion, as he grasped Henry Bannerworth’s hand, and the tears stood in his eyes as he did so, — ”my dear young friend, these constant alarms will kill you. They will drive you, and all whose happiness you hold dear, distracted. You must control these dreadful feelings, and there is but one chance that I can see of getting now the better of these.”
“What is that?”
“By leaving this place for ever.”
“Alas! am I to be driven from the home of my ancestors from such a cause as this? And whither am I to fly? Where are we to find a refuge? To leave here will be at once to break up the establishment which is now held together, certainly upon the sufferance of creditors, but still to their advantage, inasmuch as I am doing what no one else would do, namely, paying away to within the scantiest pittance the whole proceeds of the estate that spreads around me.”
“Heed nothing but an escape from such horrors as seem to be accumulating now around you.”
“If I were sure that such a removal would bring with it such a corresponding advantage, I might, indeed, be induced to risk all to accomplish it.”
“As regards poor dear Flora,” said Mr. Marchdale, “I know not what to say, or what to think; she has been attacked by a vampyre, and after this mortal life shall have ended, it is dreadful to think there may be a possibility that she, with all her beauty, all her excellence and purity of mind, and all those virtues and qualities which should make her the beloved of all, and which do, indeed, attach all hearts towards her, should become one of that dreadful tribe of beings who cling to existence by feeding, in the most dreadful manner, upon the life blood of others — oh, it is too dreadful to contemplate! Too horrible — too horrible!”
“Then wherefore speak of it?” said Charles, with some asperity. “Now, by the great God of Heaven, who sees all our hearts, I will not give in to such a horrible doctrine! I will not believe it; and were death itself my portion for my want of faith, I would this moment die in my disbelief of anything so truly fearful!”
“Oh, my young friend,” added Marchdale, “if anything could add to the pangs which all who love, and admire, and respect Flora Bannerworth must feel at the unha
ppy condition in which she is placed, it would be the noble nature of you, who, under happier auspices, would have been her guide through life, and the happy partner of her destiny.”
“As I will be still.”
“May Heaven forbid it! We are now among ourselves, and can talk freely upon such a subject. Mr. Charles Holland, if you wed, you would look forward to being blessed with children — those sweet ties which bind the sternest hearts to life with so exquisite a bondage. Oh, fancy, then, for a moment, the mother of your babes coming at the still hour of midnight to drain from their veins the very life blood she gave to them. To drive you and them mad with the expected horror of such visitations — to make your nights hideous — your days but so many hours of melancholy retrospection. Oh, you know not the world of terror, on the awful brink of which you stand, when you talk of making Flora Bannerworth a wife.”
“Peace! oh, peace!” said Henry.
“Nay, I know my words are unwelcome,” continued Mr. Marchdale. “It happens, unfortunately for human nature, that truth and some of our best and holiest feelings are too often at variance, and hold a sad contest — ”
“I will hear no more of this,” cried Charles Holland. — ”I will hear no more.”
“I have done,” said Mr. Marchdale.
“And ‘twere well you had not begun.”
“Nay, say not so. I have but done what I considered was a solemn duty.”
“Under that assumption of doing duty — a solemn duty — heedless of the feelings and the opinions of others,” said Charles, sarcastically, “more mischief is produced — more heart-burnings and anxieties caused, than by any other two causes of such mischievous results combined. I wish to hear no more of this.”
“Do not be angered with Mr. Marchdale, Charles,” said Henry. “He can have no motive but our welfare in what he says. We should not condemn a speaker because his words may not sound pleasant to our ears.”
“By Heaven!” said Charles, with animation, “I meant not to be illiberal; but I will not because I cannot see a man’s motives for active interference in the affairs of others, always be ready, merely on account of such ignorance, to jump to a conclusion that they must be estimable.”
“To-morrow, I leave this house,” said Marchdale.
“Leave us?” exclaimed Henry.
“Ay, for ever.”
“Nay, now, Mr. Marchdale, is this generous?”
“Am I treated generously by one who is your own guest, and towards whom I was willing to hold out the honest right hand of friendship?”
Henry turned to Charles Holland, saying, —
“Charles, I know your generous nature. Say you meant no offence to my mother’s old friend.”
“If to say I meant no offence,” said Charles, “is to say I meant no insult, I say it freely.”
“Enough,” cried Marchdale; “I am satisfied.”
“But do not,” added Charles, “draw me any more such pictures as the one you have already presented to my imagination, I beg of you. From the storehouse of my own fancy I can find quite enough to make me wretched, if I choose to be so; but again and again do I say I will not allow this monstrous superstition to tread me down, like the tread of a giant on a broken reed. I will contend against it while I have life to do so.”
“Bravely spoken.”
“And when I desert Flora Bannerworth, may Heaven, from that moment, desert me!”
“Charles!” cried Henry, with emotion, “dear Charles, my more than friend — brother of my heart — noble Charles!”
“Nay, Henry, I am not entitled to your praises. I were base indeed to be other than that which I purpose to be. Come weal or woe — come what may, I am the affianced husband of your sister, and she, and she only, can break asunder the tie that binds me to her.”
CHAPTER XIII.
THE OFFER FOR THE HALL. — THE VISIT TO SIR FRANCIS VARNEY. — THE STRANGE RESEMBLANCE. — A DREADFUL SUGGESTION.
The party made a strict search through every nook and corner of the garden, but it proved to be a fruitless one: not the least trace of any one could be found. There was only one circumstance, which was pondered over deeply by them all, and that was that, beneath the window of the room in which Flora and her mother sat while the brothers were on their visit to the vault of their ancestors, were visible marks of blood to a considerable extent.
It will be remembered that Flora had fired a pistol at the spectral appearance, and that immediately upon that it had disappeared, after uttering a sound which might well be construed into a cry of pain from a wound.
That a wound then had been inflicted upon some one, the blood beneath the window now abundantly testified; and when it was discovered, Henry and Charles made a very close examination indeed of the garden, to discover what direction the wounded figure, be it man or vampyre, had taken.
But the closest scrutiny did not reveal to them a single spot of blood, beyond the space immediately beneath the window; — there the apparition seemed to have received its wound, and then, by some mysterious means, to have disappeared.
At length, wearied with the continued excitement, combined with want of sleep, to which they had been subjected, they returned to the hall.
Flora, with the exception of the alarm she experienced from the firing of the pistol, had met with no disturbance, and that, in order to spare her painful reflections, they told her was merely done as a precautionary measure, to proclaim to any one who might be lurking in the garden that the inmates of the house were ready to defend themselves against any aggression.
Whether or not she believed this kind deceit they knew not. She only sighed deeply, and wept. The probability is, that she more than suspected the vampyre had made another visit, but they forbore to press the point; and, leaving her with her mother, Henry and George went from her chamber again — the former to endeavour to seek some repose, as it would be his turn to watch on the succeeding night, and the latter to resume his station in a small room close to Flora’s chamber, where it had been agreed watch and ward should be kept by turns while the alarm lasted.
At length, the morning again dawned upon that unhappy family, and to none were its beams more welcome.
The birds sang their pleasant carols beneath the window. The sweet, deep-coloured autumnal sun shone upon all objects with a golden luster; and to look abroad, upon the beaming face of nature, no one could for a moment suppose, except from sad experience, that there were such things as gloom, misery, and crime, upon the earth.
“And must I,” said Henry, as he gazed from a window of the hall upon the undulating park, the majestic trees, the flowers, the shrubs, and the many natural beauties with which the place was full, — ”must I be chased from this spot, the home of my self and of my kindred, by a phantom — must I indeed seek refuge elsewhere, because my own home has become hideous?”
It was indeed a cruel and a painful thought! It was one he yet would not, could not be convinced was absolutely necessary. But now the sun was shining: it was morning; and the feelings, which found a home in his breast amid the darkness, the stillness, and the uncertainty of night, were chased away by those glorious beams of sunlight, that fell upon hill, valley, and stream, and the thousand sweet sounds of life and animation that filled that sunny air!
Such a revulsion of feeling was natural enough. Many of the distresses and mental anxieties of night vanish with the night, and those which oppressed the heart of Henry Bannerworth were considerably modified.
He was engaged in these reflections when he heard the sound of the lodge bell, and as a visitor was now somewhat rare at this establishment, he waited with some anxiety to see to whom he was indebted for so early a call.
In the course of a few minutes, one of the servants came to him with a letter in her hand.
It bore a large handsome seal, and, from its appearance, would seem to have come from some personage of consequence. A second glance at it shewed him the name of “Varney” in the corner, and, with some degree of vexation
, he muttered to himself,
“Another condoling epistle from the troublesome neighbour whom I have not yet seen.”
“If you please, sir,” said the servant who had brought him the letter, “as I’m here, and you are here, perhaps you’ll have no objection to give me what I’m to have for the day and two nights as I’ve been here, cos I can’t stay in a family as is so familiar with all sorts o’ ghostesses: I ain’t used to such company.”
“What do you mean?” said Henry.
The question was a superfluous one — : too well he knew what the woman meant, and the conviction came across his mind strongly that no domestic would consent to live long in a house which was subject to such dreadful visitations.
“What does I mean!” said the woman, — ”why, sir, if it’s all the same to you, I don’t myself come of a wampyre family, and I don’t choose to remain in a house where there is sich things encouraged. That’s what I means, sir.”
“What wages are owing to you?” said Henry.
“Why, as to wages, I only comed here by the day.”
“Go, then, and settle with my mother. The sooner you leave this house, the better.”
“Oh, indeed. I’m sure I don’t want to stay.”
This woman was one of those who were always armed at all points for a row, and she had no notion of concluding any engagement, of any character whatever, without some disturbance; therefore, to see Henry take what she said with such provoking calmness was aggravating in the extreme; but there was no help for such a source of vexation. She could find no other ground of quarrel than what was connected with the vampyre, and, as Henry would not quarrel with her on such a score, she was compelled to give it up in despair.
When Henry found himself alone, and free from the annoyance of this woman, he turned his attention to the letter he held in his hand, and which, from the autograph in the corner, he knew came from his new neighbour, Sir Francis Varney, whom, by some chance or another, he had never yet seen.
To his great surprise, he found that the letter contained the following words: —