Vampyre' and Other Writings

by Polidori, John William; Bishop, Franklin Charles;

  Tired one evening of listening to Berchtold, who attempted to repress my ardour, by representing to me that the country was betrayed, and that, in consequence of the tardiness and imbecility of the rulers of Switzerland, in spite of the courage and daring of its peasantry, it was doomed to become an easy prey to France, I left him determined again to seek refuge in the chase. I accordingly set out the next morning, intending to remain several days amongst the mountains; but I grew listless, and at the close of the second day, I still found myself upon the Wengern Alp. I issued forth from the chalet where I had taken some refreshment, and soon lost myself in reflection. I now looked with pleasure upon the Jungfrau’s white head, glistening on the blue canopy of Heaven. All the horrors of the Grindewald at my feet, the high summit of the Schrechorn, with the echoing thunders of the numerous avalanches, no longer appalled me. It seemed as if they now put on their terrors against a presumptuous foe, in defence of their children. There was no cloud upon the dark blue sky, – there was no mist upon the rocks; and though the snow still covered the whole surface of the mountains around, still there was a genial warmth and splendour in the sun’s reflected ray, that vivified and strengthened. There was no sound, save that of the distant cataract, and falling avalanche. I stood a long time leaning upon my musket, to look upon this scene. How could avarice hope to find a resting place in the minds of those nursed amidst such objects? How could slavery expect to find its votaries resident amidst such fortresses? The tyrant could not dare to add these horrors of nature to those already revelling in his breast. A slave who shrinks before the frown of a despot, could not stand erect amidst these awful monuments of a power that mocks at human prowess. Upon this occasion, it seemed as if the sun threw its proudest ray upon these rocks; they had seen, might hope to see, men worthy of gazing upon that nature which, lifting unappalled its head amidst the thundering clouds, had snatched their weapon from their grasp, and had thrown it at its feet, while, with its snowy head, it struck in defiance the arching canopy of Heaven. I was thus engaged in thought, which but served to increase my indignation at the conduct of men, who sacrificed to personal interest the safety of their country, when I was suddenly struck with the sound of a voice, which I shall never, never forget. In unison with my feelings at that moment, the notes sometimes broke out into the wildest tones of defiance; at others, suddenly sinking, they seemed uncertain and soothing. I dared not look around; I felt as if entranced, and I imagined I heard the voice of these mountains, mocking the invaders, then sinking into despondence. Gradually the voice approached, – I could distinguish words. – I heard footsteps. I suddenly turned round, and beheld a figure; I cannot describe it to you. Arrayed in a dress foreign to these mountains, her white drapery, breathed on by the wanton breeze, now betrayed the delicate form of her limbs, – now hid them from my sight. Her dark eye seemed exultingly to gaze upon my native rocks, while the wild notes of defiance played upon her lips. She suddenly saw me, and was silent. She looked around, as if for some one; and I then perceived, at a little distance, a man worn down more by grief than by age. I approached, and re-assured her. She blushed, and in that language which, in its very sound, breathes love, told me that she did not understand me. I could not answer; but, gazing on her, I seemed to be fascinated by her words. The old man approached, and we soon entered into conversation. I spoke Italian fluently; her surprise and pleasure cannot be painted, when she heard me address her father in her native language. I walked by her side, and I was often so lost in thought, that I was obliged to answer, by an unmeaning yes or no, the questions of the old man. Our conversation at last turned upon Switzerland; he seemed to be perfectly conversant with its situation. She entered with enthusiasm into its cause, and asked me, why I was idling amidst these valleys, when my country called me to the post of danger. These simple words from her lips caused an emotion in my breast that drew the blood to my cheeks. She thought of me. I at once promised to join my countrymen to-morrow. She then told me, that orders had arrived at the neighbouring towns for an instant levy to join the army of d’Erlach, which it was expected would be immediately brought into action.

  I was yet walking by her side, when we arrived at Lauterbrunnen. At the gate of a small cottage, after having asked me to take some refreshment, which I declined, they bade me farewell. There was a carriage waiting at the door. The thought rushed upon my mind that I might never see her again. I know not by what impulse, but, ignorant of the forms of the world, I summoned courage, at the moment of parting, to ask of her a ribbond with which she was playing; that, as I said, I might wear it in remembrance of her who had made me decide upon joining the patriots. Blushing, she looked at her father, who smiled consent, and she bound round my arm the scarf which she had worn during the morning. I have often heard that song again; I have often seen that form; and many are the years I have worn that scarf: – they have been years of misery and grief. Memory has no moment to look back to between the present and that happy day. Yet, for such another moment of enthusiasm I would undergo all my miseries afresh. I revert to it as the Arab, in the midst of the rising sands, turns to his visions of the green speck upon the desert’s sandy ocean; amidst dangers, that is his hope; in anguish, that is his refuge. That moment seemed to bestow upon me the happiness which my fancy had so long pictured in the future. But every moment since has only served to weave closer round me the meshes of that net, which has shut me out from joy. I then, however, felt as if time no longer weighed upon me; and I was grieved, when arriving at my father’s door, I found that the joys of hours had passed as those of a minute.

  I found my sister in tears; Berchtold, with his grey locks hiding the hands covering his face. Hearing my footsteps, my aged father rose, and taking me in his arms, with tears in his eyes, he told me, that he could no longer take upon himself to hinder me from joining my countrymen in the sacred cause of independence. He bade me take leave of my sister, and, while my courage remained, to surmount the pang of bidding her farewell. He told me, that he had caused my sister to prepare every thing for a parting, which he feared was to be our last. He embraced me, and rushed out of the house. My sister’s eyes, wet with tears, now turned upon me, anxious to show the same resolution as my father had displayed, she hastened my departure. She gave me my gun and powder flask, – bound round my waist more than half the savings of Berchtold; and kissing me, bade me farewell. Bewildered by the rapidity of my different emotions, I hurried to the side of the lake, looked once more up the steep mountain, on the ascent of which Beatenberg raised its white cottages, and, turning the point of land which encroached upon the lake, I was soon wafted, in company with many others, towards the town of Thun. I did not heed the white sails hurrying along the blue rippling waves. I could not gaze upon the rich cultivated scenery of the lake. My mind was straying midst those wild glaciers, that once had been my horror, – which to-day had shown me the unknown. Why does fate cause the approaches of misery to be decked with all the show of promised happiness? From this moment begins my eventful history; till now I had only been in the hands of the foul fiends that have tormented me, as plastic clay, which they formed in that manner, best fitted to contain the miseries they were preparing to pour upon it. You may think I have rested too much upon my early years, which passed without action; but those years saw deposited in my breast the seeds which have brought me to the state of apathy and misery you witness. That vision has proved to me the harbinger of more woes than it promised pleasures, and that scarf, which you see is yet bound round my heart, has felt it beat more violently through anguish, than it did even through hope, at the moment it first encircled my arm. My life till now had passed in dreams. I had not known the rude blast of worldly interests; I had been unconscious of the activity of the bad passions, and had only viewed man in the shape of my foster-father, breaking by his presence the shackles of grief that restrained the energies of his children, as the sun destroys the icy bonds that bind the vital powers of the spring. In the cause of charity and virtue, I had
seen employed those powers and that activity which, exerted in a less degree, have often excited the admiration of the multitude, and concealed follies, nay, crimes, from even the philosopher in that halo of fame they bring around them. The earliest impressions, I received, were those from my foster-mother’s tales, and they have not left me even at present; how much less, when but entering on manhood. I had so often gazed upon my mother’s picture, which my sister wore round her neck from her earliest infancy, that, while sitting by her tomb, it seemed as if her image had haunted me in my sleep, for I frequently found myself arguing as if I had had actual proof of the existence of beings superior to ourselves.

  The evening had closed before I arrived at Thun. The town was crowded with the peasantry of the neighbouring mountains; there were fires throughout the streets, around which stood the aged and the boy, the mother and the virgin. They were all come to offer their arms in defence of their country. I approached the town-house; the door was crowded with petitioners, who were attempting to induce the sentinel to give them precedence in the enrolment of their names. I stood for some time watching the earnestness with which the aged laid hold of their very weakness and uselessness, as a reason why they should be preferred in the cause of death; while the young, elate with the hopes of youth, showing their sinewy limbs, appealed to their expectations of victory from their strength, as a reason why they should first be put upon the lists for battle. Their arms were more various than their ages; an iron wedge, sharpened and fastened to the end of a stick, served some as the substitute for a hatchet; burnt stakes and the chamois hunter’s rifle mingled with the scythe rounded into a sabre, and the sickle straightened to a sword. While thus silently gazing upon the scene, a magistrate, a friend of Berchtold, going to his post, recognised me, and approaching, led me through a private entrance into the council chamber. My proffered services were immediately accepted, and I was directly ordered to put myself at the head of those villagers, who could be found in the town belonging to Berchtold’s parish, avoiding, however, as much as possible the burdening myself with the infirm and women. I received orders to reach Berne in the shortest possible time, and to depart with the earliest dawn. I went out into the streets, a great part of the peasants had retired under the arcades which are on each side of the streets of Thun; they there formed one promiscuous mass, in which it was impossible to distinguish between man and woman. All was silent, save the dead sound of heavy footsteps and the hoarse voice of individuals like myself, treading amidst these sleepers, and calling out the name of that place, whose inhabitants they sought. The night was damp and dark, there was no light in the Heavens, and often as I went, I stumbled over the body of some unseen person, who, uttering a note of impatience, again turned himself to sleep. Imitating the example of the others, I called out the name of Beatenberg at every step, and soon mustered almost the whole population of Berchtold’s parish. I had a painful task, the old pointed to their children, and with tears in their aged eyes, asked me if I intended to hinder them from setting the example to their children, of dying for their native soil. The women, pointing to their lovers, would take no refusal; they seemed determined to witness their conduct on the day of battle, and see if they were worthy of the love they claimed. I spoke separately to the young men, and advised them to steal from their companions and meet me at a certain hour about a mile from the town.

  They retired to rest, and I laid myself down in the street to sleep; I was soon lost to all external objects, and I again saw hovering at my side, her, who had seemed in the morning but a vision. She smiled upon me, again urged me by those words; – but suddenly it seemed as if the earth parted between us, and a huge chasm opened at my feet; we seemed to stretch our hands towards each other; I threw myself into the gulph, and awoke. Finding it but a dream, I again attempted to compose myself to sleep, but in vain; her image still stood before me, and the moment I rested upon it, the idea of my orphan state and her apparent affluence startled me. I had not asked her name. I knew nothing of her; her form, her face, her voice, and her words already began to appear to my memory as the recollections of an unsubstantial, supernatural vision; but at this moment my hand fell upon the scarf, which I had now bound round my chest. The touch roused me from my painful reveries, and hope pervaded my breast. I started from the ground convinced that she did exist, I fell upon my knees, and uttered aloud a prayer to the Divinity to make me worthy of her. Hardly had the words passed my lips, when a loud hoarse laugh sounded on my ear. It was but a drunkard laughing at some wild imagination of his own; but it made me shudder. I left the town; a heavy thick rain was falling, there was no wind, nothing seemed stirring, the shape of the distant mountains could be perceived by the white mass they presented on the dark canopy of night; every thing else was of one dead hue. I leant myself against the trunk of an old tree, and the dawn had, unperceived by me, risen in the East, when I found myself roused by the salutations of many of my comrades.

  I had in vain attempted to dissuade the old and the women from joining us; they were all with us at the appointed hour. I again as fruitlessly endeavoured to show them the embarrassment they would prove to our march; they would not listen, and I gave orders for the men to proceed. In consequence of the exercise the peasants had been accustomed to in their native villages, I found no difficulty in forming them into something like a regular body. Towards night, as I had purposely pressed the march throughout the day, I was glad to perceive that the number of the old and infirm had much diminished. Next morning I again proceeded; it was with great difficulty that I could restrain myself and comrades from stopping to assist the women and old men who fell by the roadside through actual weakness and fatigue. Their cries imploring assistance from lovers, from sons, were heart-rending. I shut my ears and dared not listen. The nearer I approached Berne, the more deserted I found the country, all had flocked to the town or to the posts of danger. At last, with a body of two hundred men, not even yet entirely deserted by the women, I entered the capital. I read dismay and horror upon every face, even the peasantry, which here, as at Thun, crowded the streets, were silent; there were no signs of enthusiasm, but the glance of suspicion fell from every eye. Just as we were approaching the great place, we met a party of soldiers with their bayonets wet with blood. They seemed with hasty steps to be hurrying from a spot that brought something horrible to their mind. They did not speak, but we soon learnt that they were the murderers of Stetter and Ryhiner. They washed the blood of their countrymen from their weapons in the blood of their invaders, and at last bathed them with their own. Posterity may then spare their names the brand of infamy, for a momentary fit of rage against those they imagined traitors to their country.

  We were ordered immediately upon our arrival to reinforce the army at Frauenbrunnen, and were joined upon our departure by other militias, and by the venerable Steiguer, who had just thrown up the insignia of civil office in the determination of dying for his country. We arrived at a critical moment, the French having an advantage in cavalry and artillery, which the Swiss could not resist, were upon the point of surrounding the small army, the only impediment in their road to Berne. Steiguer immediately perceived the danger; ordering us to follow, he rushed forwards, and attacked the troops which, having already passed the right flank of General d’Erlach, were upon the point of gaining the road on his rear. The combat was obstinate, our chief attack was upon the artillery, with which the enemy was attempting to cross the road. Our women did not shrink, they rushed forward, threw themselves upon the wheels of the guns, and allowed themselves to be hewn to pieces ere they would quit their hold.

  The army under d’Erlach had in the meantime began its retreat to Grauholtz. We found ourselves surrounded and engaged amidst the very carriages of our enemy’s guns, which we had taken. By great exertions at last we formed ourselves again into a compact body, and suddenly, as if by one impulse, falling upon our knees, we offered a prayer to the God of battle. The enemy thinking we were about to throw down our arms, checked the
mselves for a moment; we arose; the officers placed themselves at the head of the column, which set up a loud shout, ran upon the foe, and bearing all opposition down, soon reached Urteren, where we made a momentary stand, and then reached Grauholtz.

  The troops were immediately employed in raising an abbatis in front. While the men were thus engaged, Erlach and Steiguer met; at the instigation of the latter, the general came forward, and thanked my troop for the intrepidity it had shown during the whole combat. I was particularly noticed by them, and received from the aged general a medal he wore round his neck, as a token of his country’s gratitude. ‘I have seen,’ he said, ‘the sun rise today upon freemen; I shall not see it set upon my countrymen. Our country is lost; it cannot thank its sons; let me, therefore, who have directed its last efforts for freedom, acknowledge the few hours’ respite you have obtained to its fate, by presenting you with this mark of honour, which I obtained from a free nation.’ The loud roar of cannon burst upon our ears; he left me. I stood for a moment still; in one hand I held the medal, with the other I pressed the scarf of my unknown friend closer to my heart. Again we fought, but again their numbers enabled them to turn our flank, and, in spite of the strength of our position, we were obliged to retreat. One more struggle at the gates of Berne, and all was lost. The slaughter was horrible. Determined to sell my life as dear as I could, I rushed into the thickest of the fight; but my peasants followed me; they snatched me from danger, and bore me struggling through the town. I reproached them with having deprived me of an honourable death; one approached with aged steps; looking me in the face, he merely mentioned the name of Berchtold. I understood him; and, leaving Berne, we turned our steps towards Thun.