VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE; OR, THE FEAST OF BLOOD. CHAPTER CL. [sic] [Chapter 158] A MAIDEN'S MIND DISTURBED. -- AN EASY WAY OF PROMOTING COMFORT OF CONSCIENCE. -- THE MONK. The spot was deserted, and no soul came near; but the body lay, with its ghastly wound, all sopping in its gore. It was a fitting place for such a scene as this; no sound was heard, and the lazy hours turned slowly over, till the shades of evening came on apace; the light grew dim, and darkness increased; but there the dead body of the tall, remarkable-looking stranger lay, without motion. It was cold and bloodless -- death had long since deprived it of its last spark of animation. * * * * * Jose and Fiametta quitted the neighbourhood of the deed of darkness as quickly as they could, and it was many minutes before either of them spoke, so filled were their minds with the reflections natural to, and consequent upon, the strange occurrence that had just before fallen upon them. At length Fiametta broke silence, by saying, -- "Oh, Jose, what a dreadful thing has happened!" "Truly, it had like to have been a dreadful affair; but it don't matter now, he's settled, I believe." "Yes; but you have killed a man." "Truly, my dear Fiametta, I have killed a man, or devil, I don't yet know which; but that man would have killed me if I had not done so." "Yes, he would; but how dreadful." "So that being the case, it is, in my opinoon, a very good job he is dead; a very good job, indeed; he will be safe where he is." "But still," said Fiametta, crossing herself, "how dreadful it must be to be slain thus; with all one's sins upon one's head." "What would have been my fate?" "As bad, and to me it would have been worse by far; but still it is really dreadful to think that there should be a soul thus sent to heaven without so much as the good offices of a priest." "He would have killed me without giving me time for repentance. He would have forced me to leave a world in which I have all happiness yet to know; a world which I am by no means prepared to quit." "Truly no, Jose, nor I; but what a state for this man to be in; he is so much the worse prepared than even you, because his end was bad; now, you had no evil intention." "None-- none." "You did not know even that you were in danger from him." "I did not, Fiametta, else I had never brought you there. I cannot understand what brought him there-- what he wanted, or why it was he made such a desperate attack upon me; my life was aimed at." "It was, Jose; but have you no private enemy, whom you believe capable of such a deed as this? Surely-- surely it cannot be done, save from some motive." "That is the thing that most puzzles me; I cannot understand the motive. I know him not; I have no enemy who would hire an assassin; but there let him and his deed lie buried in oblivion." "He has no burial." "He deserves none," said Jose. "But, dear Jose, do you not think we ought to give him one." "Are we his executors or heirs?" "God forbid! -- but we saw him die, and not for his sake, but for the sake of human nature, do not let us leave him unburied like a dog. He may not deserve it, bu he has answered all his offence." "Yes, yes; I admit he has been punished-- he paid to the uttermost all he owed me, and I gave him a receipt in full. He will never make another demand upon me; we have quite done with each other, I believe." "I shall never forget the horrible sight; it will haunt me day and night; I shall not be able to banish the terrible features from my mind. I shall, in truth, pass a sad life; I wish this had never happened." "Why, so do I, dear Fiametta; but, surely, you do not accuse me of wrong, in having, to save my life, killed this man. I was compelled, forced to do it; it was either his life or mine; and, the truth to tell, I never was in such peril, from any single sword, in all my life, and but for the lucky accident that laid him open, I had not been here with you, but where he now is." "Thank God for you deliverance, Jose; but-- but what a revolting thing to remember, that in the wood Del Notti, there lies a corrupting mass of humanity, over which loathsome insects crawl; a thing that had once been a living soul like ourselves; but now, alas! what is he?" "But, Fiametta, your grief appears misplaced; you mourn this stranger as if he was near and dear to you. Do you know him?" "Not I," said Fiametta, sorrowfully. "Then what have you to grieve about, Fiametta? Tell me truly. You have nothing to blame yourself with. I do not feel I have acted wrongly. Say what it is that causes you so much sorrow." "I grieve to think that the body of that sinful and wicked man lies unburied, and that no masses have been said for the repose of his soul." "If that be all you require to set your mind at rest-- though the villain deserves it not-- I will see that he is buried and masses said for him." "Will you, indeed, Jose?" "Upon my conscience, I will see your desire executed." "Well, then, Jose, yonder lives a holy monk. He is a pious and good man, and will, I am sure, do all that is required-- watch and pray by the body till midnight, and continue there until the sun shall illumine the wood.["] "Be it so, my dear Fiametta-- be it so. We will go to the holy man and tell him of our distress, and will reward him; and then I will see you in safety, and return to conduct him to the spot where you know we left the body. I would the villain had come by a less noble death than falling by the sword." ["]It will be a danger that will never be forgotten by me," said Fiametta. "Nor by me," replied Jose. "What that man meant I cannot conceive. But then there can be but one answer to the question-- he meant robbery; nothing else could have tempted him to draw his sword upon me." "But why did he not demand your money at once?" "Because he might meet with what he has met; and he took me at a disadvantage, and, of course, gave him a better chance of killing me, and running less danger in doing so. I am not, therefore, surprised at it." "Here is the holy father's residence. He is poor-- very poor; but, withal, he is very good. He is a holy man." "Then he will serve our turn the better; for it would, in my opinion, take something more than a saint to pray out of purgatory such a soul as his must be. It must wing its way through space very much like a bat." "Hush, Jose-- hush! Not a word about that. Here is the holy man's abode. Shall I enter with you?" "If you will, Fiametta-- if you will." Fiametta stood by her lover's side while he knocked at the holy man's door, and, after a pause of about a minute, a deep voice said, -- "Who is it that knocks at my door?" "'Tis one who needs your service, good father." "Enter," said the monk, and a bolt was withdrawn. The door opened, and Fiametta followed her lover into a hovel, or rather a bare room, in which was nothing, save some straw in one corner, and some few clothes; besides which there were one or two articles of necessary use and convenience, but they were very few indeed. "Well, my son, what wouldst thou? Dost thou require mine aid to bind thee to this maiden, and she to thee?" "I do indeed wish so much, but she is not willing." "Not willing! Then wherefore dost thou come to me?" "You see, holy father, as we were walking in the wood Del Notti, which I dare say you well enough know----" "I do, my son." "Well, I was talking to my companion, heedless of danger, nor dreaming any could be at hand, when my attention was attracted to a spot on the right of me whence a man rushed out upon me, with a drawn sword, and attacked me." "I should not have had time to see him, much less time to draw and defend myself, but for the scream of her who was by my side. I looked where I saw her look, and saw him advancing, and had time to spring back and draw." "Did you kill your opponent?" "As it fell out, good father, I did. He rushed on and pressed me so hard, that I had no alternative. My life was in great danger, and I could not rid myself of my enemy, or preserve my own life, except at the expense of his." "Did you slay him?" "I did." "Another soul ushered into eternity," said the monk, gloomily. "How long will it be before the wickedness of men shall cease to bear such fruits?" "But, holy father, I did but act lawfully in saving my life. It was only the law that nature has implanted in us, and can hardly be called wickedness, since Heaven itself gives us the power and impulse." "Hold thy peace, my son, thou knowest nothing of these matters; therefore I say hold thy peace, and let me know what it is you desire of me." "That you will say masses for the repose of his soul, and give him Christian burial. I do not like-- we do not like such a portion of humanity to remain where it is; we would it were not entirely neglected, or deprived of burial rites." "It is but just of thee, my son; but I have known many who would have neglected it altogether, and permitted the body of one of God's creatures to lie and rot like a dog. My son, you have done well, and I will, for your sake, do mine office." "Nay, holy father, I cannot permit thee to do it wholly without giving the church some due, and here in this purse you will find all I have." "I take it, my son, not for my own sake, but for that of the church, to whom belongs all that is offered her." "And this, too, holy father," said Fiametta, giving a samll purse; "take that, and for my sake do what may be done by those on earth for those who have departed from it by a violent and sudden death." "I will, daughter." "And now, holy father," said Jose, "if you will, I am ready to take you to the spot where fell this man." "I will follow, my son," said the monk, concealing his two gifts beneath his garments, but rising at the same time -- "I'll follow thee." They all left the place, but went a circuitous route, to enable Jose to leave Fiametta in safety at the marquise's villa, where she resided in half dependence, being a distant relative of her's. Jose led on the monk until he came to the spot where the stranger fell, and where he yet lay just as he had fallen -- a ghastly cor[p]se. "Here, holy father, you see the caitiff, a treacherous villain, who has now been paid for his villany-- for, perhaps, a life of villany." "Perhaps so, my son. He does not appear to have been formed by nature when in one of her most kindly moods; but yet it might have been she impressed his character upon his features as a warning to the rest of mankind." "It was so, most likely; but you see he is slain. Fiametta would never have known peace again unless the body was watched through the night by some holy man, and prayed for. That is what is desired, holy father; and now I will leave you to your task, bidding you adieu, and wishing your office a prosperous one, and a pleasant night to watch by." -+- Next Time: The Watch by the Dead Man's Side. -- The Dead Alive. -- The Death-Struggle, and the Murder of the Monk. +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+ | This Varney the Vampyre e-text was entered by members of the | | Science Fiction Round Table #1 (SFRT1) on the Genie online | | service. | | The Varney Project, a reincarnation of this "penny dreadful" bit | | of fiction, was begun in November of 1993 by James Macdonald and | | should take about four years for re-serialization. | | These chapters are being posted once a week to the Round Table | | Bulletin Board and are also being placed in the Round Table File | | Library. | | For further information concerning Varney e-texts, please send | | email to: | | h.liu@juno.com | +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+ ============================================================================== The Varney Project Chapter 158 Ver 1.01 06/02/1997 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ General notes on this chapter Source: H.Liu entry from the Arno edition, 1970, text is reprint of 1847 edition Drop capital: No Figures in source: 1 Page numbers in source: 680-683 Sections: 2 Approximate number of characters: Number of paragraphs: Comments: Chapter appears mis-numbered as CL. Fiametta is disturbed by leaving the dead body of the attacker without a Christian burial, so she convinces Jose to seek out a poor monk and have stand a prayer vigil with the body during the night. The monk is told the story of the attack in the woods and is lead to the spot where he is left to spend the night. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Modification History Version Date Who What changes made -------- -------- ------------- ---------------------------------- 1.00 01/04/1997 H.Liu Initial gold version, rough proof read. 1.01 06/02/1997 H.Liu added Genie info to trailer ==================================End of File=================================