VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE; OR, THE FEAST OF BLOOD. CHAPTER CCIII. [sic] [Chapter 220] THE GRAND CONSULTATION AT THE ALE-HOUSE. -- THE AWFUL SUGGESTION. Sir George Crofton and his family could form no idea, owing to not being in a position to know, of the state of excitement produced in the village by the mysterious and frightful attack which had been made upon the widow's daughter. When people are very much absorbed with their own grief, they are apt to set a lighter value upon those of others, and thus it was that the family of the Croftons was so entirely taken up with what itself felt and had to do that there was little room for sympathy with others. Mr. Bevan likewise, from his perculiar and respectable position, was not likely to be made the depository of gossiping secrets; the inhabitants of that little place were in the habit of approaching him with respect, so that, although, as we are aware, he had heard from Will Stephens, the sexton, a full and particular account of what had happened to him in the old church, and was likewise cognizant of the story of the midnight attack upon the widow's daughter, he was not fully aware of the startling effect which those circumstances had had upon the small population of that fishing village. We are bound to believe that if he had had any idea of the real result of those operations or of what was contemplated as their result -- he would have done his best to adopt some course to prevent any disastrous collision. We, however, with all the data and materials of this most singular narrative before us, are enabled to detail to the reader facts and occurrences as they took place actually, without waiting the arrival of those periods at which they reached the knowledge of those actors in the gloomy drama of real life. Our readers, then, will please to know that the excitement among the inhabitants of the place was of that violent and overbearing description, that all the occupations of the villagers were abandoned, and a spirit of idleness, sadly suggestive of mischief, began to be prevalent among them. This feeling was increased by frequent visits to the ale-house, the liquor of which was well esteemed by Will Stephens, as may be readily imagined; and towards evening the large old-fashioned parlour of that place of entertainment became crowded with a motley assemblage, whose sole purpose in meeting together was to drink strong ale, and discuss the irritating and exciting subject of the appearance of the vampyre in the village. This discussion, from being at first a sober, serious, and alarmed one, became noisy and violent; and at length a blacksmith, who was a great man in the politics of the place, and who of all things in the world most admired to hear his own voice, rose and addressed his compeers in something of a set speech. "Listen to me," he said; "are we to have the blood sucked out of all our bodies by a lot of vampyres? Is our wives and daughters to be murdered in the middle of the night?" "No, no, no," cried many voices; "certainly not." "Is we to be made into victims, or isn't we? What's Sir George Crofton and his family to us? To be sure he's the landlord of some of us, and a very good landlord he is, too, as long as we pay our rent." "Here, hear, hear." "But there's no saying how long he might be so, if we didn't." "Bravo, Dick!" cried the master of the place, handing the orator a pot; "bravo, Dick! take a pull at that, old fellow." "Thank you, Muggins. Now, what I proposes is--" "Stand on a chair, and let's all hear you." "Thank you," said the blacksmith; and getting upon a chair, he was about to commence again, when some one advised him to get upon the table, but in an effort to accomplish that feat, he unfortunately trod upon what was a mere flap of the table, which had not sufficient power to support his weight, and down he came amid an assemblage of pots, jugs, and glasses, which made a most alarming crash. This roused the fury of the landlord, who had no idea of being made such a sufferer in the transaction, and he accordingly began to declaim heavily at his loss. A dispute arose as to how he was to be repaid, and it was finally settled that a general subscription would be the best mode of reimbursing him. If anything was wanting to work up the feelings of the topers at the public-house to the highest pitch of aggravation, it certainly was their having to disburse for breakages a sum of money which, if liquified, would have trickled most luxuriously down their throats. They were consequently ripe and ready for anything which promised vengeance upon anybody. The blacksmith was not discomfited by his fall. When is a man who is fond of hearing himself talk discomfited by anything? and he soon resumed his oration in the following words: -- "Is we to be put upon in this kind of way? Why, we shan't be able to sleep in our beds. All I asks is, is we to put up with it?" "But what are we to do?" said one. "Ah! there's the question," said the blacksmith, "I don't know exactly." "Let's ask old Timothy Brown," said the butcher, "he's the oldest man here." This was assented to; and accordingly the individual mentioned was questioned as to his ideas of the way of avoiding the alarming catastrophe which seemed to be impending over them. He advised them to wait patiently till the next night, and keep awake till the unwelcome nocturnal visitor made its appearance, when whoever it might visit was boldly to assail it, without any fear of the consequences to himself, till further assistance could be procured. After Timothy Brown had delivered himself of this piece of advice, a dead silence ensued among the late boisterous company. There were many disentients, and a few who seemed in favour of a trial of the practicability of the plan. Both parties seemed to give some consideration to the proposition, and they were by far too much engaged in thinking of the advice which had been given them, to pay much attention to the quarter from whence it had emanated; more particularly, too, as from his age and infirmities, he was incapacitated from carrying it out or from giving any active assistance to those who were disposed to do so. A great many efforts were made to get him to say more, particularly with reference to the case under consideration, as being no common one, but the octogenarian had made his effort, and he only replied to the remonstrances of those who, alternately by coaxing and bullying, strove to get information from him, by a vacant stare. "It's of no use," said the butcher, "you'll get nothing more now from old Timothy; he's done up now, that's quite clear, and ten to one if the excitement of to-night won't go a good way towards slaughtering him before his time." "Well, it may be so," cried the blacksmith, "but still it's good advice, and as I said before it comes to this-- is we to be afraid to lay down in our beds at night, or isn't we?" Before any reply could be made to this interrogatory, the old clock that was in the public-house parlour struck the hour of eleven, and another peal of thunder seemed to be answering to the tinkling sounds. "It's a rough night," said one, "I thought there would be a storm before morning by the look of the sun at setting-- it went down with a strange fiery redness behind a bank of clouds. I move for going home." "Who talks of going home," cried the blacksmith, "when vampires are abroad? hasn't old Timothy said, that a stormy night was the very one to settle the thing in." "No," cried another, "he did not say night at all." "I don't care whether he said night or day; I've made up my mind to do something; there's no doubt about it but that a vampyre is about the old church. Who'll come with me and ferret it out? it will be good service done to everybody's fireside." -+- Next Time: The Night Watch. -- The Vault. +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+ | 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 220 Ver 1.00 03/14/1998 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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: 831-833 Sections: 1 Approximate number of characters: Number of paragraphs: Comments: Chapter appears mis-numbered as CCIII. Our attention now turns from the Crofton family and their plans, to the reaction of the villagers to the vampyric sightings and attacks. Both Mr. Bevan and the Croftons, who were pre-occupied with their own plans, had no realization of the commotion that was brewing in the village. It turns out that the strange events of the recent evening were having a great effect on the populace. Nowhere was this more evident than at the ale-house, which was now quite crowded with a motley assemblage of people. Their discussions on the matter turned from sober, serious ones to a noisy, violent one, lead it seems, by the blacksmith, who fancied himself a bit of an orator. An accident occuring when he tried to stand upon a table to give his speech lead to the landlord billing all those present for damages, and this served to stir up the rabble even more. The blacksmith is successful in stirring the crowd into action, but the exact course of action was not known. The suggestion is made to consult the oldest man there, an octogenarian by the name of Timothy Brown. This elder advises keeping watch the next night and then attacking the intruder when he makes his appearance, first by the intended victim and then by anybody who can assist. This advice was not gladly accepted by all, and any attempts to get further comments were unsuccessful. So it fell again to the butcher, who again spurred the mob on to action. The weather becomes stormy, but this does not deter the butcher from suggesting that they go and do something about this vampyre this very night. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Modification History Version Date Who What changes made -------- -------- ------------- ---------------------------------- 1.00 03/14/1998 H.Liu Initial gold version, rough proof read. 1.01 03/21/1998 H.Liu Some typo corrections ==================================End of File=================================