VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE; OR, THE FEAST OF BLOOD. CHAPTER CCXII. [sic] [Chapter 229] THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. One may form some sort of judgment of the astonishment with which Sir George Crofton heard this statement. He looked indeed a few moments at Mr. Bevan, as if he had a stong suspicion that he could not possibly have heard aright, so that the good clergyman was induced to repeat his statement, which he did, by saying, -- "Sir George, I assure you, however remarkable such a circumstance may be, and however much you may feel yourself surprised at it, that in the extreme bitterness of spirit, and feeling all the compunction that you could possibly wish him to feel, Varney the Vampyre is now an inmate of this house." Had a bomb-shell fallen at his feet, Sir George Crofton could not have felt more surprised, and he exhibited that surprise by several times repeating to himself, -- "Varney the Vampyre an inmate of this house! Varney the Vampyre here!" "Yes," said Mr. Bevan, "here, an inmate of this house. He is within a few paces of you, slumbering in the next apartment, and from his own lips you shall have the assurance that never again will you have any trouble on his account, and that he most bitterly and most deeply regrets the suffering he had brought upon you and yours." "Will that regret," said Sir George, excitedly, "restore the dead? Will that regret give me my child again? Will it open the portals of the grave, and restore her to me who was the life and joy of my existence? Tell me, will it do that? If not, what is his regret to me?" "No, Sir George, no, his regret will not do that. There is such power, but it is not upon earth. Heaven delegates not such fearful responsibilities to any of its creatures, and the only reason which has induced me to make this confidence was to take from you the fearful anxiety of fancying yourself followed by that dreadful being." "Vengeance," replied Sir George Crofton, "vengeance shall be mine. In the name of my lost child, I cry for vengeance. Shall he not perish who has made her whom I love perish? Make way, Mr. Bevan, make way." "No, Sir George, no, this is my house. I, as a Christian minister, offered the hospitality of its roof to Varney the Vampyre, and I cannot violate my word." "You speak, sir, to a desperate man," cried "Sir George; "no roof to me is sanctified, beneath which the murderer of my child finds a shelter. Mr. Bevan, the respect that one man has for another, or ever has had for another, cannot exceed the respect I have for you; but with all that, sir, I cannot forget my own personal wrongs; the shade of my murdered Clara beckons me." "Fly, Varney, fly," cried Mr. Bevan, "fly." "Is it so?" said Sir George; "do you then side with my direst foe?" "No-- no, I side with Sir George Croton against his own furious unbridled passions." Neither from profession nor practice was Mr. Bevan one who was likely to force to resist Sir George, and at the moment the baronet was about to lay hands upon him to hurl him from his path, he slipped aside. "Rash man," he said, "the time will come when you will repent this deed." The door of the study was still fast, but to the infuriated Sir George, that opposed but a very frail obstacle, and with the effort of a moment he forced it open, and rushed into the apartment. "Varney, monster," he cried, "prepare to meet your doom. Your career is at an end." Mr. Bevan was after him, and in the room with him in a moment, fully expecting that some very dreadful scene would ensue, as a consequence of the unbridled passion of Sir George Crofton. Sir George Crofton was standing in the centre of the apartment with Varney's large brown cloak in his grasp, which he had dragged from the sofa, but the vampyre himself was not to be seen. "Escaped!" he cried, "escaped!" "Thank Heaven, then," said Mr. Bevan, "that this roof has not been desecrated by an act of violence. Oh, Sir George, it is a mercy that time has been given to think he has escaped." "I'll follow him, were it to perdition." Sir George was about to open the window and rush into the garden, thinking, of course, it was by that means by which the vampyre escaped, but Mr. Bevan laid his hand upon the smooth gravel path that was immediately below the casement. "Behold," he said, "one of the first results of an autumnal night. That this coating of fleecy sleet, you see, is undisturbed;p it fell about midnight; nine hours have since elapsed, and you perceive there is no foot mark upon it, and in what direction would you chase Varney the Vampyre while he has such a start of you?" Infuriated with passion, as was Sir George Crofton, the reasonableness of this statement struck him forcibly, and he became silent. A revulsion of feeling took place; he staggered to a seat, and wept. "Yes, he is gone," he said. "Yes, the murderer of my child is gone; vengeance is delayed, but perhaps not altogether stopped. Oh, Mr. Bevan, Mr. Bevan, why did you tell me he was here?" "I do now regret having done so, but I believed him to be here, and his departure is as mysterious to me as it can be to you." Mr. Bevan cast his eyes upon the table, and there he saw a large packet addressed to himself. Sir George saw it too, at the same moment, and pointing to it, said, -- "Is that the vampyre's legacy to his new friend?" "Sir George," said Mr. Bevan, "let it suffice that the packet is addressed to me." All the good breeding of the gentleman returned, and Sir George Crofton bowed as he left the room, closely followed by the clergyman, who was as much bewildered by the disappearance of Varney as even Sir George could possibly be. He had a most intense desire to examine the packet, with the hope that there he should find some explanation or solution of the mystery; but not being aware, of course, of what it contained, he could not tell if it would be prudent to trust Sir George at that time with its contents. As may be well supposed, there was a sort of restraint in the manner of both of them after what had happened, and they did what was very rare with them both, parted without making any appointment for the future. But whatever might be the feelings of Sir George Crofton then, a little reflection would be quite sure to bring him back again to a proper estimation of what was due to such a friend as Mr. Bevan, and we cannot anticipate any serious interruption to their general friendly intercourse. The moment the clergyman found himself alone, he with eager steps went into his study, and eagerly seized upon the packet that was left to him by the vampyre, the outside of which merely bore the superscription of -- "These to the Rev. Mr. Bevan, and strictly private." With eagerness he tore open the envelope, and the first thing that attracted his attention was a long, narrow slip of paper, on which were written the following words: -- "It was not my intention to trespass largely upon your hospitality; it would have been unjust-- almost approaching to criminality so to do. I could only think of taking a brief refuge in your house, so brief as should just enable me to avail myself of the shadows of night to escape from a neighbourhood where I knew I should be hunted. "The few hours which I have quietly remianed beneath your roof have been sufficient to accomplish that object, and the we papers that I leave you accompanying this, contain the personal information concerning me you asked. They had been previously prepared, and are at your service. "To attempt to follow me would be futile, for I have as ample means of making a rapid journey as you could possibly call to your aid, and I have the advantage of many hours' start; unter these circumstances I have no hesitation in telling you that my destination is Naples, and that perhaps the next you hear of me will be, that some stranger in a fit of madness has cast himself into the crater of a burning mountain, which would at once consume him and all his sorrows. "VARNEY THE VAMPYRE." One may imagine the feelings with which Mr. Bevan read this most strange and characteristic epistle -- feelings that for some moments kept him a prisoner to the most painful thoughts. All that he had hoped to accomplish by the introduction of Varney to his house was lost now. He had but in fact given him a better opportunity of carrying out a terrible design -- a design which now there really did not appear to be any means of averting the consummation of. "Alas! alas!" he said, "this is most grievous, and what can I do now, to avert the mischief-- nothing, absolutely nothing. If it be true that he has, as he says he has, the means of hastening on his journey, all pursuit would be utterly useless." This was taking a decidedly correct view of the matter. Varney was not the sort of man, if he really intended to reach Naples quickly, to linger on his route, and then there was another view of the subject which could not but occur to Mr. Bevan, and that was, that his mentioned destination might be but a blind to turn off pursuit. -+- Next Time: Varney Gives Some Personal Account of Himself. +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+ | 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 229 Ver 1.00 05/16/1998 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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: 0 Page numbers in source: 851-853 Sections: 1 Approximate number of characters: Number of paragraphs: Comments: Chapter appears mis-numbered as CCXII. Sir George Crofton is supremely shocked to hear Mr. Bevan say that Varney the Vampyre is in the clergyman's house. Sir George becomes enraged, and argues with Mr. Bevan for a moment before seeking vengance upon the vampyre. He breaks down the door to the study but all that is found is the large brown cloak and a large packet of papers addressed to Mr. Bevan. Mr. Bevan is relieved that a violent confrontation has been averted, and then is able to convince Sir George that Varney must have fled hours ago, and that pursuit would be futile. Sir George Crofton, now as despondent as ever, takes his leave of the clergyman. Mr. Bevan opens the packet and finds a note from Varney in which he confesses that he has taken the opportunity to escape, and that he is leaving a sort of memoir for the clergyman. Varney's note indicates that he intends to go to Naples, and perhaps throw himself into a volcano. Mr. Bevan, is not quite sure what to think, other than that Varney the Vampyre had surely escaped. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Modification History Version Date Who What changes made -------- -------- ------------- ---------------------------------- 1.00 05/16/1998 H.Liu Initial gold version, rough proof read. ==================================End of File=================================