The Vampyre; a Tale
in his liberality;--the idle, the vagabond, and the beggar, received
from his hand more than enough to relieve their immediate wants. But
Aubrey could not avoid remarking, that it was not upon the virtuous,
reduced to indigence by the misfortunes attendant even upon virtue,
that he bestowed his alms;--these were sent from the door with
hardly suppressed sneers; but when the profligate came to ask
something, not to relieve his wants, but to allow him to wallow in his
lust, or to sink him still deeper in his iniquity, he was sent away
with rich charity. This was, however, attributed by him to the greater
importunity of the vicious, which generally prevails over the retiring
bashfulness of the virtuous indigent. There was one circumstance about
the charity of his Lordship, which was still more impressed upon his
mind: all those upon whom it was bestowed, inevitably found that there
was a curse upon it, for they were all either led to the scaffold, or
sunk to the lowest and the most abject misery. At Brussels and other
towns through which they passed, Aubrey was surprized at the apparent
eagerness with which his companion sought for the centres of all
fashionable vice; there he entered into all the spirit of the faro
table: he betted, and always gambled with success, except where the
known sharper was his antagonist, and then he lost even more than he
gained; but it was always with the same unchanging face, with which he
generally watched the society around: it was not, however, so when he
encountered the rash youthful novice, or the luckless father of a
numerous family; then his very wish seemed fortune's law--this
apparent abstractedness of mind was laid aside, and his eyes sparkled
with more fire than that of the cat whilst dallying with the
half-dead mouse. In every town, he left the formerly affluent youth,
torn from the circle he adorned, cursing, in the solitude of a
dungeon, the fate that had drawn him within the reach of this fiend;
whilst many a father sat frantic, amidst the speaking looks of mute
hungry children, without a single farthing of his late immense wealth,
wherewith to buy even sufficient to satisfy their present craving. Yet
he took no money from the gambling table; but immediately lost, to the
ruiner of many, the last gilder he had just snatched from the
convulsive grasp of the innocent: this might but be the result of a
certain degree of knowledge, which was not, however, capable of
combating the cunning of the more experienced. Aubrey often wished to
represent this to his friend, and beg him to resign that charity and
pleasure which proved the ruin of all, and did not tend to his own
profit;--but he delayed it--for each day he hoped his friend would
give him some opportunity of speaking frankly and openly to him;
however, this never occurred. Lord Ruthven in his carriage, and amidst
the various wild and rich scenes of nature, was always the same: his
eye spoke less than his lip; and though Aubrey was near the object of
his curiosity, he obtained no greater gratification from it than the
constant excitement of vainly wishing to break that mystery, which to
his exalted imagination began to assume the appearance of something
supernatural.
They soon arrived at Rome, and Aubrey for a time lost sight of his
companion; he left him in daily attendance upon the morning circle of
an Italian countess, whilst he went in search of the memorials of
another almost deserted city. Whilst he was thus engaged, letters
arrived from England, which he opened with eager impatience; the first
was from his sister, breathing nothing but affection; the others were
from his guardians, the latter astonished him; if it had before
entered into his imagination that there was an evil power resident in
his companion, these seemed to give him sufficient reason for the
belief. His guardians insisted upon his immediately leaving his
friend, and urged, that his character was dreadfully vicious, for that
the possession of irresistible powers of seduction, rendered his
licentious habits more dangerous to society. It had been discovered,
that his contempt for the adultress had not originated in hatred of
her character; but that he had required, to enhance his gratification,
that his victim, the partner of his guilt, should be hurled from the
pinnacle of unsullied virtue, down to the lowest abyss of infamy and
degradation: in fine, that all those females whom he had sought,
apparently on account of their virtue, had, since his departure,
thrown even the mask aside, and had not scrupled to expose the whole
deformity of their vices to the public gaze.
Aubrey determined upon leaving one, whose character had not yet shown
a single bright point on which to rest the eye. He resolved to invent
some plausible pretext for abandoning him altogether, purposing, in
the mean while, to watch him more closely, and to let no slight
circumstances pass by unnoticed. He entered into the same circle, and
soon perceived, that his Lordship was endeavouring to work upon the
inexperience of the daughter of the lady whose house he chiefly
frequented. In Italy, it is seldom that an unmarried female is met
with in society; he was therefore obliged to carry on his plans in
secret; but Aubrey's eye followed him in all his windings, and soon
discovered that an assignation had been appointed, which would most
likely end in the ruin of an innocent, though thoughtless girl. Losing
no time, he entered the apartment of Lord Ruthven, and abruptly asked
him his intentions with respect to the lady, informing him at the same
time that he was aware of his being about to meet her that very night.
Lord Ruthven answered, that his intentions were such as he supposed
all would have upon such an occasion; and upon being pressed whether
he intended to marry her, merely laughed. Aubrey retired; and,
immediately writing a note, to say, that from that moment he must
decline accompanying his Lordship in the remainder of their proposed
tour, he ordered his servant to seek other apartments, and calling
upon the mother of the lady, informed her of all he knew, not only
with regard to her daughter, but also concerning the character of his
Lordship. The assignation was prevented. Lord Ruthven next day merely
sent his servant to notify his complete assent to a separation; but
did not hint any suspicion of his plans having been foiled by Aubrey's
interposition.
Having left Rome, Aubrey directed his steps towards Greece, and
crossing the Peninsula, soon found himself at Athens. He then fixed
his residence in the house of a Greek; and soon occupied himself in
tracing the faded records of ancient glory upon monuments that
apparently, ashamed of chronicling the deeds of freemen only before
slaves, had hidden themselves beneath the sheltering soil or many
coloured lichen. Under the same roof as himself, existed a being, so
beautiful and delicate, that she might have formed the model for a
painter wishing to pourtray on canvass the promised hope of the
faithful in Mahomet's paradise, save that her eyes spoke too much mind
for any one to think she could belong to those who had no souls. As
she danced upon the plain, or tripped along the mountain's side, one
would have thought the gazelle a poor type of her beauties; for who
would have exchanged her eye, apparently the eye of animated nature,
for that sleepy luxurious look of the animal suited but to the taste
of an epicure. The light step of Ianthe often accompanied Aubrey in
his search after antiquities, and often would the unconscious girl,
engaged in the pursuit of a Kashmere butterfly, show the whole beauty
of her form, floating as it were upon the wind, to the eager gaze of
him, who forgot the letters he had just decyphered upon an almost
effaced tablet, in the contemplation of her sylph-like figure. Often
would her tresses falling, as she flitted around, exhibit in the sun's
ray such delicately brilliant and swiftly fading hues, it might well
excuse the forgetfulness of the antiquary, who let escape from his
mind the very object he had before thought of vital importance to the
proper interpretation of a passage in Pausanias. But why attempt to
describe charms which all feel, but none can appreciate?--It was
innocence, youth, and beauty, unaffected by crowded drawing-rooms and
stifling balls. Whilst he drew those remains of which he wished to
preserve a memorial for his future hours, she would stand by, and
watch the magic effects of his pencil, in tracing the scenes of her
native place; she would then describe to him the circling dance upon
the open plain, would paint, to him in all the glowing colours of
youthful memory, the marriage pomp she remembered viewing in her
infancy; and then, turning to subjects that had evidently made a
greater impression upon her mind, would tell him all the supernatural
tales of her nurse. Her earnestness and apparent belief of what she
narrated, excited the interest even of Aubrey; and often as she told
him the tale of the living vampyre, who had passed years amidst his
friends, and dearest ties, forced every year, by feeding upon the life
of a lovely female to prolong his existence for the ensuing months,
his blood would run cold, whilst he attempted to laugh her out of such
idle and horrible fantasies; but Ianthe cited to him the names of old
men, who had at last detected one living among themselves, after
several of their near relatives and children had been found marked
with the stamp of the fiend's appetite; and when she found him so
incredulous, she begged of him to believe her, for it had been,
remarked, that those who had dared to question their existence, always
had some proof given, which obliged them, with grief and
heartbreaking, to confess it was true. She detailed to him the
traditional appearance of these monsters, and his horror was
increased, by hearing a pretty accurate description of Lord Ruthven;
he, however, still persisted in persuading her, that there could be no
truth in her fears, though at the same time he wondered at the many
coincidences which had all tended to excite a belief in the
supernatural power of Lord Ruthven.
Aubrey began to attach himself more and more to Ianthe; her innocence,
so contrasted with all the affected virtues of the women among whom he
had sought for his vision of romance, won his heart; and while he
ridiculed the idea of a young man of English habits, marrying an
uneducated Greek girl, still he found himself more and more attached
to the almost fairy form before him. He would tear himself at times
from her, and, forming a plan for some antiquarian research, he would
depart, determined not to return until his object was attained; but he
always found it impossible to fix his attention upon the ruins around
him, whilst in his mind he retained an image that seemed alone the
rightful possessor of his thoughts. Ianthe was unconscious of his
love, and was ever the same frank infantile being he had first known.
She always seemed to part from him with reluctance; but it was because
she had no longer any one with whom she could visit her favourite
haunts, whilst her guardian was occupied in sketching or uncovering
some fragment which had yet escaped the destructive hand of time. She
had appealed to her parents on the subject of Vampyres, and they both,
with several present, affirmed their existence, pale with horror at
the very name. Soon after, Aubrey determined to proceed upon one of
his excursions, which was to detain him for a few hours; when they
heard the name of the place, they all at once begged of him not to
return at night, as he must necessarily pass through a wood, where no
Greek would ever remain, after the day had closed, upon any
consideration. They described it as the resort of the vampyres in