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Roy Glashan's Library
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"The Vampire of Vourla" is an intriguing vampire tale published anonymously in The Chaplet, a British literary annual, in either 1844 or 1845.,
The plot centers around a female vampire named Heira, who resides in a secluded manor. She lures a foreign visitor into a sexual relationship, drains his blood, and transforms into a bat to attack him in his room. The story is notable for its emphasis on the vampire's animality and its Greek setting, which positions it within the context of Orientalism.
The story is considered to be a significant contribution to nineteenth-century vampire literature.
Illustration from "The Chaplet"
WELL pleased with all the world, for nothing "passes along" good temper, from the captain down to the very powder-monkey like a fair wind, we near the Sicilian coast, and if we have any luck shall reach Malta to-morrow. Now rises the towering Etna before us, apparently far inland, from off the southern coast of Sicily, but still perceptible. With what interest do we gaze on that mighty giant of the earth girt by eternal snows; its mouths of destruction yawning above fertile valleys, where the clinging vine entwines the olive, and the peasant toils unfearingly till the flood of flame comes, and the rain of ruin falls. Night closes over sea and shore. The wind has gone down considerably. The sails scarcely feel the light breeze, and idly flap on the masts. "The watch" is called: last night we took our "yarn" from before the mainmast; tonight we will join the "jollies" under the "half deck."
"Now, Lawyer Tom, give us the yarn about your master, Lieutenant Somers, and the black-boat, and that 'ere young 'oman what made him lose the number of his mess."
This request was preferred to a marine, who, the watch having been mustered, was just thinking about taking "a cork:" but he roused himself, and seeing around him a knot of his particular chums, he, after a little persuasion, consented. Let us premise, before Tom Gahan begins, that he was not called lawyer merely because he might be classed with that species of the genus off "the rolls," serving afloat, men foremost at written representations, and "round-robins," who, though they have had a smattering of education, will not take no for a negative, asking the meaning of orders meant only to be peremptory, and standing up on all occasions for what "Jack" calls his "blasted rights"—no, Gahan had a farther claim to the name of lawyer: he had been a lawyer's clerk.
Drink had proved his ruin,—it had hastened his departure from several sets of chambers— often had he rolled down the stairs; and on more than one occasion, he had received a trifling assistance from an angry employer's toe.
At length, the seams of Tom's black coat were of a most unseemly white, while the shirt that peeped out from his elbows was marvellously yellow; and the lawyer's clerk, not knowing where else to get a shilling, took one from a recruiting sergeant, and listed for a royal marine—passed his drills, and disliking the regular routine of his duties, became an officer's servant.
He had several times changed masters,—through the circumstance of Chubb's locks being seldom applied to spirit cases, which gentlemen often want to open in a hurry,—at last there was a black mark made against his name in the books of his company, and he was no longer allowed to be a servant.
Tom now took warning, and became moderately sober; he even looked for advancement in the service, but alas! he got the name of a "sea-lawyer:" this was a bar to his promotion,—truth to say, borrowing a Yankee expression, he was "considerable litigious." A full private he remained, and in this capacity we find him telling his yarn under the "half deck."
"I have declared more than once," said Tom the lawyer, "that I'd rather not talk about poor Mr. Somers, but you go on for ever boring one."
"Because we never heard the rights of the story," cried several voices—"yes, that's what it is."
"Well, then, here's to begin," rejoined Gahan, "but, remember! I'll never tell it again, for I don't like the subject; talking about it makes a man sleep uneasy in his hammock when he turns in; but you will have it, and so here goes.
"I embarked with Lieutenant Somers, as his servant, when I had been just four years in the service, which I take it is nearly six years ago—worse luck to me! it's a service that there is nothing to be got by for a man who has had an education such as I have had, and who has associated with gentlemen."
"Never mind that part of the story," exclaimed one of Tom's audience, for "the lawyer" had a well known habit of expatiating on his fallen estate. This interruption had nearly spoilt the yarn altogether.
"If I've any of your sauce," he replied, turning to the offender, "I wont say another word;" but the general silence that ensued giving promise of more respectful attention, he thus continued:
"Lieutenant Somers was a very gentlemanly-like officer; and at the time I am speaking of his embarking with me in his Majesty's ship — —, he might have been about two-and-twenty. We were ordered on this station, went to Malta, joined the fleet, and in less than ten days we were detached with other ships on a cruise to the eastward; and after awhile we all brought up in Vourla Bay. This you must know, those who don't know it already, is in the Gulf of Smyrna; and our anchorage was between fifteen and twenty miles from the city of that name; a beautifully wooded coast running up to it on each side of the Gulf, with here and there an island which would form a very pretty property in the British Channel; while in that country, I believe, no one cares to own them, but the partridges and the rabbits.
"Well, here we lay for nearly six weeks, and my master went every now and then up to Smyrna, for he was very fond of going about, and mixed a great deal with the people of the country: he had been several years on the station before, and spoke the Greek language, and I dare say made himself very agreeable to the ladies, for he was a fine handsome young fellow.
"To describe him, I should say that he was about my height, neither too tall nor too short, but just what a man ought to be. His hair was of a beautiful glossy brown it might be a shade lighter than mine;—it curled naturally, and so would my hair curl too, if that old captain of ours didn't keep us to such a soldier's crop; forgetting that there may be men amongst us who have been in the situation of gentlemen, and are, perhaps, as good as himself—"
"Halloo Tom," from several voices, was answered by his repeating the threat—
"If you interrupt me I won't say a word more;—perhaps you don't care to hear the story—only tell me so—that a all.
"Well, to go on, if my master was not up at Smyrna, whenever he could get on shore he was shooting in the woods along the coast of the Gulf, and a capital shot he was—I could only just beat him.
"We had been about three weeks at Vourla, when every body remarked a sudden change in Mr. Somers' manner. He who used to be the life and soul of the wardroom-mess, was now silent and thoughtful: he lost his appetite, and would sit for hours together at table without doing more than answering the questions put to him, and parrying the jokes of his mess-mates, who told him that he was either in love or in debt. He certainly was sometimes as moody as a man whose tailor would give him no more credit. I know what it is to feel after that fashion myself, when I've been obliged to give up going to a pleasant party, and disappoint all the girls who have been looking out for me, because I had not a proper coat to appear in. This is a kind of thing that may happen to any gentleman, but it could not have been the cause of the low spirits of my master, for he had plenty of money and was not in debt. What s more, if you watched him narrowly, you might see, now and then, a sort of quiet smile stealing over his face, as if he were thinking of something pleasant; but still that face of his was getting paler and paler every day.
"Mr. Somers had by this time quite given up joining the parties that went to Smyrna, nor did he ever go shooting, and seldom out of the ship in the day time; but regularly every night a boat fetched him about 'seven bells,' in the first watch, at least I know it was always near twelve o'clock. My master would ask to go on shore before he went down to his cabin in the cock-pit, and there he sat all by himself till the corporal of the guard came and told him that the boat was alongside. I've been on the look-out, for my hammock hung close to the entrance port, and I've seen Mr. Somers wrapped in his cloak going over the side, and I've turned out and ran up to the 'head' to get a sight of the boat.
"It seemed a kind of caïque, rowed by two rowers, and looked much like the common ones that we saw about, except that there was an awning spread in the stern-sheets, and that not a white one, but of a dark colour. I've heard the sentries and non-commissioned officers say it was quite black; but the boat has always been too far off by the time I got on deck, for me to speak certain on this point. In a few minutes she would be out of sight, and only the bright shining of the water, looking like flames as her prow cut the waves, showed how fast she was leaving the ship, nor was she ever seen again till just about gun-fire, at day-light. Then, almost before the sentries could hail her, there was the same caïque alongside, and Mr. Somers, looking as the corporals at the entrance port Said, more like a corpse than a living man, he was so pale, would come on board; staggering with weakness, or, they hinted, it might be with drink, he would, at once, go down to his cabin.
"Now such a way of proceeding every night for nearly a fortnight set me thinking what it could all mean. I took it into my head that my master had an intrigue on his hands, and knowing how jealous both Greeks as well as Turks are of their wives and daughters, every morning when I went to call him I expected to find that he had not come back. Several of the men had disappeared on the station lately, but the common sailors and private marines are always supposed to have 'run' their ships, for your nobs never can suppose it possible that a marine or a foremast-man may get into a scrape and have his wizen cut; a circumstance rather preventing his coming back to his leave. Oh, no!—there's always an 'R' put against his name, and no more thought taken of it; but there's a shindy when an officer's missing: and a shindy I thought there would soon be about poor Mr. Somers.
"Well, as I was saying, all this went on night after night for nearly a fortnight, and mighty curious was I to find out the rights of it. Once or twice I just said to my master in the morning, 'you had a rough or a fine night for your row, sir, last night,' as the case might have been, just to sound him, but he would bite his lip and frown, never answering me; and then he would tell me to give him something that he wanted angrily, and I didn't like to try it on.
"However, as it happened, one night I got my wish, in a manner that I didn't expect. I had been busy helping a mess-mate, the gun-room steward, putting things to rights in the midshipmen's berth, which—the young gentlemen messing altogether in the gunroom,—was used as a sort of a store-room or pantry, and there had been a flare-up party that day given by the middies. This berth was next to my master's cabin; and just as I was coming out, I heard him, and a great chum of his, a Lieutenant of the navy, called Hardy, go in. The steward had left me alone, for there was enough to do in the gun-room, where the officers had not yet finished their jollification, so I had only to douse the light, keep quiet, and put my ear to the door of the 'wing,' between the berth and the cabin, to hear what the gentlemen said, just the same as though I had been alongside of them. That night I listened to a story which I shall never forget; and, from what happened afterwards, I suppose I know more about poor Mr. Somers than any man living. I'll tell you just word for word what passed, which I can do, having written it out while the thing was fresh in my memory; this is no place to read in, but I believe I have the whole thing pretty well by heart.
"'And so you think I am looking ill, Hardy,' said my master.
"'Ill!' answered the naval Lieutenant, 'I never saw a fellow looking worse; and 'tis not I only who remark it, but every one in the ward-room. If you don't take care you'll be going off the hooks, and leaving your bones at Vourla!'
"'It may be so,' returned Mr. Somers, yet speaking cheerfully, 'and I would as soon make my grave on these wooded shores, as in some formal, though quite as ill-guarded burial ground in England; but I'm not going to die just at present—life has too many charms for me!'
"'You must take care of your health, then, or life's charms will not keep life in you,' said Mr. Hardy. 'Here you go away night after night on your mysterious excursions, all weathers—the very dew often falling like rain, and every day you are looking worse and worse. Somers! these midnight trips must be given up,— there is no use in mincing the matter. You know the friendship I have for you. We were old mess-mates before we met on board here, and I can't bear to see you killing yourself, without speaking. The doctor said honestly the other day when I asked him about you, that to look at your case superficially,—for you have never given him an opportunity of judging a bit more than the rest of us—he should be inclined to believe that you are falling into a state of confirmed atrophy; and so my good fellow, if you don't look out you'll lose the number of your mess, and make us lose a pleasant messmate!'"
"What ship is that Superficale," and "what's confarming a man to the Trophy, when there ain't such a ship in the sarvice," asked two of Tom the lawyer's listeners.
"Hold your jaw," said Tom, "and let me tell the story as it should be told, or I won't tell it at all.
"My master, I fancied, was lost in thought for a moment, and then as it seemed with a sudden start, he exclaimed, 'Hardy, you shall be informed of all, and judge for me. I know that I am ill—I feel feverish and bewildered. I sometimes think that I am living in the midst of a strange dream, and that I must one day awake and find that all the past is a fantasy—but you shall hear: I can trust you—I know you will not mention what I am about to reveal, out of this cabin.' Mr. Hardy said all that was proper in reply, and then my master began.
"'You are aware that my love of shooting has often taken me miles and miles away from the ship, and that many a night it has been very late before I have come on board. It was on one of these excursions that I found myself high up on the southern coast of the Gulf, and, as I imagined, more than ten miles from our anchorage. The sun was setting, and the caïque that I had hired was to meet me at what we call the agate-wall watering-place. As I walked along, the sudden gathering of darkness around, made it plain to me that a storm was brewing, and 1 had hardly gone more than half a mile farther, when the falling of a few heavy drops of rain showed me that it was time to look for shelter, while the thunder, and the echoes of the thunder kept up one continued roar, as if the whole fleet was at general exercise.
"'I was on the point of getting under a tree, to remain there at all risks till the storm was past, when I saw a light in the distance; it appeared to be inland, but whether caused by a fire in the woods, or proceeding from some house,—and few indeed, as you know, are the habitations there about,—it was impossible to tell. But any port in a storm there was a chance of getting under a roof, and I pushed my way through the trees until I came right upon an ancient-looking building, a wing of which I had almost ran against, as I leaped through a thicket of myrtles and brambles, before I was aware of it. I now saw that from a projecting window, partially latticed, and situated high up in an opposite comer of the house, the light proceeded. The heavy rain drops were thickening fast; I expected every moment that a torrent would fall from the heavens. It was no time to stand upon ceremony, so I at once made up to a large door that was before me, and finding neither knocker nor bell meet my hand, as I felt eagerly for some means of arousing the inhabitants to claim their hospitality.
"'I was about to make the butt of my gun answer the purpose, when the door swung back. By the twilight of sunset, which still struggled against the darkness of the storm, I could just perceive that it gave me admittance to a sort of square court-yard; overhanging this were latticed windows of a similar description to the one outside the building, whence came the light I before mentioned. After looking about to discover who it was that let me in, but without effect, it occurred to me that by some contrivance, communicating with the upper part of the house, the latch might have been lifted, or perhaps I had only to thank the violence of the wind for my entrance.
"'I was cogitating about this, and making up my mind whether I should prosecute the adventure I had begun by seeking some way of getting into the interior of the habitation, or content myself with the shelter I had already obtained under one of the latticed projections, when the sound of a stringed instrument played by a very skilful finger, completely upset the pros and cons of my deliberation. Never had I before heard so touching a strain, as was the short symphony which preluded a still more enthralling witchery of melody: a voice, that seemed by its sweetness to hush the very storm, sung a plaintive Greek song. Both the air and words were new to me—together, for the music spoke the sentiment of the poetry—they told of death in youth, when, the warm life-blood suddenly chilled by the destroyer, those who love the departed lament how short has been their sojourn on earth: scarcely believing they are "not" we see them return in dreams. The husband again feels the cheek of his wife pillowed on his bosom—the lover again presses to his heart her, who, blighting the promise of his expected joys, had made her bridal-bed in the cold grave.
"'And then there came a change in the song: it told of pale ghosts that beckon the living to join the dead, and of midnight whisperings, in which familiar voices breathe the accents of the loved and lost. Ere the strain had ceased—scarcely knowing how I had made my way into the house, so perfectly bewildered did I feel,—I was hastening up a marble staircase guided by the sound of the melody, while a soft light, proceeding from a chamber on the landing-place immediately above me, showed me the path I was pursuing. The next moment I had rushed past the portals from whence the music came, and then all was still as death.
"'I had entered a sort of ante-chamber to a larger apartment,—no one was there, and on I went. I felt not the least embarrassment at thus intruding on the privacy of strangers;—I really believe that music had maddened me:—another door was passed. The room I now arrived at was laid with Persian carpeting of the richest colours; silken hangings concealed the walls, and, on pedestals of bronze, silver lamps were burning the most fragrant oils, dispensing at once light and perfume all around. There was a kind of divan, or sofa, at the end of the apartment, and on one of its cushions I saw the lyre,—but the minstrel had fled.
"'I told you before, Hardy, that I believe I was not in my right senses, and this must account for what I now did: I snatched up the instrument;—I apostrophized it aloud; I besought it to bring back its mistress; I wildly swept its chords, then dashed it on the divan and gazed around me with the air of a man who looks for something whereon to vent his spleen in the excess of disappointment.
"'The movement of a silken curtain attracted my attention—a little hand appeared—the drapery was withdrawn, and a being of such exquisite beauty came forth, that for a moment I stood entranced.'"
"Snore! snore! snore! snore! snore!"
"The brute!" exclaimed Tom the lawyer, interrupted in his story, and looking bayonets at a sleeping comrade, whose nose expressed as plainly as nose could, that its proprietor was asleep.
Pacified by the declaration of his remaining auditors that they were all attention, Private Gahan, who had now got into the spirit of his yarn, and told it more for his own pleasure than to please others, proceeded.
"Well, nay master said that never had he beheld such a lovely creature before. She appeared to be a Greek in all the ripe charms of womanhood. Her hair flowed down her shoulders in long graceful curls, crowned by a little scarlet cap, embroidered with gold, and further ornamented by a tassel of purple silk. Lustrous were her deep hazel eyes, and Mr. Somers declared that he felt as though they looked into his very soul. The beautiful stranger wore a vest of the darkest marone colour, under which was a silken petticoat of scarlet and white stripe, gathered in very full at the waist, and descending in heavy folds of drapery until it met the finely turned ankles, clothed only in their own dazzling whiteness: and then her little feet and little yellow slippers!—Oh! my master seemed as if he would never have done talking about them, for he had always a great fancy for a pretty foot. When this lovely young Greek had advanced into the middle of the room,—which she did treading lightly, smiling and holding up her finger warningly, as if to entreat silence,—she addressed Mr. Somers in the most bewitchingly soft tones; but I had better give you his own words, as nearly as I can. Those who want to go to sleep may; only let the last one whistle when he's off for the land of nod. I can't tell a story like an old quarter-master yarning—it is not fit that I should, or what's the use of having had a good education, and having lived among gentlemen, before I entered to serve with you fellows."
"Why didn't you stay where you was?" grumbled out a distant voice—Mr. Gahan, of course! never heard this rude speech, and thus went on.
"'Hardy,' said my master, 'not a word did she speak till she got into the centre of the apartment, and then the sweetest tones that ever met my ear, in the purest Ionic dialect almost whispered: "Why are you here? You are in danger—you know not the danger that threatens you. Why do you tempt your fate?"
"'I care not what my fate may be,' said I, 'content I shall be with it, so that I am but allowed to gaze upon thy beauty. She did not seem angry when I thus spoke, but cast her eyes on the ground, while I explained to her, how, driven by the storm to seek shelter in the court-yard of the house, I had been led onward, taking the music of her voice for my guide, until it had brought me into her presence. As I ceased speaking, she looked up with such a radiant smile that I lost all command over myself, and rushing forward I seized her hand and poured forth the most ardent expressions of admiration. I swore eternal fidelity to her;—besought her to sanction my loving her,—and, I dare say, uttered a great deal of nonsense. Be that as it might, all I advanced was well received, for unresistingly she allowed me to lead her to the divan, and seat myself beside her. "Then you love me—you swear to love no other,—to be all mine?" said Heira, for thus she told me to call her, when we had long sat hand in hand, looking into each others eyes, as if we there read the secrets of the soul. My arm crept round her waist; she shrunk not from me. I felt her tremble, as though shaken by the quick pulse of her heart beating beneath the thin muslin kerchief that hid her bosom, and my head bowed on her shoulder. She cast her arms around me,—the faltering words, "can I trust you?" were whispered in my ear; "Will you swear by your life-blood? Will you mingle it with mine? Will you pledge with me to our eternal fidelity?"
"'She had without my perceiving it drawn a dagger from her girdle, for my eyes were still fixed on hers, as I looked up from my sweet resting place. I felt the sleeve of my coat torn open, my arm bared. "What would you that we should do?" I exclaimed, for a moment starting from her embrace. "It is an ancient custom of our race," she replied; "Let us mingle our blood; then shall we be as one life, living but for each other—sharing the same bliss—dying the same death!"
"'Oh! Hardy, the soft radiance of those eyes when she thus spake. I held out my arm—had it been on the instant to break up the fountains of life, I should have consented. I felt the blood trickle from my vein;—it fell into a crystal bowl. I can tell no more: I know not what followed with any degree of certainty. I have a sort of confused recollection that when her arm was pierced no blood flowed, and that I shudderingly saw the ruby of her lips become of a deeper tint, as she pledged to our union "for ever and for ever!"—but I believe it was all a dream: I had sunk on her bosom—I forgot all but that she was mine."
"'"We are to meet again," said the lovely stranger, as the first streak of dawn appeared in the sky that had hung as a dark curtain before the open lattice of our chamber. "Oh! that we might never part!" I answered, "but tell me how are we to meet." "At night I will send for you," rejoined Heira; "be ready—a boat will come to your ship." "You know it, then," I rejoined. "Did I not know you—did I not know your abiding-place, you would not now be here," she remarked.
"'All this passed at our parting, and, strange as it may appear to you, I did not further question her. Heira hurried my departure;—she looked fearfully at the coming dawn, as though she dreaded the approach of some intruder. Tearing myself from her embrace, I once more descended the stairs of the mysterious mansion. I met no one—I crossed the court-yard, opened the door, and going forth perceived to my surprise, through the branches of the trees, the waters of the Gulf at a little distance from me:—the night before, it had appeared as though I had left them far behind. The sun was scarcely yet above the waves, but there was the promise of a lovely day; the storm had long passed. I walked on toward the sea, and, as though I were still in a strange dream, I had been some time in the Smyrna road ere I perceived where I was; nor could I from that hour to this discover at what point I came into it. I felt feverish and languid—I looked at my arm and a faintness crept over me.
"'There was the punctured vein, but the blood had ceased to flow. I roused myself, and tried to call to mind the events of the last night:—I could not collect my thoughts—visions of horror and bliss seemed confusedly blended, for if I shuddered as I pictured to myself Heira's lips pressed to that blood-red bowl; this was forgotten in the remembrance of that moment when those lips were first pressed to mine.
"'The sun was rising high in the heavens, when the boatmen of a caïque returning from Smyrna hailed me. They doubtlessly imagined that I had need of their assistance; I must have looked way-worn and weary. The sleeve of my coat was ripped to the shoulder, and I held my fowling-piece with but a feeble grasp. You remember the state of exhaustion I was in when I came on board, and your surprise, indeed the surprise of every one, when I expressed my determination of going on shore again.
"'That same night a boat came for me as was promised by Heira. I spoke to the rowers, who appeared to be Greeks, but they either could not or would not understand me—they returned me no answer. Their caïque is an extremely fleet one, for it always seems to me that I am a very short space of time beneath its sombre awning, ere we run in-shore, and up a creek which brings me within a hundred yards of my destination.
"'Well, Hardy, this has gone on for ten days. I have no fear that any harm is intended me in the strange habitation to which I resort. Heira does not now even affect any alarm on my account, except that about an hour before daylight she tells me that I must depart. I find the same boat and boatmen awaiting me, and silently and swiftly I am conveyed on board.
"'Now you have all my extraordinary story: people say I am ill, and that I am trifling with my constitution, but they are thoroughly mistaken. I may suffer a little from broken rest, but that is all. No! there is one thing I must mention,—sometimes I fancy that the vein of my arm has bled afresh amid the deep slumber from which Heira awakes me, to tell me I must leave her. It never heals, and the puncture has always an appearance of freshness."
"My master here showed his arm to Mr. Hardy," continued Gahan, "but I could not exactly make out what the naval Lieutenant now said; he seemed to hum and haw over it. When I could next understand what was going on, he was cautioning Mr. Somers; telling him that he had better take care that his amour did not end in robbery, perhaps murder; and asking him whether he had ever tried by daylight to discover the house in which his mysterious meetings with the Greek girl took place. My master answered the warning of his friend by saying, that he felt assured no kind of danger was to be apprehended. Heira seemed to have full command of the habitation: an elegant repast always awaited his arrival, though no attendants were to be seen; and, as he had already said, till the hour before daylight, when he was bidden to depart, the lovely Greek showed not the slightest appearance of alarm, and on her faith he could not but implicitly rely. With respect to seeking out their place of assignation in the day time, Mr. Somers declared that he had tried every means in his power. He had loitered near the house, instead of at once descending to the caïque; but Heira's hand waved impatiently from the latticed window, ever commanding his departure, while his boatmen would approach and silently point to the shore: he had even coasted the whole of the southern side of the Gulf, hoping to discover the creek he nightly ascended, but without effect."
"'And you really will proceed with this affair?' asked Mr. Hardy.
"'To the death!' replied my master, 'as surely as seven bells strike to-night, so surely will my boat come, and I go. Knowing that Heira expects me, can I fail in my pledge to her?'
"There was now a pause in the conversation between the gentlemen.
"'I cannot make it out,' at length said Mr. Hardy, as if he had been in a brown study.
"'There is nothing to make out, except that I am a very lucky fellow, rejoined my master, laughing. 'There, go away, and don't puzzle your head about it—I want to get an hour's sleep, if I can: I need not remind you of your promise to keep secret what you have just heard;—to no other but yourself, would I have breathed it.'
"Again Mr. Hardy cautioned his friend to be careful of himself—not only of his life, lest any harm should be intended him—but of his health, evidently suffering from broken rest, and the feverish excitement in which he lived, and after a while, the naval Lieutenant went away.
"I then let myself out of the berth where I had so snugly lain; and only just in time, for the steward was coming down to know why I did not bring him the key of it; and the young gentlemen, having broken up in the gun-room, were beginning to turn into their hammocks.
"That night my master went away in the boat as usual, and the next morning I found him lying in his bed-place looking pale as death itself. He now, for the first time, complained that he was ill. 'Gahan;,' said he, 'I am not well. You must get me a cup of tea from the ward-room, I feel too weak to go to breakfast. I believe, I have taken cold. Don't say a word to any one about it, only ask Mr. Johnson to take my guard for me.* This was a brother subaltern of his, who being good-natured, took most of my master's duties, for he was, what is called, a 'regular ship-keeper.'
"Well, I just did what Mr. Somers told me. I had intended to do more, but scarcely had I given my master his breakfast when an accident occurred that prevented me. I meant to tell Mr. Hardy how ill his friend was, and ask him whether he hadn't better at once send the doctor to him.
"The signal had been made for the fleet to exercise sails. Poor Mr. Hardy was on the forecastle, and a block came from aloft, struck him right on the top of his head, and fractured his skull:—he never spoke again, and died in less than three days after.
"Whether it was hearing what had happened to Mr. Hardy made my master worse, or not, I can't tell; but before the people's dinner-time, he was in a high fever. The doctor came, and then it was, as they tried to bleed him, that I saw, what I had heard him mention,—the vein in his arm unhealed, as if it had been just opened. I say the doctor tried to bleed him, for the blood would hardly flow at all, and astonished our surgeon was, though not so particularly at this, as at finding that Mr. Somers had been so lately bled—asking him about it was no manner of use, for he was talking quite at random, and I couldn't exactly tell what I knew, without telling how I heard it, which would have been awkward.
"A screen-berth was now rigged up for my master on the middle deck. He was put into a hot bath; once more they tried to bleed him, and at length, they got a little blood. He was then laid in his cot, and it was my office to sponge him over with vinegar and water. Still the fever got a-head, and the doctor didn't seem to like the case. I offered to take the first turn at sitting up with my master. He was now quite delirious, and talked wildly of a beautiful Syren bringing him to his death. Then he would extend his arms, and smiling languidly, almost in a whisper say that it was bliss thus to die; and once, suddenly bursting into a cry of agony, he exclaimed, 'There! there! destroy me not! Monster! take, oh take those lips away! They are red with my blood. Is this, then, your love for me?'
"I spoke to him, and put my hand on his, telling him that there was no one near him except myself: he took no kind of notice of me, but from exhaustion, he ceased his cries. I gave him a composing draught, which he drank eagerly, about five bells in the middle watch; after this, he did not say much, and at last he sank into a sort of doze.
"I suppose it was the sight of my master drinking that made me thirsty. I felt uncommonly dry, and as I had brought up most of Mr. Somers' things from the cock-pit, of course I hadn't forgotten the liquor-case. There it was, and the bunch of keys on the table—a regular help-yourself chance. I couldn't find any rum;—I always like it best, when I have the mixing of it;—but I got hold of some brandy, and I took a stiff glass of grog. Perhaps it was the smell of the vinegar, and the work I had gone through all day long that was too much for me, but while I was thinking over the strange things my master had been talking about, I dropped into a sound nap, quite forgetting that I ought to have been keeping a good look-out.
"I dare say, it must have been close upon the end of the first watch,—as near midnight as well could be—that I was awoke by a sort of flapping and flapping, just as if some one was fanning with a large fan, as they do in the East Indies. I could hardly open my eyes at first, I was so drowsy. There was a port in the screen-berth, and the sash was thrown back on the gun, for the weather was very hot, and a draught of wind had flared the sperm candle on the table down to a mere snuff; thus when I did look about me, I could not for a moment discover all that was going on, but never shall I forget what I at last made out. My master was lying motionless in the cot, his eyes wide open—staring at the hideous form of a large bat, nearly as large as some I have seen in the island of Java—there they call them Vampires—and oh! what a head it had! I could almost fancy that I saw human, or rather a devil's features, in those small bright eyes, and quickly working jaws, as these last, close-pressed to my master's neck, were drawing, drawing, drawing, the life-blood from his sinking frame, while the dark leathern wings fanned as the creature sucked. I suppose I must have called out. I certainly aimed a blow at the monster, for I caught my hand against the case-bottle of brandy and down it went.
"Altogether there was such a row, that the sentry outside came in: the doctor was sent for by the officer of the watch, while I was declared to be drunk and put in irons, I could swear that I never felt more sober in all my life; but had our skipper happened to be one of your flogging-men, I should certainly have got three dozen in the morning; as it was, they stopped my grog for a month.
"Before I was let out of irons,—aye, before the next night, poor Mr. Somers died. I begged hard to see him, but I wasn't allowed. I didn't say any thing about the bat, for fear of getting into a worse scrape than I was in; but I asked the carpenter's-mate, who was a chum of mine, afterwards, if he didn't see something like a bite in my master's neck, when he and the carpenter measured the corpse for its coffin. The man declared that he had taken particular notice of a sort of red mark nearly under the right ear, and that he had heard the doctor saying to the First Lieutenant that it was apiece with the rest of the affair, and very strange altogether. They had buried my poor master before I got my liberty, so I never could make out any more about it, and I generally keep what I know to myself, only to-night as you asked me—"
Tom the lawyer turned to look at his companions, for he had been latterly leaning against a stanchion of the deck, heedless who was listening.
"What had that ere young homan to do with that 'ere big Bat, what you calls a Wampire? and what became of that ere young homan arter all?" inquired the little drummer, who had crept into the group unnoticed, and was a solitary listener.
All Mr. Gahon's chums, overpowered by the beauty of his narrative, had gone fast asleep.
"Come out of that, you young sheepskin fiddler!" exclaimed the enraged story-teller, "and be off to your hammock, or I'll make you!"
Roy Glashan's Library
Non sibi sed omnibus
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