ciently near it to effect, or
endeavour to effect, a capture.

"I cannot follow it there," said Marchdale. "In open country I would
have pursued it closely; but I cannot follow it into the intricacies of
a wood."

"Pursuit is useless there," said Henry. "It is enveloped in the deepest
gloom."

"I am not so unreasonable," remarked Mr. Chillingworth, "as to wish you
to follow into such a place as that. I am confounded utterly by this
affair."

"And I," said Marchdale. "What on earth is to be done?"

"Nothing--nothing!" exclaimed Henry, vehemently; "and yet I have,
beneath the canopy of Heaven, declared that I will, so help me God!
spare neither time nor trouble in the unravelling of this most fearful
piece of business. Did either of you remark the clothing which this
spectral appearance wore?"

"They were antique clothes," said Mr. Chillingworth, "such as might have
been fashionable a hundred years ago, but not now."

"Such was my impression," added Marchdale.

"And such my own," said Henry, excitedly. "Is it at all within the
compass of the wildest belief that what we have seen is a vampyre, and
no other than my ancestor who, a hundred years ago, committed suicide?"

There was so much intense excitement, and evidence of mental suffering,
that Mr. Chillingworth took him by the arm, saying,--

"Come home--come home; no more of this at present; you will but make
yourself seriously unwell."

"No--no--no."

"Come home now, I pray you; you are by far too much excited about this
matter to pursue it with the calmness which should be brought to bear
upon it."

"Take advice, Henry," said Marchdale, "take advice, and come home at
once."

"I will yield to you; I feel that I cannot control my own feelings--I
will yield to you, who, as you say, are cooler on this subject than I
can be. Oh, Flora, Flora, I have no comfort to bring to you now."

Poor Henry Bannerworth appeared to be in a complete state of mental
prostration, on account of the distressing circumstances that had
occurred so rapidly and so suddenly in his family, which had had quite
enough to contend with without having superadded to every other evil the
horror of believing that some preternatural agency was at work to
destroy every hope of future happiness in this world, under any
circumstances.

He suffered himself to be led home by Mr. Chillingworth and Marchdale;
he no longer attempted to dispute the dreadful fact concerning the
supposed vampyre;