s so indeed," remarked
Marchdale.

"Do you mean to stay?"--"I think I shall."

"You do, do you?"--"Yes, I should much like to question him, and as we
are two to one I think we really can have nothing to fear."

"Do you? I'm altogether of a different opinion. A man who has more lives
than a cat don't much mind at what odds he fights. You may stay if you
like."--"You do not mean to say that you will desert me?"

"I don't see a bit how you call it deserting you; if we had come out
together on this adventure, I would have stayed it out with you; but as
we came separate and independent, we may as well go back so."--"Well,
but--"

"Good morning?" cried Tom, and he at once took to his heels towards the
town, without staying to pay any attention to the remonstrances of
Marchdale, who called after him in vain.

Sir Francis Varney, probably, had Tom Eccles not gone off so rapidly,
would have yet taken another thought, and gone in another direction than
that which led him to the ruins, and Tom, if he had had his senses fully
about him, as well as all his powers of perception, would have seen that
the progress of the vampyre was very slow, while he continued to
converse with Marchdale, and that it was only when he went off at good
speed that Sir Francis Varney likewise thought it prudent to do so.

"Is he much terrified?" said Varney, as he came up to Marchdale.--"Yes,
most completely."

"This then, will make a good story in the town."--"It will, indeed, and
not a little enhance your reputation."

"Well, well; it don't much matter now; but if by terrifying people I can
purchase for myself anything like immunity for the past, I shall be
satisfied."--"I think you may now safely reckon that you have done so.
This man who has fled with so much precipitation, had courage."

"Unquestionably."--"Or else he would have shrunk from coming here at
all."

"True, but his courage and presence arose from his strong doubts as to
the existence of such beings as vampyres."--"Yes, and now that he is
convinced, his bravery has evaporated along with his doubts; and such a
tale as he has now to tell, will be found sufficient to convert even the
most sceptical in the town."

"I hope so."--"And yet it cannot much avail you."

"Not personally, but I must confess that I am not dead to all human
opinions, and I feel some desire of revenge against those dastards who
by hundreds have hunted me, burnt down my mansion, and sought my
destruction.