e
perceive he promises to do.

And, as regards Varney, the vampyre, be, too, must have some great
object in view to induce him to run such a world of risk, and take so
much trouble as he was doing with the Bannerworth family.

What his object is, and what is the object of Marchdale, will, now that
we have progressed so far in our story, soon appear, and then much that
is perfectly inexplicable, will become clear and distinct, and we shall
find that some strong human motives are at the bottom of it all.

CHAPTER LXV.

VARNEY'S VISIT TO THE DUNGEON OF THE LONELY PRISONER IN THE RUINS.

[Illustration]

Evident it was that Marchdale was not near so scrupulous as Sir Francis
Varney, in what he chose to do. He would, without hesitation, have
sacrificed the life of that prisoner in the lonely dungeon, whom it
would be an insult to the understanding of our readers, not to presume
that they had, long ere this, established in their minds to be Charles
Holland.

His own safety seemed to be the paramount consideration with Marchdale,
and it was evident that he cared for nothing in comparison with that
object.

It says much, however, for Sir Francis Varney, that he did not give in
to such a blood-thirsty feeling, but rather chose to set the prisoner
free, and run all the chances of the danger to which he might expose
himself by such a course of conduct, than to insure safety,
comparatively, by his destruction.

Sir Francis Varney is evidently a character of strangely mixed feelings.
It is quite evident that he has some great object in view, which he
wishes to accomplish almost at any risk; but it is equally evident, at
the same time, that he wishes to do so with the least possible injury to
others, or else he would never have behaved as he had done in his
interview with the beautiful and persecuted Flora Bannerworth, or now
suggested the idea of setting Charles Holland free from the dreary
dungeon in which he had been so long confined.

We are always anxious and willing to give every one credit for the good
that is in them; and, hence, we are pleased to find that Sir Francis
Varney, despite his singular, and apparently preternatural capabilities,
has something sufficiently human about his mind and feelings, to induce
him to do as little injury as possible to others in the pursuit of his
own objects.

Of the two, vampyre as he is, we prefer him much to the despicable and
hypocritical, Marchdale, who, under the