the stranger saw himself thus intercepted, he endeavoured to fly in
a different direction; but was soon secured by the mob, who made
somewhat free with his person, and commenced knocking him about.

"Have mercy on me," said the stranger. "What do you want? I am not rich;
but take all I have."

"What do you do here?" inquired twenty voices. "Come, tell us that--what
do you do here, and who are you?"

"A stranger, quite a stranger to these parts."

"Oh, yes! he's a stranger; but that's all the worse for him--he's a
vampyre--there's no doubt about that."

"Good God," said the man, "I am a living and breathing man like
yourselves. I have done no wrong, and injured no man--be merciful unto
me; I intend no harm."

"Of course not; send him to the fire--take him back to the ruins--to the
fire."

"Ay, and run a stake through his body, and then he's safe for life. I am
sure he has something to do with the vampyre; and who knows, if he ain't
a vampyre, how soon he may become one?"

"Ah! that's very true; bring him back to the fire, and we'll try the
effects of the fire upon his constitution."

"I tell you what, neighbour, it's my opinion, that as one fool makes
many, so one vampyre makes many."

"So it does, so it does; there's much truth and reason in that
neighbour; I am decidedly of that opinion, too."

"Come along then," cried the mob, cuffing and pulling the unfortunate
stranger with them.

"Mercy, mercy!"

But it was useless to call for mercy to men whose superstitious feelings
urged them on; far when the demon of superstition is active, no matter
what form it may take, it always results in cruelty and wickedness to
all.

Various were the shouts and menaces of the mob, and the stranger saw no
hope of life unless he could escape from the hands of the people who
surrounded him.

They had now nearly reached the ruins, and the stranger, who was
certainly a somewhat odd and remarkable looking man, and who appeared in
their eyes the very impersonation of their notions of a vampyre, was
thrust from one to the other, kicked by one, and then cuffed by the
other, as if he was doomed to run the gauntlet.

"Down with the vampyre!" said the mob.

"I am no vampyre," said the stranger; "I am new to these parts, and I
pray you have mercy upon me. I have done you no wrong. Hear me,--I know
nothing of these people of whom you speak."

"That won't do; you've come here to see what you can do, I dare say;
and, though you