may have been hurt by the vampyre, and may be only your
misfortune, and not your fault, yet the mischief is as great as ever it
was or can be, you become, in spite of yourself, a vampyre, and do the
same injury to others that has been done to you--there's no help for
you."

"No help,--we can't help it," shouted the mob; "he must die,--throw him
on the pile."

"Put a stake through him first, though," exclaimed the humane female;
"put a stake through him, and then he's safe."

This horrible advice had an electric effect on the stranger, who jumped
up, and eluded the grasp of several hands that were stretched forth to
seize him.

"Throw him upon the burning wood!" shouted one.

"And a stake through his body," suggested the humane female again, who
seemed to have this one idea in her heart, and no other, and, upon every
available opportunity, she seemed to be anxious to give utterance to the
comfortable notion.

"Seize him!" exclaimed one.

"Never let him go," said another; "we've gone too far to hang back now;
and, if he escape, he will visit us in our sleep, were it only out of
spite."

The stranger made a dash among the ruins, and, for a moment,
out-stripped his pursuers; but a few, more adventurous than the rest,
succeeded in driving him into an angle formed by two walls, and the
consequence was, he was compelled to come to a stand.

"Seize him--seize him!" exclaimed all those at a distance.

The stranger, seeing he was now nearly surrounded, and had no chance of
escape, save by some great effort, seized a long piece of wood, and
struck two of his assailants down at once, and then dashed through the
opening.

He immediately made for another part of the ruins, and succeeded in
making his escape for some short distance, but was unable to keep up the
speed that was required, for his great exertion before had nearly
exhausted him, and the fear of a cruel death before his eyes was not
enough to give him strength, or lend speed to his flight. He had
suffered too much from violence, and, though he ran with great speed,
yet those who followed were uninjured, and fresher,--he had no chance.

They came very close upon him at the corner of a field, which he
endeavoured to cross, and had succeeded in doing, and he made a
desperate attempt to scramble up the bank that divided the field from
the next, but he slipped back, almost exhausted, into the ditch, and the
whole mob came up.

However, he got on the bank, and