st have seized
the horse, for instead of swimming on well and gallantly as it had done
before, it paused for a moment, and then plunged headlong into the
torrent.

"I could not swim, and so, for a second time, death, with all its
terrors, appeared to be taking possession of me. The waters rolled over
my head, gurgling and hissing in my ears, and then all was past. I know
no more, until I found myself lying upon a bright green meadow, and the
full beams of the moon shining upon me.

"I was giddy and sick, but I rose, and walked slowly away, each moment
gathering fresh strength, and from that time to this, I never discovered
how I came to be rescued from the water, and lying upon that green bank.
It has ever been a mystery to me, and I expect it ever will.

"Then from that moment the idea that I had a sort of charmed life came
across me, and I walked about with an impression that such was the case,
until I came across a man who said that he was a Hungarian, and who was
full of strange stories of vampyres. Among other things, he told me that
a vampyre could not be drowned, for that the waters would cast him upon
its banks, and, if the moonbeams fell upon him, he would be restored to
life.

"This was precisely my story, and from that moment I believed myself to
be one of those horrible, but charmed beings, doomed to such a
protracted existence. The notion grew upon me day by day, and hour by
hour, until it became quite a fixed and strong belief, and I was
deceiving no one when I played the horrible part that has been
attributed to me."

"But you don't mean to say that you believe you are a vampyre now?" said
the admiral.

"I say nothing, and know not what to think. I am a desperate man, and
what there is at all human in me, strange to say, all of you whom I
sought to injure, have awakened."

"Heed not that," said Henry, "but continue your narrative. We have
forgiven everything, and that ought to suffice to quiet your mind upon
such a subject."

"I will continue; and, believe me, I will conceal nothing from you. I
look upon the words I am now uttering as a full, candid, and free
confession; and, therefore, it shall be complete.

"The idea struck me that if, by taking advantage of my supposed
preternatural gifts, I could drive you from Bannerworth Hall, I should
have it to myself to hunt through at my leisure, and possibly find the
treasure. I had heard from Marmaduke Bannerworth some slight allusion to
concealin