he not disappeared in the most mysterious manner? Had
he not sought refuge where no human being would think of seeking refuge,
namely, in that old, dilapidated ruin, where, when his pursuers were so
close upon his track, he had succeeded in eluding their grasp with a
facility which looked as if he had vanished into thin air, or as if the
very earth had opened to receive him bodily within its cold embraces?

It is not to be wondered at, that the few who fled so precipitately from
the ruin, lost nothing of the wonderful story they had to tell, in the
carrying it from that place to the town. When they reached their
neighbours, they not only told what had really occurred, but they added
to it all their own surmises, and the fanciful creation of all their own
fears, so that before mid-day, and about the time when Henry Bannerworth
was conversing so quietly in the gardens of the Hall with his beautiful
sister, there was an amount of popular ferment in the town, of which
they had no conception.

All business was suspended, and many persons, now that once the idea had
been started concerning the possibility that a vampyre might have been
visiting some of the houses in the place, told how, in the dead of the
night, they had heard strange noises. How children had shrieked from no
apparent cause--doors opened and shut without human agency; and windows
rattled that never had been known to rattle before.

Some, too, went so far as to declare that they had been awakened out of
their sleep by noises incidental to an effort made to enter their
chambers; and others had seen dusky forms of gigantic proportions
outside their windows, tampering with their fastenings, and only
disappearing when the light of day mocked all attempts at concealment.

These tales flew from mouth to mouth, and all listened to them with such
an eager interest, that none thought it worth while to challenge their
inconsistencies, or to express a doubt of their truth, because they had
not been mentioned before.

The only individual, and he was a remarkably clever man, who made the
slightest remark upon the subject of a practical character, hazarded a
suggestion that made confusion worse confounded.

He knew something of vampyres. He had travelled abroad, and had heard of
them in Germany, as well as in the east, and, to a crowd of wondering
and aghast listeners, he said,--

"You may depend upon it, my friends, this has been going on for some
time; there have b