with shouts and exclamations, rushed into
the inn, while the woman who had created the disturbance still continued
to rave, tearing her hair, and shrieking at intervals, until she fell
exhausted upon the pavement.

Soon, from a hundred throats, rose the dreadful cry of "A vampyre--a
vampyre!" The alarm was given throughout the whole town; the bugles of
the military sounded; there was a clash of arms--the shrieks of women;
altogether, the premonitory symptoms of such a riot as was not likely to
be quelled without bloodshed and considerable disaster.

It is truly astonishing the effect which one weak or vicious-minded
person can produce upon a multitude.

Here was a woman whose opinion would have been accounted valueless upon
the most common-place subject, and whose word would not have passed for
twopence, setting a whole town by the ears by force of nothing but her
sheer brutal ignorance.

It is a notorious physiological fact, that after four or five days, or
even a week, the bodies of many persons assume an appearance of
freshness, such as might have been looked for in vain immediately after
death.

It is one of the most insidious processes of that decay which appears to
regret with its

"----------- offensive fingers, To mar the lines where beauty
lingers."

But what did the chamber-maid know of physiology? Probably, she would
have asked if it was anything good to eat; and so, of course, having her
head full of vampyres, she must needs produce so lamentable a scene of
confusion, the results of which we almost sicken at detailing.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

THE STAKE AND THE DEAD BODY.

[Illustration]

The mob seemed from the first to have an impression that, as regarded
the military force, no very serious results would arise from that
quarter, for it was not to be supposed that, on an occasion which could
not possibly arouse any ill blood on the part of the soldiery, or on
which they could have the least personal feeling, they would like to get
a bad name, which would stick to them for years to come.

It was no political riot, on which men might be supposed, in consequence
of differing in opinion, to have their passions inflamed; so that,
although the call of the civil authorities for military aid had been
acceded to, yet it was hoped, and, indeed, almost understood by the
officers, that their operations would lie confined more to a
demonstration of power, than anything else.

Besides, some of