had nearly strangled her in her sleep. From that moment she
fell into a languishing state, and at the end of three days died.

For any one who has eyes, however little philosophical they may be,
must not this recital alone clearly show him that this pretended
vampirism is merely the result of a stricken imagination? There is a
girl who awakes and says that some one wanted to strangle her, and who
nevertheless has not been sucked, since her cries have prevented the
vampire from making his repast. She apparently was not so served
afterwards either, since, doubtlessly, they did not leave her by
herself during the other nights; and if the vampire had wished to
molest her, her moans would have warned those of it who were present.
Nevertheless, she dies three days afterwards. Her fright and lowness,
her sadness and languor, evidently show how strongly her imagination
had been affected.

Those persons who find themselves in cities afflicted with the plague,
know by experience how many people lose their lives through fear. As
soon as a man finds himself attacked with the least illness, he
fancies that he is seized with the epidemical disease, which idea
occasions him so great a sensation, that it is almost impossible for
the system to resist such a revolution. The Chevalier de Maifin
assured me, when I was at Paris, that being at Marseilles during the
contagion which prevailed in that city, he had seen a woman die of the
fear she felt at a slight illness of her servant, whom she believed
attacked with the pestilence. This woman's daughter was sick and near
dying.

Other persons who were in the same house went to bed, sent for a
doctor, and assured him they had the plague. The doctor, on arriving,
visited the servant, and the other patients, and none of them had the
epidemical disorder. He tried to calm their minds, and ordered them to
rise, and live in their usual way; but his care was useless as
regarded the mistress of the family, who died in two days of the
fright alone.

Reflect upon the second narrative of the death of a passive vampire,
and you will see most evident proofs of the terrible effects of fear
and prejudice. (See the preceding chapter.) This man, three days after
he was buried, appears in the night to his son, asks for something to
eat, eats, and disappears. On the morrow, the son relates to his
neighbors what had happened to him. That night the father does not
appear; but the following night they find the