, uncle of five persons, nephews and nieces, had
already dispatched three of them and one of his own brothers. He had
begun with his fifth victim, the beautiful young daughter of his
niece, and had already sucked her twice, when a stop was put to this
sad tragedy by the following operations.

"They repaired with the deputed commissaries to a village not far from
Belgrade, and that publicly, at night-fall, and went to the vampire's
grave. The gentleman could not tell me the time when those who had
died had been sucked, nor the particulars of the subject. The persons
whose blood had been sucked found themselves in a pitiable state of
languor, weakness, and lassitude, so violent is the torment. He had
been interred three years, and they saw on this grave a light
resembling that of a lamp, but not so bright.

"They opened the grave, and found there a man as whole and apparently
as sound as any of us who were present; his hair, and the hairs on his
body, the nails, teeth, and eyes as firmly fast as they now are in
ourselves who exist, and his heart palpitating.

"Next they proceeded to draw him out of his grave, the body in truth
not being flexible, but wanting neither flesh nor bone; then they
pierced his heart with a sort of round, pointed, iron lance; there
came out a whitish and fluid matter mixed with blood, but the blood
prevailing more than the matter, and all without any bad smell. After
that they cut off his head with a hatchet, like what is used in
England at executions; there came out also a matter and blood like
what I have just described, but more abundantly in proportion to what
had flowed from the heart.

"And after all this they threw him back again into his grave, with
quicklime to consume him promptly; and thenceforth his niece, who had
been twice sucked, grew better. At the place where these persons are
sucked a very blue spot is formed; the part whence the blood is drawn
is not determinate, sometimes it is in one place and sometimes in
another. It is a notorious fact, attested by the most authentic
documents, and passed or executed in sight of more than 1,300 persons,
all worthy of belief.

"But I reserve, to satisfy more fully the curiosity of the learned
Abbe dom Calmet, the pleasure of detailing to him more at length what
I have seen with my own eyes on this subject, and will give it to the
Chevalier de St. Urbain to send to him; too glad in that, as in
everything else, to find an occasion of pro