The Macabre Megapack. Lafcadio Hearn

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      Mother—behold

      The pale man there—

      With haughty air,

      And look so cold!

      “—Child—child beware

      The pale man there!

      Turn thee away

      Or thou’rt his prey!

      Ah! Many a maiden, young and fair,

      Hath fallen his victim, in the snare!

      Hath drunken death

      From his poisonous breath:

      List—list, my child! A Vampyre he!

      Heaven keep his demon glance from thee!”

      II.

      What, mother, doth the pale man there?

      With look so full of dark despair?

      “Child, child! Those fearful glances shun:

      Foul deeds of evil hath he done!

      Such is his doom!

      Though long since dead,

      He cannot rest within the tomb!

      Forth he has fled,

      to wander round—

      A living corpse o’er hallowed ground!

      From house to house he takes his way,

      A fair bride seeking for his prey:

      His chosen bride was lost for aye!”

      III.

      He smiles on me—

      The pale man—see!

      And kind his look, those sad and wild!

      —“Still look’st there!—alas, my child!

      Haste—haste—the danger fly—

      The mother’s warning is in vain;

      The pale man’s spells the maid enchain;

      At midnight, fast she flies

      By the light of those fierce eyes—

      Now she herself—so runs the tale—

      Wanders o’er earth, a Vampyre pale.

      * * * *

      The following day was spent by Edgar hunting in the forest. His mind was disquieted; not by the struggle to overcome his unhappy love; for so hopeless he deemed it, that no room was left for conflict. But the wild stories of the nurse strangely affected him. Could it then be so? Was it true, that the man he had once loved as a friend, whom he now saw execrated as the betrayer of innocence, was that fearful being she had described? He was inclined to reject so monstrous a belief—though nurtured in the faith of those marvelous tales, long since exploded in the light of civilization and reason.

      He met with no success in the sport, but continued to wander on, till the shades of twilight began to fall upon the forest. Then he returned, listlessly, on the way homeward. Suddenly a wild animal, which he took for a doe, bounded from the shelter of some bushes near him, and shot away. Edgar followed the game, now losing sight of her, now catching a glimpse as she sprang through the dense foliage, darting among the branches like an arrow in flight. At length he was forced to give up the pursuit, exhausted with running and clambering. He was in a wild part of the forest, surrounded as it seemed with rocks, the tall bare peaks of which were touched with silver by the moon, just then appearing above the horizon.

      Edgar was endeavoring to find the shortest way to the castle, when he was startled by the sound of a man’s voice, as if groaning in pain, and entreating help. Following the sound, he saw a man lying on the ground, and weltering in his blood. The sufferer perceived him, as it appeared, for he redoubled his cries for assistance.

      Edgar raised him from the ground, and tried to staunch the blood that still flowed freely from a deep wound in the breast. His humane efforts were in part successful; the wounded man drew a deep breath, opened his eyes, and fixed them upon the youth.

      Edgar stared back in sudden horror. “Arthur!” he exclaimed.

      “Is it you, Edgar?” asked the sufferer, faintly. “Then all is well. I saved your life—you will not abandon me?”

      “Nazarena!” murmured the young man, trembling with the feelings called up by this sudden meeting with one he deemed so fearfully guilty.

      “Hush!” cried Arthur; “condemn me not till you know all. Aid me now!”

      “Oh, that I could!” faltered Edgar.

      “Mistake me not,” said the wounded man, gloomily; “I know that my hours are numbered; my life is ebbing fast. I ask of you no leechcraft, for I fear not death! But swear to me, Edgar—by your own life, which you owe to me—by all that is dear to you on earth—by your soul’s salvation—”

      “What must I swear?” interrupted the young man.

      “Swear,” was the answer, “not to reveal to any mortal—to man or woman—aught that thou hast known me, or aught thou shalt know—before the first hour of the first day of the coming month! Swear it!”

      “Strange!” muttered Edgar, while a cold thrill pervaded his whole frame. But the hands of the dying man grasped both of his—the eyes, glassed with approaching death, were fastened on him—the hollow voice again spoke imploringly—“Swear!”

      “Be it so!” answered the youth, and he repeated the words of the oath.

      “Yet one more boon!” said Arthur, after a pause, while his strength was fast sinking. “Bear me to the summit of yonder rock, and place me so that the moonlight will shine upon my face.”

      “Ha!” exclaimed Edgar, “what means this strange—thou art not—surely—”

      “Hold!” cried Arthur, his eyes flashing suddenly, though the next moment a dimness came over them. Feebly raising his hand he pointed towards the rock.

      Trembling, the young man lifted the expiring Baron, and bore him to the spot pointed out. But once spoke he after being placed there—“Remember the oath!” Then a quick convulsion passed over his features—he breathed gaspingly—and the next instant lay cold and motionless at the feet of his companion.

      Filled with emotion he could neither control nor account for, Edgar hastened from the spot, and with all speed out of the wood. The moon rose higher, pouring a light more vivid, like a mantle of snow, upon the stark rock where lay the corpse. It seemed as if her silvery beams were concentrated upon the still form and upturned face. As the orb rose to her meridian, life СКАЧАТЬ