“This Moravian nobleman had authority from the then head of the family
to remove the tomb of Mircalla, Countess Karnstein, which he did
effectually, so that in a little while its site was quite forgotten.”

“Can you point out where it stood?” asked the General, eagerly. The forester shook his head, and smiled. “Not a soul living could tell you that now,” he said; “besides, they
say her body was removed; but no one is sure of that either.”

Having thus spoken, as time pressed, he dropped his axe and departed,
leaving us to hear the remainder of the General’s strange story. XIV. The Meeting


“My beloved child,” he resumed, “was now growing rapidly worse. The
physician who attended her had failed to produce the slightest
impression on her disease, for such I then supposed it to be. He saw my
alarm, and suggested a consultation. I called in an abler physician,
from Gratz. Several days elapsed before he arrived. He was a good and pious, as
well as a learned man. Having seen my poor ward together, they withdrew
to my library to confer and discuss. I, from the adjoining room, where
I awaited their summons, heard these two gentlemen’s voices raised in
something sharper than a strictly philosophical discussion. I knocked
at the door and entered. I found the old physician from Gratz
maintaining his theory. His rival was combating it with undisguised
ridicule, accompanied with bursts of laughter. This unseemly
manifestation subsided and the altercation ended on my entrance. “‘Sir,’ said my first physician,’my learned brother seems to think that
you want a conjuror, and not a doctor.’

“‘Pardon me,’ said the old physician from Gratz, looking displeased, ‘I
shall state my own view of the case in my own way another time. I
grieve, Monsieur le General, that by my skill and science I can be of
no use. Before I go I shall do myself the honor to suggest something to you.’

“He seemed thoughtful, and sat down at a table and began to write. Profoundly disappointed, I made my bow, and as I turned to go, the
other doctor pointed over his shoulder to his companion who was
writing, and then, with a shrug, significantly touched his forehead. “This consultation, then, left me precisely where I was. I walked out
into the grounds, all but distracted. The doctor from Gratz, in ten or
fifteen minutes, overtook me. He apologized for having followed me, but
said that he could not conscientiously take his leave without a few
words more. He told me that he could not be mistaken; no natural
disease exhibited the same symptoms; and that death was already very
near. There remained, however, a day, or possibly two, of life. If the
fatal seizure were at once arrested, with great care and skill her
strength might possibly return. But all hung now upon the confines of
the irrevocable. One more assault might extinguish the last spark of
vitality which is, every moment, ready to die. “‘And what is the nature of the seizure you speak of?’ I entreated. “‘I have stated all fully in this note, which I place in your hands
upon the distinct condition that you send for the nearest clergyman,
and open my letter in his presence, and on no account read it till he
is with you; you would despise it else, and it is a matter of life and
death. Should the priest fail you, then, indeed, you may read it.’

“He asked me, before taking his leave finally, whether I would wish to
see a man curiously learned upon the very subject, which, after I had
read his letter, would probably interest me above all others, and he
urged me earnestly to invite him to visit him there; and so took his
leave. “The ecclesiastic was absent, and I read the letter by myself. At
another time, or in another case, it might have excited my ridicule. But into what quackeries will not people rush for a last chance, where
all accustomed means have failed, and the life of a beloved object is
at stake? “Nothing, you will say, could be more absurd than the learned man’s
letter. It was monstrous enough to have consigned him to a madhouse. He said
that the patient was suffering from the visits of a vampire! The
punctures which she described as having occurred near the throat, were,
he insisted, the insertion of those two long, thin, and sharp teeth
which, it is well known, are peculiar to vampires; and there could be
no doubt, he added, as to the well-defined presence of the small livid
mark which all concurred in describing as that induced by the demon’s
lips, and every symptom described by the sufferer was in exact
conformity with those recorded in every case of a similar visitation. “Being myself wholly skeptical as to the existence of any such portent
as the vampire, the supernatural theory of the good doctor furnished,
in my opinion, but another instance of learning and intelligence oddly
associated with some one hallucination. I was so miserable, however,
that, rather than try nothing, I acted upon the instructions of the
letter. “I concealed myself in the dark dressing room, that opened upon the
poor patient’s room, in which a candle was burning, and watched there
till she was fast asleep. I stood at the door, peeping through the
small crevice, my sword laid on the table beside me, as my directions
prescribed, until, a little after one, I saw a large black object, very
ill-defined, crawl, as it seemed to me, over the foot of the bed, and
swiftly spread itself up to the poor girl’s throat, where it swelled,
in a moment, into a great, palpitating mass. “For a few moments I had stood petrified. I now sprang forward, with my
sword in my hand. The black creature suddenly contracted towards the
foot of the bed, glided over it, and, standing on the floor about a
yard below the foot of the bed, with a glare of skulking ferocity and
horror fixed on me, I saw Millarca. Speculating I know not what, I
struck at her instantly with my sword; but I saw her standing near the
door, unscathed. Horrified, I pursued, and struck again. She was gone;
and my sword flew to shivers against the door. “I can’t describe to you all that passed on that horrible night. The
whole house was up and stirring. The specter Millarca was gone. But her
victim was sinking fast, and before the morning dawned, she died.”

The old General was agitated. We did not speak to him. My father walked
to some little distance, and began reading the inscriptions on the
tombstones; and thus occupied, he strolled into the door of a side
chapel to prosecute his researches. The General leaned against the
wall, dried his eyes, and sighed heavily. I was relieved on hearing the
voices of Carmilla and Madame, who were at that moment approaching. The
voices died away.