He visited Coppet
frequently, and of course associated there with several of his
countrymen, who evinced no reluctance to meet him whom his enemies
alone would represent as an outcast. Though I have been so unsuccessful in this town, I have been more
fortunate in my enquiries elsewhere. There is a society three or four
miles from Geneva, the centre of which is the Countess of Breuss, a
Russian lady, well acquainted with the agrémens de la Société, and who
has collected them round herself at her mansion. It was chiefly here,
I find, that the gentleman who travelled with Lord Byron, as
physician, sought for society. He used almost every day to cross the
lake by himself, in one of their flat-bottomed boats, and return after
passing the evening with his friends, about eleven or twelve at night,
often whilst the storms were raging in the circling summits of the
mountains around. As he became intimate, from long acquaintance, with
several of the families in this neighbourhood, I have gathered from
their accounts some excellent traits of his lordship's character,
which I will relate to you at some future opportunity. I must,
however, free him from one imputation attached to him--of having in
his house two sisters as the partakers of his revels. This is, like
many other charges which have been brought against his lordship,
entirely destitute of truth. His only companion was the physician I
have already mentioned. The report originated from the following
circumstance: Mr. Percy Bysshe Shelly, a gentleman well known for
extravagance of doctrine, and for his daring, in their profession,
even to sign himself with the title of ATHeos in the Album at
Chamouny, having taken a house below, in which he resided with Miss M.
W. Godwin and Miss Clermont, (the daughters of the celebrated Mr.
Godwin) they were frequently visitors at Diodati, and were often seen
upon the lake with his Lordship, which gave rise to the report, the
truth of which is here positively denied. Among other things which the lady, from whom I procured these
anecdotes, related to me, she mentioned the outline of a ghost story
by Lord Byron. It appears that one evening Lord B., Mr. P. B. Shelly,
the two ladies and the gentleman before alluded to, after having
perused a German work, which was entitled Phantasmagoriana, began
relating ghost stories; when his lordship having recited the beginning
of Christabel, then unpublished, the whole took so strong a hold of
Mr. Shelly's mind, that he suddenly started up and ran out of the
room. The physician and Lord Byron followed, and discovered him
leaning against a mantle-piece, with cold drops of perspiration
trickling down his face. After having given him something to refresh
him, upon enquiring into the cause of his alarm, they found that his
wild imagination having pictured to him the bosom of one of the ladies
with eyes (which was reported of a lady in the neighbourhood where he
lived) he was obliged to leave the room in order to destroy the
impression. It was afterwards proposed, in the course of conversation,
that each of the company present should write a tale depending upon
some supernatural agency, which was undertaken by Lord B., the
physician, and Miss M. W. Godwin. [1] My friend, the lady above
referred to, had in her possession the outline of each of these
stories; I obtained them as a great favour, and herewith forward them
to you, as I was assured you would feel as much curiosity as myself,
to peruse the ebauches of so great a genius, and those immediately
under his influence." [1] Since published under the title of "Frankenstein; or, The Modern
Prometheus." THE VAMPYRE. ________________________________________________________________

                            INTRODUCTION. __________

THE superstition upon which this tale is founded is very general in
the East. Among the Arabians it appears to be common: it did not,
however, extend itself to the Greeks until after the establishment of
Christianity; and it has only assumed its present form since the
division of the Latin and Greek churches; at which time, the idea
becoming prevalent, that a Latin body could not corrupt if buried in
their territory, it gradually increased, and formed the subject of
many wonderful stories, still extant, of the dead rising from their
graves, and feeding upon the blood of the young and beautiful. In the
West it spread, with some slight variation, all over Hungary, Poland,
Austria, and Lorraine, where the belief existed, that vampyres nightly
imbibed a certain portion of the blood of their victims, who became
emaciated, lost their strength, and speedily died of consumptions;
whilst these human blood-suckers fattened--and their veins became
distended to such a state of repletion, as to cause the blood to flow
from all the passages of their bodies, and even from the very pores of
their skins. In the London Journal, of March, 1732, is a curious, and, of course,
credible account of a particular case of vampyrism, which is stated to
have occurred at Madreyga, in Hungary. It appears, that upon an
examination of the commander-in-chief and magistrates of the place,
they positively and unanimously affirmed, that, about five years
before, a certain Heyduke, named Arnold Paul, had been heard to say,
that, at Cassovia, on the frontiers of the Turkish Servia, he had been
tormented by a vampyre, but had found a way to rid himself of the
evil, by eating some of the earth out of the vampyre's grave, and
rubbing himself with his blood. This precaution, however, did not
prevent him from becoming a vampyre[2] himself; for, about twenty or
thirty days after his death and burial, many persons complained of
having been tormented by him, and a deposition was made, that four
persons had been deprived of life by his attacks. To prevent further
mischief, the inhabitants having consulted their Hadagni,[3] took up
the body, and found it (as is supposed to be usual in cases of
vampyrism) fresh, and entirely free from corruption, and emitting at
the mouth, nose, and ears, pure and florid blood. Proof having been
thus obtained, they resorted to the accustomed remedy. A stake was
driven entirely through the heart and body of Arnold Paul, at which he
is reported to have cried out as dreadfully as if he had been alive. This done, they cut off his head, burned his body, and threw the ashes
into his grave. The same measures were adopted with the corses of
those persons who had previously died from vampyrism, lest they
should, in their turn, become agents upon others who survived them. [2] The universal belief is, that a person sucked by a vampyre becomes a
vampyre himself, and sucks in his turn. [3] Chief bailiff. This monstrous rodomontade is here related, because it seems better
adapted to illustrate the subject of the present observations than any
other instance which could be adduced.