He might
have been here yesterday, he may not come till tomorrow or he may be
here today.”

He put the open letter into my hand; but he did not look pleased, as he
used when a guest, especially one so much loved as the General, was
coming. On the contrary, he looked as if he wished him at the bottom of the Red
Sea. There was plainly something on his mind which he did not choose to
divulge. “Papa, darling, will you tell me this?” said I, suddenly laying my hand
on his arm, and looking, I am sure, imploringly in his face. “Perhaps,” he answered, smoothing my hair caressingly over my eyes. “Does the doctor think me very ill?”

“No, dear; he thinks, if right steps are taken, you will be quite well
again, at least, on the high road to a complete recovery, in a day or
two,” he answered, a little dryly. “I wish our good friend, the
General, had chosen any other time; that is, I wish you had been
perfectly well to receive him.”

“But do tell me, papa,” I insisted, “what does he think is the matter
with me?”

“Nothing; you must not plague me with questions,” he answered, with
more irritation than I ever remember him to have displayed before; and
seeing that I looked wounded, I suppose, he kissed me, and added, “You
shall know all about it in a day or two; that is, all that I know. In
the meantime you are not to trouble your head about it.”

He turned and left the room, but came back before I had done wondering
and puzzling over the oddity of all this; it was merely to say that he
was going to Karnstein, and had ordered the carriage to be ready at
twelve, and that I and Madame should accompany him; he was going to see
the priest who lived near those picturesque grounds, upon business, and
as Carmilla had never seen them, she could follow, when she came down,
with Mademoiselle, who would bring materials for what you call a
picnic, which might be laid for us in the ruined castle. At twelve o’clock, accordingly, I was ready, and not long after, my
father, Madame and I set out upon our projected drive. Passing the drawbridge we turn to the right, and follow the road over
the steep Gothic bridge, westward, to reach the deserted village and
ruined castle of Karnstein. No sylvan drive can be fancied prettier. The ground breaks into gentle
hills and hollows, all clothed with beautiful wood, totally destitute
of the comparative formality which artificial planting and early
culture and pruning impart. The irregularities of the ground often lead the road out of its course,
and cause it to wind beautifully round the sides of broken hollows and
the steeper sides of the hills, among varieties of ground almost
inexhaustible. Turning one of these points, we suddenly encountered our old friend,
the General, riding towards us, attended by a mounted servant. His
portmanteaus were following in a hired wagon, such as we term a cart. The General dismounted as we pulled up, and, after the usual greetings,
was easily persuaded to accept the vacant seat in the carriage and send
his horse on with his servant to the schloss. X.
Bereaved


It was about ten months since we had last seen him: but that time had
sufficed to make an alteration of years in his appearance. He had grown
thinner; something of gloom and anxiety had taken the place of that
cordial serenity which used to characterize his features. His dark blue
eyes, always penetrating, now gleamed with a sterner light from under
his shaggy grey eyebrows. It was not such a change as grief alone
usually induces, and angrier passions seemed to have had their share in
bringing it about. We had not long resumed our drive, when the General began to talk, with
his usual soldierly directness, of the bereavement, as he termed it,
which he had sustained in the death of his beloved niece and ward; and
he then broke out in a tone of intense bitterness and fury, inveighing
against the “hellish arts” to which she had fallen a victim, and
expressing, with more exasperation than piety, his wonder that Heaven
should tolerate so monstrous an indulgence of the lusts and malignity
of hell. My father, who saw at once that something very extraordinary had
befallen, asked him, if not too painful to him, to detail the
circumstances which he thought justified the strong terms in which he
expressed himself. “I should tell you all with pleasure,” said the General, “but you would
not believe me.”

“Why should I not?” he asked. “Because,” he answered testily, “you believe in nothing but what
consists with your own prejudices and illusions. I remember when I was
like you, but I have learned better.”

“Try me,” said my father; “I am not such a dogmatist as you suppose. Besides which, I very well know that you generally require proof for
what you believe, and am, therefore, very strongly predisposed to
respect your conclusions.”

“You are right in supposing that I have not been led lightly into a
belief in the marvelous—for what I have experienced is marvelous—and I
have been forced by extraordinary evidence to credit that which ran
counter, diametrically, to all my theories. I have been made the dupe
of a preternatural conspiracy.”

Notwithstanding his professions of confidence in the General’s
penetration, I saw my father, at this point, glance at the General,
with, as I thought, a marked suspicion of his sanity. The General did not see it, luckily. He was looking gloomily and
curiously into the glades and vistas of the woods that were opening
before us. “You are going to the Ruins of Karnstein?” he said. “Yes, it is a lucky
coincidence; do you know I was going to ask you to bring me there to
inspect them. I have a special object in exploring. There is a ruined
chapel, ain’t there, with a great many tombs of that extinct family?”

“So there are—highly interesting,” said my father. “I hope you are
thinking of claiming the title and estates?”

My father said this gaily, but the General did not recollect the laugh,
or even the smile, which courtesy exacts for a friend’s joke; on the
contrary, he looked grave and even fierce, ruminating on a matter that
stirred his anger and horror. “Something very different,” he said, gruffly. “I mean to unearth some
of those fine people. I hope, by God’s blessing, to accomplish a pious
sacrilege here, which will relieve our earth of certain monsters, and
enable honest people to sleep in their beds without being assailed by
murderers. I have strange things to tell you, my dear friend, such as I
myself would have scouted as incredible a few months since.”

My father looked at him again, but this time not with a glance of
suspicion—with an eye, rather, of keen intelligence and alarm. “The house of Karnstein,” he said, “has been long extinct: a hundred
years at least. My dear wife was maternally descended from the
Karnsteins. But the name and title have long ceased to exist. The
castle is a ruin; the very village is deserted; it is fifty years since
the smoke of a chimney was seen there; not a roof left.”

“Quite true.