Varney the Vampire by Thomas Preskett Prest

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"I much grieve to hear it."

"Do you?"

"Believe me, I do. I am most scrupulous in what I say; and an assertion
that I am grieved, you may thoroughly and entirely depend upon."

"Well, well, never mind that; Charles Holland is a young man just
entering into life. He loves a girl who is, I think, every way worthy of
him."

"Oh, what a felicitous prospect!"

"Just hear me out, if you please."

"With pleasure, sir--with pleasure."

"Well, then, when a young, hot-headed fellow thinks he has a good ground
of quarrel with anybody, you will not be surprised at his wanting to
fight it out."

"Not at all."

"Well, then, to come to the point, my nephew, Charles Holland, has a
fancy for fighting with you."

"Ah!"

"You take it d----d easy."

"My dear sir, why should I be uneasy? He is not my nephew, you know. I
shall have no particular cause, beyond those feelings of common
compassion which I hope inhabit my breast as well as every one else's."

"What do you mean?"

"Why, he is a young man just, as you say, entering into life, and I
cannot help thinking it would be a pity to cut him off like a flower in
the bud, so very soon."

"Oh, you make quite sure, then, of settling him, do you?"

"My dear sir, only consider; he might be very troublesome, indeed; you
know young men are hot-headed and troublesome. Even if I were only to
maim him, he might be a continual and never-ceasing annoyance to me. I
think I should be absolutely, in a manner of speaking, compelled to cut
him off."

"The devil you do!"

"As you say, sir."

"D--n your assurance, Mr. Vampyre, or whatever odd fish you may be."

"Admiral Bell, I never called upon you and received a courteous
reception, and then insulted you."

"Then why do you talk of cutting off a better man than yourself? D--n
it, what would you say to him cutting you off?"

"Oh, as for me, my good sir, that's quite another thing. Cutting me off
is very doubtful."

Sir Francis Varney gave a strange smile as he spoke, and shook his head,
as if some most extraordinary and extravagant proposition had been
mooted, which it was scarcely worth the while of anybody possessed of
common sense to set about expecting.

Admiral Bell felt strongly inclined to get into a rage, but he repressed
the idea as much as he could, although, but for the curious faint green
light that came through the blinds, his heightened colour would have
sufficiently proclaimed what state of mind he was in.

"Mr. Varney," he said, "all this is quite beside the question; but, at
all events, if it have any weight at all, it ought to have a
considerable influence in deciding you to accept of what terms I
propose."

"What are they, sir?"

"Why, that you permit me to espouse my nephew Charles's quarrel, and
meet you instead of him."

"You meet me?"

"Yes; I've met a better man more than once before. It can make no
difference to you."

"I don't know that, Admiral Bell. One generally likes, in a duel, to
face him with whom one has had the misunderstanding, be it on what
grounds it may."

"There's some reason, I know, in what you say; but, surely, if I am
willing, you need not object."

"And is your nephew willing thus to shift the danger and the job of
resenting his own quarrels on to your shoulders?"

"No; he knows nothing about it. He has written you a challenge, of which
I am the bearer, but I voluntarily, and of my own accord, wish to meet
you instead."

"This is a strange mode of proceeding."

"If you will not accede to it, and fight him first, and any harm comes
to him, you shall fight me afterwards."

"Indeed."

"Yes, indeed you shall, however surprised you may look."

"As this appears to be quite a family affair, then," said Sir Francis
Varney, "it certainly does appear immaterial which of you I fight with
first."

"Quite so; now you take a sensible view of the question. Will you meet
me?"

"I have no particular objection. Have you settled all your affairs, and
made your will?"

"What's that to you?"

"Oh, I only asked, because there is generally so much food for
litigation if a man dies intestate, and is worth any money."

"You make devilish sure," said the admiral, "of being the victor. Have
you made your will?"

"Oh, my will," smiled Sir Francis; "that, my good sir, is quite an
indifferent affair."

"Well, make it or not, as you like. I am old, I know, but I can pull a
trigger as well as any one."

"Do what?"

"Pull a trigger."

"Why, you don't suppose I resort to any such barbarous modes of
fighting?"

"Barbarous! Why, how do you fight then?"

"As a gentleman, with my sword."

"Swords! Oh, nonsense! nobody fights with swords now-a-days. That's all
exploded."

"I cling to the customs and the fashions of my youth," said Varney. "I
have been, years ago, accustomed always to wear a sword, and to be
without one now vexes me."

"Pray, how many years ago?"

"I am older than I look, but that is not the question. I am willing to
meet you with swords if you like. You are no doubt aware that, as the
challenged party, I am entitled to the choice of weapons."

"I am."

"Then you cannot object to my availing myself of the one in the use of
which I am perfectly unequalled."

"Indeed."

"Yes, I am, I think, the first swordsman in Europe; I have had immense
practice."

"Well, sir, you have certainly made a most unexpected choice of weapons.
I can use a sword still, but am by no means a master of fencing.
However, it shall not be said that I went back from my word, and let the
chances be as desperate as they may, I will meet you."

"Very good."

"With swords?"

"Ay, with swords; but I must have everything properly arranged, so that
no blame can rest on me, you know. As you will be killed, you are safe
from all consequences, but I shall be in a very different position; so,
if you please, I must have this meeting got up in such a manner as shall
enable me to prove, to whoever may question me on the subject, that you
had fair play."

"Oh, never fear that."

"But I do fear it. The world, my good sir, is censorious, and you cannot
stop people from saying extremely ill-natured things."

"What do you require, then?"

"I require you to send me a friend with a formal challenge."

"Well?"

"Then I shall refer him to a friend of mine, and they two must settle
everything between them."

"Is that all?"

"Not quite. I will have a surgeon on the ground, in case, when I pink
you, there should be a chance of saving your life. It always looks
humane."

"When you pink me?"

"Precisely."

"Upon my word, you take these affairs easy. I suppose you have had a few
of them?"

"Oh, a good number. People like yourself worry me into them, I don't
like the trouble, I assure you; it is no amusement to me. I would
rather, by a great deal, make some concession than fight, because I will
fight with swords, and the result is then so certain that there is no
danger in the matter to me."

"Hark you, Sir Francis Varney. You are either a very clever actor, or a
man, as you say, of such skill with your sword, that you can make sure
of the result of a duel. You know, therefore, that it is not fair play
on your part to fight a duel with that weapon."

"Oh, I beg your pardon there. I never challenge anybody, and when
foolish people will call me out, contrary to my inclination, I think I
am bound to take what care of myself I can."

"D--n me, there's some reason in that, too," said the admiral; "but why
do you insult people?"

"People insult me first."

"Oh, nonsense!"

"How should you like to be called a vampyre, and stared at as if you
were some hideous natural phenomenon?"

"Well, but--"

"I say, Admiral Bell, how should you like it? I am a harmless country
gentleman, and because, in the heated imaginations of some member of a
crack-brained family, some housebreaker has been converted into a
vampyre, I am to be pitched upon as the man, and insulted and persecuted
accordingly."

"But you forget the proofs."

"What proofs?"

"The portrait, for one."

"What! Because there is an accidental likeness between me and an old
picture, am I to be set down as a vampyre? Why, when I was in Austria
last, I saw an old portrait of a celebrated court fool, and you so
strongly resemble it, that I was quite struck when I first saw you with
the likeness; but I was not so unpolite as to tell you that I considered
you were the court fool turned vampyre."

"D--n your assurance!"

"And d--n yours, if you come to that."

The admiral was fairly beaten. Sir Francis Varney was by far too
long-headed and witty for him. After now in vain endeavouring to find
something to say, the old man buttoned up his coat in a great passion,
and looking fiercely at Varney, he said,--"I don't pretend to a gift of
the gab. D--n me, it ain't one of my peculiarities; but though you may
talk me down, you sha'n't keep me down."

"Very good, sir."

"It is not very good. You shall hear from me."

"I am willing."

"I don't care whether you are willing or not. You shall find that when
once I begin to tackle an enemy, I don't so easily leave him. One or
both of us, sir, is sure to sink."

"Agreed."

"So say I. You shall find that I'm a tar for all weathers, and if you
were a hundred and fifty vampires all rolled into one, I'd tackle you
somehow."

The admiral walked to the door in high dudgeon; when he was near to it,
Varney said, in some of his most winning and gentle accents,--

"Will you not take some refreshment, sir before you go from my humble
house?"

"No!" roared the admiral.

"Something cooling?"

"No!"

"Very good, sir. A hospitable host can do no more than offer to
entertain his guests."

Admiral Bell turned at the door, and said, with some degree of intense
bitterness,

"You look rather poorly. I suppose, to-night, you will go and suck
somebody's blood, you shark--you confounded vampyre! You ought to be
made to swallow a red-hot brick, and then let dance about till it
digests."

Varney smiled as he rang the bell, and said to a servant,--

"Show my very excellent friend Admiral Bell out. He will not take any
refreshments."

The servant bowed, and preceded the admiral down the staircase; but, to
his great surprise, instead of a compliment in the shape of a shilling
or half-a-crown for his pains, he received a tremendous kick behind,
with a request to go and take it to his master, with his compliments.

The fume that the old admiral was in beggars all description. He walked
to Bannerworth Hall at such a rapid pace, that Jack Pringle had the
greatest difficulty in the world to keep up with him, so as to be at all
within speaking distance.

"Hilloa, Jack," cried the old man, when they were close to the Hall.
"Did you see me kick that fellow?"

"Ay, ay, sir."

"Well, that's some consolation, at any rate, if somebody saw it. It
ought to have been his master, that's all I can say to it, and I wish it
had."

"How have you settled it, sir?"

"Settled what?"

"The fight, sir."

"D--n me, Jack, I haven't settled it at all."

"That's bad, sir."

"I know it is; but it shall be settled for all that, I can tell him, let
him vapour as much as he may about pinking me, and one thing and
another."

"Pinking you, sir?"

"Yes. He wants to fight with cutlasses, or toasting-forks, d--n me, I
don't know exactly which, and then he must have a surgeon on the ground,
for fear when he pinks me I shouldn't slip my cable in a regular way,
and he should be blamed."

Jack gave a long whistle, as he replied,--

"Going to do it, sir?"

"I don't know now what I'm going to do. Mind, Jack, mum is the word."

"Ay, ay, sir."

"I'll turn the matter over in my mind, and then decide upon what had
best be done. If he pinks me, I'll take d----d good care he don't pink
Charles."

"No, sir, don't let him do that. A _wamphigher_, sir, ain't no good
opponent to anybody. I never seed one afore, but it strikes me as the
best way to settle him, would be to shut him up in some little bit of a
cabin, and then smoke him with brimstone, sir."

"Well, well, I'll consider, Jack, I'll consider. Something must be done,
and that quickly too. Zounds, here's Charles--what the deuce shall I say
to him, by way of an excuse, I wonder, for not arranging his affair with
Varney? Hang me, if I ain't taken aback now, and don't know where to
place a hand."

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE LETTER TO CHARLES.--THE QUARREL.--THE ADMIRAL'S NARRATIVE.--THE
MIDNIGHT MEETING.

[Illustration]

It was Charles Holland who now advanced hurriedly to meet the admiral.
The young man's manner was anxious. He was evidently most intent upon
knowing what answer could be sent by Sir Francis Varney to his
challenge.

"Uncle," he said, "tell me at once, will he meet me? You can talk of
particulars afterwards, but now tell me at once if he will meet me?"

"Why, as to that," said the admiral, with a great deal of fidgetty
hesitation, "you see, I can't exactly say."

"Not say!"

"No. He's a very odd fish. Don't you think he's a very odd fish, Jack
Pringle'?"

"Ay, ay, sir."

"There, you hear, Charles, that Jack is of my opinion that your opponent
is an odd fish."

"But, uncle, why trifle with my impatience thus? Have you seen Sir
Francis Varney?"

"Seen him. Oh, yes."

"And what did he say?"

"Why, to tell the truth, my lad, I advise you not to fight with him at
all."

"Uncle, is this like you? This advice from you, to compromise my honour,
after sending a man a challenge?"

"D--n it all, Jack, I don't know how to get out of it," said the
admiral. "I tell you what it is, Charles, he wants to fight with swords;
and what on earth is the use of your engaging with a fellow who has been
practising at his weapon for more than a hundred years?"

"Well, uncle, if any one had told me that you would be terrified by this
Sir Francis Varney into advising me not to fight, I should have had no
hesitation whatever in saying such a thing was impossible."

"I terrified?"

"Why, you advise me not to meet this man, even after I have challenged
him."

"Jack," said the admiral, "I can't carry it on, you see. I never could
go on with anything that was not as plain as an anchor, and quite
straightforward. I must just tell all that has occurred."

"Ay, ay, sir. The best way."

"You think so, Jack?"

"I know it is, sir, always axing pardon for having a opinion at all,
excepting when it happens to be the same as yourn, sir."

"Hold your tongue, you libellous villain! Now, listen to me, Charles. I
got up a scheme of my own."

Charles gave a groan, for he had a very tolerable appreciation of his
uncle's amount of skill in getting up a scheme of any kind or
description.

"Now here am I," continued the admiral, "an old hulk, and not fit for
use anymore. What's the use of me, I should like to know? Well, that's
settled. But you are young and hearty, and have a long life before you.
Why should you throw away your life upon a lubberly vampyre?"

"I begin to perceive now, uncle," said Charles, reproachfully, "why you,
with such apparent readiness, agreed to this duel taking place."

"Well, I intended to fight the fellow myself, that's the long and short
of it, boy."

"How could you treat me so?"

"No nonsense, Charles. I tell you it was all in the family. I intended
to fight him myself. What was the odds whether I slipped my cable with
his assistance, or in the regular course a little after this? That's the
way to argufy the subject; so, as I tell you, I made up my mind to fight
him myself."

Charles looked despairingly, but said,--

"What was the result?"

"Oh, the result! D--n me, I suppose that's to come. The vagabond won't
fight like a Christian. He says he's quite willing to fight anybody that
calls him out, provided it's all regular."

"Well--well."

"And he, being the party challenged--for he says he never himself
challenges anybody, as he is quite tired of it--must have his choice of
weapons."

"He is entitled to that; but it is generally understood now-a-days that
pistols are the weapons in use among gentlemen for such purposes."

"Ah, but he won't understand any such thing, I tell you. He will fight
with swords."

"I suppose he is, then, an adept at the use of the sword?"

"He says he is."

"No doubt--no doubt. I cannot blame a man for choosing, when he has the
liberty of choice, that weapon in the use of which he most particularly,
from practice, excels."

"Yes; but if he be one half the swordsman he has had time enough,
according to all accounts, to be, what sort of chance have you with
him?"

"Do I hear you reasoning thus?"

"Yes, to be sure you do. I have turned wonderfully prudent, you see: so
I mean to fight him myself, and mind, now, you have nothing whatever to
do with it."

"An effort of prudence that, certainly."

"Well, didn't I say so?"

"Come--come, uncle, this won't do. I have challenged Sir Francis Varney,
and I must meet him with any weapon he may, as the challenged party,
choose to select. Besides, you are not, I dare say, aware that I am a
very good fencer, and probably stand as fair a chance as Varney in a
contest with swords."

"Indeed!"

"Yes, uncle. I could not be so long on the continent as I have been
without picking up a good knowledge of the sword, which is so popular
all over Germany."

"Humph! but only consider, this d----d fellow is no less than a hundred
and fifty years old."

"I care not."

"Yes, but I do."

"Uncle, uncle, I tell you I will fight with him; and if you do not
arrange matters for me so that I can have the meeting with this man,
which I have myself sought, and cannot, even if I wished, now recede
from with honour, I must seek some other less scrupulous friend to do
so."

"Give me an hour or two to think of it, Charles," said the admiral.
"Don't speak to any one else, but give me a little time. You shall have
no cause of complaint. Your honour cannot suffer in my hands."

"I will wait your leisure, uncle; but remember that such affairs as
these, when once broached, had always better be concluded with all
convenient dispatch."

"I know that, boy--I know that."

The admiral walked away, and Charles, who really felt much fretted at
the delay which had taken place, returned to the house.

He had not been there long, when a lad, who had been temporarily hired
during the morning by Henry to answer the gate, brought him a note,
saying,--

"A servant, sir, left this for you just now."

"For me?" said Charles, as he glanced at the direction. "This is
strange, for I have no acquaintance about here. Does any one wait?"

"No, sir."

The note was properly directed to him, therefore Charles Holland at once
opened it. A glance at the bottom of the page told him that it came from
his enemy, Sir Francis Varney, and then he read it with much eagerness.
It ran thus:--

"SIR,--Your uncle, as he stated himself to be, Admiral Bell, was
the bearer to me, as I understood him this day, of a challenge
from you. Owing to some unaccountable hallucination of intellect,
he seemed to imagine that I intended to set myself up as a sort
of animated target, for any one to shoot at who might have a
fancy so to do.

"According to this eccentric view of the case, the admiral had
the kindness to offer to fight me first, when, should he not have
the good fortune to put me out of the world, you were to try your
skill, doubtless.

"I need scarcely say that I object to these family arrangements.
You have challenged me, and, fancying the offence sufficient, you
defy me to mortal combat. If, therefore, I fight with any one at
all, it must be with you.

"You will clearly understand me, sir, that I do not accuse you of
being at all party to this freak of intellect of your uncle's.
He, no doubt, alone conceived it, with a laudable desire on his
part of serving you. If, however, to meet me, do so to-night, in
the middle of the park surrounding your own friends estate.

"There is a pollard oak growing close to a small pool; you, no
doubt, have noticed the spot often. Meet me there, if you please,
and any satisfaction you like I will give you, at twelve o'clock
this night.

"Come alone, or you will not see me. It shall be at your own
option entirely, to convert the meeting into a hostile one or
not. You need send me no answer to this. If you are at the place
I mention at the time I have named, well and good. If you an not,
I can only, if I please, imagine that you shrink from a meeting
with

"FRANCIS VARNEY."

Charles Holland read this letter twice over carefully, and then folding
it up, and placing it in his pocket, he said,--

"Yes, I will meet him; he may be assured that I will meet him. He shall
find that I do not shrink from Francis Varney In the name of honour,
love, virtue, and Heaven, I will meet this man, and it shall go hard
with me but I will this night wring from him the secret of what he
really is. For the sake of her who is so dear to me--for her sake, I
will meet this man, or monster, be he what he may."

It would have been far more prudent had Charles informed Henry
Bannerworth or George of his determination to meet the vampyre that
evening, but he did not do so. Somehow he fancied it would be some
reproach against his courage if he did not go, and go alone, too, for he
could not help suspecting that, from the conduct of his uncle, Sir
Francis Varney might have got up an opinion inimical to his courage.

With all the eager excitement of youth, there was nothing that arrayed
itself to his mind in such melancholy and uncomfortable colours as an
imputation upon his courage.

"I will show this vampyre, if he be such," he said, "that I am not
afraid to meet him, and alone, too, at his own hour--at midnight, even
when, if his preternatural powers be of more avail to him than at any
other time, be can attempt, if he dare, to use them."

Charles resolved upon going armed, and with the greatest care he loaded
his pistols, and placed them aside ready for action, when the time
should come to set out to meet the vampyre at the spot in the park which
had been particularly alluded to in his letter.

This spot was perfectly well known to Charles; indeed, no one could be a
single day at Bannerworth Hall without noticing it, so prominent an
object was that pollard oak, standing, as it did, alone, with the
beautiful green sward all around it. Near to it was the pool which hid
been mentioned, which was, in reality, a fish-pond, and some little
distance off commenced the thick plantation, among the intricacies of
which Sir Francis Varney, or the vampyre, had been supposed to
disappear, after the revivification of his body at the full of the moon.

This spot was in view of several of the windows of the house, so that if
the night should happen to be a very light one, and any of the
inhabitants of the Hall should happen to have the curiosity to look from
those particular windows, no doubt the meeting between Charles Holland
and the vampyre would be seen.

This, however, was a contingency which was nothing to Charles, whatever
it might be to Sir Francis Varney, and he scarcely at all considered it
as worth consideration. He felt more happy and comfortable now that
everything seemed to be definitively arranged by which he could come to
some sort of explanation with that mysterious being who had so
effectually, as yet, succeeded in destroying his peace of mind and his
prospects of happiness.

"I will this night force him to declare himself," thought Charles. "He
shall tell me who and what he really is, and by some means I will
endeavour to put an end to those frightful persecutions which Flora has
suffered."

This was a thought which considerably raised Charles's spirits, and when
he sought Flora again, which he now did, she was surprised to see him so
much more easy and composed in his mind, which was sufficiently shown by
his manner, than he had been but so short a time before.

"Charles," she said, "what has happened to give such an impetus to your
spirits?"

"Nothing, dear Flora, nothing; but I have been endeavouring to throw
from my mind all gloomy thoughts, and to convince myself that in the
future you and I, dearest, may yet be very happy."

"Oh, Charles, if I could but think so."

"Endeavour, Flora, to think so. Remember how much our happiness is
always in our own power, Flora, and that, let fate do her worst, so long
as we are true to each other, we have a recompense for every ill."

"Oh, indeed, Charles, that is a dear recompense."

"And it is well that no force of circumstances short of death itself can
divide us."

"True, Charles, true, and I am more than ever now bound to look upon you
with a loving heart; for have you not clung to me generously under
circumstances which, if any at all could have justified you in rending
asunder every tie which bound us together, surely would have done so
most fully."

"It is misfortune and distress that tries love," said Charles. "It is
thus that the touchstone is applied to see if it be current gold indeed,
or some base metal, which by a superficial glitter imitates it."

"And your love is indeed true gold."