The Vampyre; a Tale
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sneers; but when the profligate came to asksomething, not to relieve his wants, but to allow him to wallow in hislust, or to sink him still deeper in his iniquity, he was sent awaywith rich charity. This was, however, attributed by him to the greaterimportunity of the vicious, which generally prevails over the retiringbashfulness of the virtuous indigent. There was one circumstance aboutthe charity of his Lordship, which was still more impressed upon hismind: all those upon whom it was bestowed, inevitably found that therewas a curse upon it, for they were all either led to the scaffold, orsunk to the lowest and the most abject misery. At Brussels and othertowns through which they passed, Aubrey was surprized at the apparenteagerness with which his companion sought for the centres of allfashionable vice; there he entered into all the spirit of the farotable: he betted, and always gambled with success, except where theknown sharper was his antagonist, and then he lost even more than hegained; but it was always with the same unchanging face, with which hegenerally watched the society around: it was not, however, so when heencountered the rash youthful novice, or the luckless father of anumerous family; then his very wish seemed fortune's law--thisapparent abstractedness of mind was laid aside, and his eyes sparkledwith more fire than that of the cat whilst dallying with thehalf-dead mouse. In every town, he left the formerly affluent youth,torn from the circle he adorned, cursing, in the solitude of adungeon, the fate that had drawn him within the reach of this fiend;whilst many a father sat frantic, amidst the speaking looks of mutehungry children, without a single farthing of his late immense wealth,wherewith to buy even sufficient to satisfy their present craving. Yethe took no money from the gambling table; but immediately lost, to theruiner of many, the last gilder he had just snatched from theconvulsive grasp of the innocent: this might but be the result of acertain degree of knowledge, which was not, however, capable ofcombating the cunning of the more experienced. Aubrey often wished torepresent this to his friend, and beg him to resign that charity andpleasure which proved the ruin of all, and did not tend to his ownprofit;--but he delayed it--for each day he hoped his friend wouldgive him some opportunity of speaking frankly and openly to him;however, this never occurred. Lord Ruthven in his carriage, and amidstthe various wild and rich scenes of nature, was always the same: hiseye spoke less than his lip; and though Aubrey was near the object ofhis curiosity, he obtained no greater gratification from it than theconstant excitement of vainly wishing to break that mystery, which tohis exalted imagination began to assume the appearance of somethingsupernatural.
They soon arrived at Rome, and Aubrey for a time lost sight of hiscompanion; he left him in daily attendance upon the morning circle ofan Italian countess, whilst he went in search of the memorials ofanother almost deserted city. Whilst he was thus engaged, lettersarrived from England, which he opened with eager impatience; the firstwas from his sister, breathing nothing but affection; the others werefrom his guardians, the latter astonished him; if it had beforeentered into his imagination that there was an evil power resident inhis companion, these seemed to give him sufficient reason for thebelief. His guardians insisted upon his immediately leaving hisfriend, and urged, that his character was dreadfully vicious, for thatthe possession of irresistible powers of seduction, rendered hislicentious habits more dangerous to society. It had been discovered,that his contempt for the adultress had not originated in hatred ofher character; but that he had required, to enhance his gratification,that his victim, the partner of his guilt, should be hurled from thepinnacle of unsullied virtue, down to the lowest abyss of infamy anddegradation: in fine, that all those females whom he had sought,apparently on account of their virtue, had, since his departure,thrown even the mask aside, and had not scrupled to expose the wholedeformity of their vices to the public gaze.
Aubrey determined upon leaving one, whose character had not yet showna single bright point on which to rest the eye. He resolved to inventsome plausible pretext for abandoning him altogether, purposing, inthe mean while, to watch him more closely, and to let no slightcircumstances pass by unnoticed. He entered into the same circle, andsoon perceived, that his Lordship was endeavouring to work upon theinexperience of the daughter of the lady whose house he chieflyfrequented. In Italy, it is seldom that an unmarried female is metwith in society; he was therefore obliged to carry on his plans insecret; but Aubrey's eye followed him in all his windings, and soondiscovered that an assignation had been appointed, which would mostlikely end in the ruin of an innocent, though thoughtless girl. Losingno time, he entered the apartment of Lord Ruthven, and abruptly askedhim his intentions with respect to the lady, informing him at the sametime that he was aware of his being about to meet her that very night.Lord Ruthven answered, that his intentions were such as he supposedall would have upon such an occasion; and upon being pressed whetherhe intended to marry her, merely laughed. Aubrey retired; and,immediately writing a note, to say, that from that moment he mustdecline accompanying his Lordship in the remainder of their proposedtour, he ordered his servant to seek other apartments, and callingupon the mother of the lady, informed her of all he knew, not onlywith regard to her daughter, but also concerning the character of hisLordship. The assignation was prevented. Lord Ruthven next day merelysent his servant to notify his complete assent to a separation; butdid not hint any suspicion of his plans having been foiled by Aubrey'sinterposition.
Having left Rome, Aubrey directed his steps towards Greece, andcrossing the Peninsula, soon found himself at Athens. He then fixedhis residence in the house of a Greek; and soon occupied himself intracing the faded records of ancient glory upon monuments thatapparently, ashamed of chronicling the deeds of freemen only beforeslaves, had hidden themselves beneath the sheltering soil or manycoloured lichen. Under the same roof as himself, existed a being, sobeautiful and delicate, that she might have formed the model for apainter wishing to pourtray on canvass the promised hope of thefaithful in Mahomet's paradise, save that her eyes spoke too much mindfor any one to think she could belong to those who had no souls. Asshe danced upon the plain, or tripped along the mountain's side, onewould have thought the gazelle a poor type of her beauties; for whowould have exchanged her eye, apparently the eye of animated nature,for that sleepy luxurious look of the animal suited but to the tasteof an epicure. The light step of Ianthe often accompanied Aubrey inhis search after antiquities, and often would the unconscious girl,engaged in the pursuit of a Kashmere butterfly, show the whole beautyof her form, floating as it were upon the wind, to the eager gaze ofhim, who forgot the letters he had just decyphered upon an almosteffaced tablet, in the contemplation of her sylph-like figure. Oftenwould her tresses falling, as she flitted around, exhibit in the sun'sray such delicately brilliant and swiftly fading hues, it might wellexcuse the forgetfulness of the antiquary, who let escape from hismind the very object he had before thought of vital importance to theproper interpretation of a passage in Pausanias. But why attempt todescribe charms which all feel, but none can appreciate?--It wasinnocence, youth, and beauty, unaffected by crowded drawing-rooms andstifling balls. Whilst he drew those remains of which he wished topreserve a memorial for his future hours, she would stand by, andwatch the magic effects of his pencil, in tracing the scenes of hernative place; she would then describe to him the circling dance uponthe open plain, would paint, to him in all the glowing colours ofyouthful memory, the marriage pomp she remembered viewing in herinfancy; and then, turning to subjects that had evidently made agreater impression upon her mind, would tell him all the supernaturaltales of her nurse. Her earnestness and apparent belief of what shenarrated, excited the interest even of Aubrey; and often as she toldhim the tale of the living vampyre, who had passed years amidst hisfriends, and dearest ties, forced every year, by feeding upon the lifeof a lovely female to prolong his existence for the ensuing months,his blood would run cold, whilst he attempted to laugh her out of suchidle and horrible fantasies; but Ianthe cited to him the names of oldmen, who had at last detected one living among themselves, afterseveral of their near relatives and ch
ildren had been found markedwith the stamp of the fiend's appetite; and when she found him soincredulous, she begged of him to believe her, for it had been,remarked, that those who had dared to question their existence, alwayshad some proof given, which obliged them, with grief andheartbreaking, to confess it was true. She detailed to him thetraditional appearance of these monsters, and his horror wasincreased, by hearing a pretty accurate description of Lord Ruthven;he, however, still persisted in persuading her, that there could be notruth in her fears, though at the same time he wondered at the manycoincidences which had all tended to excite a belief in thesupernatural power of Lord Ruthven.
Aubrey began to attach himself more and more to Ianthe; her innocence,so contrasted with all the affected virtues of the women among whom hehad sought for his vision of romance, won his heart; and while heridiculed the idea of a young man of English habits, marrying