Varney the Vampire; Or, the Feast of Blood
Page 51
CHAPTER LII.
THE INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE MOB AND SIR FRANCIS VARNEY.--THE MYSTERIOUSDISAPPEARANCE.--THE WINE CELLARS.
The shout that had so discomposed the parties who were thus engaged in aterrific struggle came from a party above.
"Hurrah! hurrah!" they shouted a number of times, in a wild strain ofdelight. "Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!"
The fact was, a party of the mob had clambered up a verandah, andentered some of the rooms upstairs, whence they emerged just above thelanding near the spot where the servants were resisting in a mass theefforts of the mob.
"Hurrah!" shouted the mob below.
"Hurrah!" shouted the mob above.
There was a momentary pause, and the servants divided themselves intotwo bodies, and one turned to face those above, and the other those whowere below.
A simultaneous shout was given by both parties of the mob, and a suddenrush was made by both bodies, and the servants of Sir Francis Varneywere broken in an instant. They were instantly separated, and knockedabout a good bit, but they were left to shift for themselves, the mobhad a more important object in view.
"Down with the vampyre!" they shouted.
"Down with the vampyre!" shouted they, and they rushed helter skelterthrough the rooms, until they came to one where the door was partiallyopen, and they could see some person very leisurely seated.
"Here he is," they cried.
"Who? who?"
"The vampire."
"Down with him! kill him! burn him!"
"Hurrah! down with the vampire!"
These sounds were shouted out by a score of voices, and they rushedheadlong into the room.
But here their violence and headlong precipitancy were suddenlyrestrained by the imposing and quiet appearance of the individual whowas there seated.
The mob entered the room, and there was a sight, that if it did notastonish them, at least, it caused them to pause before the individualwho was seated there.
The room was well filled with furniture, and there was a curtain drawnacross the room, and about the middle of it there was a table, behindwhich sat Sir Francis Varney himself, looking all smiles and courtesy.
"Well, dang my smock-frock!" said one, "who'd ha' thought of this? Hedon't seem to care much about it."
"Well, I'm d----d!" said another; "he seems pretty easy, at all events.What is he going to do?"
"Gentlemen," said Sir Francis Varney, rising, with the blandest smiles,"pray, gentlemen, permit me to inquire the cause of this condescensionon your part. The visit is kind."
The mob looked at Sir Francis, and then at each other, and then at SirFrancis again; but nobody spoke. They were awed by this gentlemanly andcollected behaviour.
"If you honour me with this visit from pure affection and neighbourlygood-will, I thank you."
"Down with the vampyre!" said one, who was concealed behind the rest,and not so much overawed, as he had not seen Sir Francis.
Sir Francis Varney rose to his full height; a light gleamed across hisfeatures; they were strongly defined then. His long front teeth, too,showed most strongly when he smiled, as he did now, and said, in a blandvoice,--
"Gentlemen, I am at your service. Permit me to say you are welcome toall I can do for you. I fear the interview will be somewhat inconvenientand unpleasant to you. As for myself, I am entirely at your service."
As Sir Francis spoke, he bowed, and folded his hands together, andstepped forwards; but, instead of coming onwards to them, he walkedbehind the curtain, and was immediately hid from their view.
"Down with the vampyre!" shouted one.
"Down with the vampyre!" rang through the apartment; and the mob now,not awed by the coolness and courtesy of Sir Francis, rushed forward,and, overturning the table, tore down the curtain to the floor; but, totheir amazement, there was no Sir Francis Varney present.
"Where is he?"
"Where is the vampyre?"
"Where has he gone?"
These were cries that escaped every one's lips; and yet no one couldgive an answer to them.
There Sir Francis Varney was not. They were completely thunderstricken.They could not find out where he had gone to. There was no possiblemeans of escape, that they could perceive. There was not an odd corner,or even anything that could, by any possibility, give even a suspicionthat even a temporary concealment could take place.
They looked over every inch of flooring and of wainscoting; not theremotest trace could be discovered.
"Where is he?"
"I don't know," said one--"I can't see where he could have gone. Thereain't a hole as big as a keyhole."
"My eye!" said one; "I shouldn't be at all surprised, if he were to blowup the whole house."
"You don't say go!"
"I never heard as how vampyres could do so much as that. They ain't thesort of people," said another.
"But if they can do one thing, they can do another."
"That's very true."
"And what's more, I never heard as how a vampyre could make himself intonothing before; yet he has done so."
"He may be in this room now."
"He may."
"My eyes! what precious long teeth he had!"
"Yes; and had he fixed one on 'em in to your arm, he would have drawnevery drop of blood out of your body; you may depend upon that," said anold man.
"He was very tall."
"Yes; too tall to be any good."
"I shouldn't like him to have laid hold of me, though, tall as he is;and then he would have lifted me up high enough to break my neck, whenhe let me fall."
The mob routed about the room, tore everything out of its place, and asthe object of their search seemed to be far enough beyond their reach,their courage rose in proportion, and they shouted and screamed with aproportionate increase of noise and bustle; and at length they ran aboutmad with rage and vexation, doing all the mischief that was in theirpower to inflict.
Then they became mischievous, and tore the furniture from its place, andbroke it in pieces, and then amused themselves with breaking it up,throwing pieces at the pier-glasses, in which they made dreadful holes;and when that was gone, they broke up the frames.
Every hole and corner of the house was searched, but there was no SirFrancis Varney to be found.
"The cellars, the cellars!" shouted a voice.
"The cellars, the cellars!" re-echoed nearly every pair of lips in thewhole place; in another moment, there was crushing and crowding to getdown into the cellars.
"Hurray!" said one, as he knocked off the neck of the bottle that firstcame to hand.
"Here's luck to vampyre-hunting! Success to our chase!"
"So say I, neighbour; but is that your manners to drink before yourbetters?"
So saying, the speaker knocked the other's elbow, while he was in theact of lifting the wine to his mouth; and thus he upset it over his faceand eyes.
"D--n it!" cried the man; "how it makes my eyes smart! Dang thee! if Icould see, I'd ring thy neck!"
"Success to vampyre-hunting!" said one.
"May we be lucky yet!" said another.
"I wouldn't be luckier than this," said another, as he, too, emptied abottle. "We couldn't desire better entertainment, where the reckoning isall paid."
"Excellent!"
"Very good!"
"Capital wine this!"
"I say, Huggins!"
"Well," said Huggins.
"What are you drinking?"
"Wine."
"What wine?"
"Danged if I know," was the reply. "It's wine, I suppose; for I know itain't beer nor spirits; so it must be wine."
"Are you sure it ain't bottled men's blood?"
"Eh?"
"Bottled blood, man! Who knows what a vampyre drinks? It may be hiswine. He may feast upon that before he goes to bed of a night, drinkanybody's health, and make himself cheerful on bottled blood!"
"Oh, danged! I'm so sick; I wish I hadn't taken the stuff. It may be asyou say, neighbour,
and then we be cannibals."
"Or vampyres."
"There's a pretty thing to think of."
By this time some were drunk, some were partially so, and the remainderwere crowding into the cellars to get their share of the wine.
The servants had now slunk away; they were no longer noticed by therioters, who, having nobody to oppose them, no longer thought ofanything, save the searching after the vampyre, and the destruction ofthe property. Several hours had been spent in this manner, and yet theycould not find the object of their search.
There was not a room, or cupboard, or a cellar, that was capable ofcontaining a cat, that they did not search, besides a part of therioters keeping a very strict watch on the outside of the house and allabout the grounds, to prevent the possibility of the escape of thevampyre.
There was a general cessation of active hostilities at that moment; areaction after the violent excitement and exertion they had made to getin. Then the escape of their victim, and the mysterious manner in whichhe got away, was also a cause of the reaction, and the rioters looked ineach others' countenances inquiringly.
Above all, the discovery of the wine-cellar tended to withdraw them fromviolent measures; but this could not last long, there must be an end tosuch a scene, for there never was a large body of men assembled for anevil purpose, who ever were, for any length of time, peaceable.
To prevent the more alarming effects of drunkenness, some few of therioters, after having taken some small portion of the wine, became, fromthe peculiar flavour it possessed, imbued with the idea that it wasreally blood, and forthwith commenced an instant attack upon the wineand liquors, and they were soon mingling in one stream throughout thecellars.
This destruction was loudly declaimed against by a large portion of therioters, who were drinking; but before they could make any efforts tosave the liquor, the work of destruction had not only been begun, butwas ended, and the consequence was, the cellars were very soon evacuatedby the mob.