Varney the Vampire; Or, the Feast of Blood
Page 53
CHAPTER LIV.
THE BURNING OF VARNEY'S HOUSE.--A NIGHT SCENE.--POPULAR SUPERSTITION.
The officer ceased to speak, and then the party whom he had sent roundthe house and grounds returned, and gained the main body orderly enough,and the sergeant went forward to make his report to his superiorofficer.
After the usual salutation, he waited for the inquiry to be put to himas to what he had seen.
"Well, Scott, what have you done?"
"I went round the premises, sir, according to your instructions, but sawno one either in the vicinity of the house, or in the grounds aroundit."
"No strangers, eh?"
"No, sir, none."
"You saw nothing at all likely to lead to any knowledge as to who it wasthat has caused this catastrophe?"
"No, sir."
"Have you learnt anything among the people who are the perpetrators ofthis fire?"
"No, sir."
"Well, then, that will do, unless there is anything else that you canthink of."
"Nothing further, sir, unless it is that I heard some of them say thatSir Francis Varney has perished in the flames."
"Good heavens!"
"So I heard, sir."
"That must be impossible, and yet why should it be so? Go back, Scott,and bring me some person who can give me some information upon thispoint."
The sergeant departed toward the people, who looked at him without anydistrust, for he came single-handed, though they thought he came withthe intention of learning what they knew of each other, and so strollabout with the intention of getting up accusations against them. Butthis was not the case, the officer didn't like the work well enough;he'd rather have been elsewhere.
At length the sergeant came to one man, whom he accosted, and said tohim,--
"Do you know anything of yonder fire?"
"Yes: I do know it is a fire."
"Yes, and so do I."
"My friend," said the sergeant, "when a soldier asks a question he doesnot expect an uncivil answer."
"But a soldier may ask a question that may have an uncivil end to it."
"He may; but it is easy to say so."
"I do say so, then, now."
"Then I'll not trouble you any more."
The sergeant moved on a pace or two more, and then, turning to the mob,he said,--
"Is there any one among you who can tell me anything concerning the fateof Sir Francis Varney?"
"Burnt!"
"Did you see him burnt?"
"No; but I saw him."
"In the flames?"
"No; before the house was on fire."
"In the house?"
"Yes; and he has not been seen to leave it since, and we conclude hemust have been burned."
"Will you come and say as much to my commanding officer? It is all Iwant."
"Shall I be detained?"
"No."
"Then I will go," said the man, and he hobbled out of the crowd towardsthe sergeant. "I will go and see the officer, and tell him what I know,and that is very little, and can prejudice no one."
"Hurrah!" said the crowd, when they heard this latter assertion; for, atfirst, they began to be in some alarm lest there should be somethingwrong about this, and some of them get identified as being active in thefray.
The sergeant led the man back to the spot, where the officer stood alittle way in advance of his men.
"Well, Scott," he said, "what have we here?"
"A man who has volunteered a statement, sir."
"Oh! Well, my man, can you say anything concerning all this disturbancethat we have here?"
"No, sir."
"Then what did you come here for?"
"I understood the sergeant to want some one who could speak of SirFrancis Varney."
"Well?"
"I saw him."
"Where?"
"In the house."
"Exactly; but have you not seen him out of it?"
"Not since; nor any one else, I believe."
"Where was he?"
"Upstairs, where he suddenly disappeared, and nobody can tell where hemay have gone to. But he has not been seen out of the house since, andthey say he could not have gone bodily out if they had not seen him."
"He must have been burnt," said the officer, musingly; "he could notescape, one would imagine, without being seen by some one out of such amob."
"Oh, dear no, for I am told they placed a watch at every hole, window,or door however high, and they saw nothing of him--not even fly out!"
"Fly out! I'm speaking of a man!"
"And I of a vampire!" said the man carelessly.
"A vampyre! Pooh, pooh!"
"Oh no! Sir Francis Varney is a vampyre! There can be no sort of doubtabout it. You have only to look at him, and you will soon be satisfiedof that. See his great sharp teeth in front, and ask yourself what theyare for, and you will soon find the answer. They are to make holes within the bodies of his victims, through which he can suck their blood!"
The officer looked at the man in astonishment for a few moments, as ifhe doubted his own ears, and then he said,--
"Are you serious?"
"I am ready to swear to it."
"Well, I have heard a great deal about popular superstition, and thoughtI had seen something of it; but this is decidedly the worst case thatever I saw or heard of. You had better go home, my man, than, by yourpresence, countenance such a gross absurdity."
"For all that," said the man, "Sir Francis Varney is a vampyre--ablood-sucker--a human blood-sucker!"
"Get away with you," said the officer, "and do not repeat such follybefore any one."
The man almost jumped when he heard the tone in which this was spoken,for the officer was both angry and contemptuous, when he heard the wordsof the man.
"These people," he added, turning to the sergeant, "are ignorant in theextreme. One would think we had got into the country of vampires,instead of a civilised community."
The day was going down now; the last rays of the setting sun glimmeredupwards, and still shone upon the tree-tops. The darkness of night wasstill fast closing around them. The mob stood a motley mass of humanbeings, wedged together, dark and sombre, gazing upon the mischief thathad been done--the work of their hands. The military stood at easebefore the burning pile, and by their order and regularity, presented acontrast to the mob, as strongly by their bright gleaming arms, as bytheir dress and order.
The flames now enveloped the whole mansion. There was not a window or adoor from which the fiery element did not burst forth in clouds, andforked flames came rushing forth with a velocity truly wonderful.
The red glare of the flames fell upon all objects around for somedistance--the more especially so, as the sun had sunk, and a bank ofclouds rose from beneath the horizon and excluded all his rays; therewas no twilight, and there was, as yet, no moon.
The country side was enveloped in darkness, and the burning house couldbe seen for miles around, and formed a rallying-point to all men's eyes.
The engines that were within reach came tearing across the country, andcame to the fire; but they were of no avail. There was no supply ofwater, save from the ornamental ponds. These they could only get at bymeans that were tedious and unsatisfactory, considering the emergency ofthe case.
The house was a lone one, and it was being entirely consumed before theyarrived, and therefore there was not the remotest chance of saving theleast article. Had they ever such a supply of water, nothing could havebeen effected by it.
Thus the men stood idly by, passing their remarks upon the fire and themob.
Those who stood around, and within the influence of the red glare of theflames, looked like so many demons in the infernal regions, watching theprogress of lighting the fire, which we are told by good Christians isthe doom of the unfortunate in spirit, and the woefully unlucky incircumstances.
It was a strange sight that; and there were many persons who would,without doubt, have rather been snug by their own fire
-side than theywould have remained there but it happened that no one felt inclined toexpress his inclination to his neighbour, and, consequently, no one saidanything on the subject.
None would venture to go alone across the fields, where the spirit ofthe vampyre might, for all they knew to the contrary, be waiting topounce upon them, and worry them.
No, no; no man would have quitted that mob to go back alone to thevillage; they would sooner have stood there all night through. That wasan alternative that none of the number would very willingly accept.
The hours passed away, and the house that had been that morning a nobleand well-furnished mansion, was now a smouldering heap of ruins. Theflames had become somewhat subdued, and there was now more smoke thanflames.
The fire had exhausted itself. There was now no more material that couldserve it for fuel, and the flames began to become gradually enoughsubdued.
Suddenly there was a rush, and then a bright flame shot upward for aninstant, so bright and so strong, that it threw a flash of light overthe country for miles; but it was only momentary, and it subsided.
The roof, which had been built strong enough to resist almost anything,after being burning for a considerable time, suddenly gave way, and camein with a tremendous crash, and then all was for a moment darkness.
After this the fire might be said to be subdued, it having burned itselfout; and the flames that could now be seen were but the result of somuch charred wood, that would probably smoulder away for a day or two,if left to itself to do so. A dense mass of smoke arose from the ruins,and blackened the atmosphere around, and told the spectators the workwas done.